Glass as a great building material - how to use glass for home building material

A beautiful house with flexible natural look is a great convenience. Glass as building material allows us to see what is behind a wall, so that our eyes can see further. This may cause the effect of openness and freedom. Glass as building materials, is an element that is very popular lately, mainly because of their attractive use in modern living homes. Glass is also a material that has become a new symbol of modernism in architecture. This material present a unique character of transparancy with various applications.

The use of glass vary from roofing, walls, floors, windows, doors, and staircases. Glass has a variety of specifications, that makes it easy to use for many purposes. The use of glass for the roof is usually in carport roof, skylight, terrace or others. Glass roof has transparency to prevent rain and snow, but not sunshine. Glass that is used for roof must have minimun thickness of 12 mm, tempered (processed in high temperature to make it strong) and laminated (having special layer to prefent spread of fraction when broken).



The use of glass for wall may provide flexibility in views both from outside and inside the wall. This may create very appropriate design, with useful flexibility, for example, between family room and garden, so that the garden can be enjoyed from inside the house. Glass can also be used as a substitude for walls, of course with special treatment. We can use transparent glass walls for certain areas that do not need much privacy, such as stair area, living room, family room and others. Sometimes even bedroom walls are using glass with curtains or window blinds.





Floors can also be made of glass, but should be thick enough and tempered. Glass thickness for flooring has to be minimum 2cm thick, cut in small peaces and placed above special framing, made of wood, metal or other materials. It is very important to work with expert to use glass as flooring or staircases.

The use of glass for doors and windows are popular, even more people has been using glass for them. Its usage is very varied in shapes and sizes. Its main function is to be a place where light from outside and inside may get through its transparancy. Size of windows depends on the need and design of windows and doors.

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by Probo Hindarto
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