MetaChat - Glass Block Walls

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14 March 2009

Glass Block Walls I want to make a half wall - about 32" tall - out of glass block. Have any of y'all ever done it? How hard is it really? →[More:]The online tutorials I'm looking at make it seem insanely difficult. Actually, I probably can't afford it anyway - I definitely can't afford to pay anyone else to do it - but I just know that it would look so great. The wall will be a divider between the living room and the stairwell going to the basement; currently, there's not much there. The previous people had a floor to ceiling open backed "shelving" thing going on but it was too ugly to last and I took most of it out, leaving one board across from the wall to a post and four boards supporting that. The space is 105" long and currently about 27" high; I figured with the block being 8" x 8" I'd make it 32" high.

The wall would not be structural or loadbearing or anything, it's just to stop small people (drunken little people are so often a problem at my parties) falling through into the stairs. Also it would bring it up to code, so if I ever want to sell the house, I'll have to do something there anyway. Although I'm not planning on ever selling, it seems like something does need to be done. I'm also considering screwing plexiglass panels across the boards that are there now and filling the space between with lights of some kind - this is the cheaper, easier version - but I really want the glass block.

SO, how hard is it to make a glass block wall? How hard is it to screw plexiglass to wood? Would Christmas lights inside a plexi wall look insanely tacky in a good or bad way?

post by: mygothlaundry at: 18:18 | 17 comments

I'd be sure that the floor underneath can carry the load -- otherwise you'll have to go with acrylic blocks or something else entirely.

You're looking at a couple-few thousand for whatever you end up doing.

posted by stilicho 15 March | 03:40

I lust after glass-bricky things, but they always seem too expensive for anything I want to do (hello, bed headboard!)

Or, in other words, I don't got no experience and cannot help. But I still want to talk about it. (can you upload a photo of that space when you have time?)

posted by taz 15 March | 03:53

My husband loves glass block and wants to put it in our bathroom. We have looked at online tutorials as well and have priced them at home stores. They are very expensive if you have a big project. We'll probably never do it. I was going to suggest that if glass block is too pricey it might be afforadable to have a drywaller build you a half wall. A 32-36 inch high half wall may not be that expensive at all.

posted by LoriFLA 15 March | 08:34

Interesting idea - I have a similar problem with stairs. Glass blocks are not inexpensive, and they don't seem to be easy to work with, but not impossible. But you've done enough DIY, that it should be do-able. You could do something very cool with lighting.

posted by theora55 15 March | 10:36

LoriFLA has the right idea. But one thing you can do is a half-wall with glass block "stripes" inside it, or glass block only above X inches. It's sort of a cheat, but actually a lot of glass block projects you see have some kind of similar way they're constrained.

And yeah, if you do that you could do some neat things with lighting.

posted by stilicho 15 March | 12:37

How heavy is it, stilicho? Is the weight for a half wall, 13 blocks long by 4 up, really a big consideration?

posted by mygothlaundry 15 March | 12:42

The biggest problem with glass block walls that don't go all the way to the ceiling is holding them up - they don't have much structural integrity by themselves. Unless you can support the wall somehow (perhaps with posts coming up from the side of the stairwell?), you might be out of luck. Falling down the stairs is bad enough, but to do so accompanied by a bunch of falling glass blocks would be even worse ;-)

Do you have any photos of the area? Without some idea of the layout, it's really impossible to give sound advice on this.

An option is to build a frame for the wall that is structurally sound and fit the glass blocks inside it. Similar to stilicho's idea, really. Show some pics and I'll give you a way it can work.

We considered using glass blocks for the wall dividing our shower from the rest of the bathroom, but the lack of structural integrity meant we would have to extend the wall to the ceiling, which is what we were trying to avoid.

posted by dg 15 March | 16:38

Sorry it took me so long with the pictures, y'all, but here they are:

The front door is at the left. The area in question is that open "wall" behind Theo where there's a sort of shelf running horizontally.
≡ Click to see image ≡

View 2, slightly different angle.
≡ Click to see image ≡

View 3, what's there now. It's just held in with a couple of nails.
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by mygothlaundry 15 March | 19:10

In that space, I'd love to see your low wall made of reclaimed old windows.

posted by box 15 March | 19:38

I can't help with how to do it. But I wanted to make you aware that there's probably a minimum height requirement. 32 inches may not be high enough.

posted by deborah 15 March | 19:41

32" is almost certainly not high enough to satisfy whatever is equivalent to your building code.

It looks like the proposed wall goes between two walls - is that correct? I can see you have a wall at one end, but can't see where the other end goes. This may make a big difference to how much bracing the wall needs. If it goes between two walls, you can probably use the framing you already have (with perhaps new uprights to bring the wall up to code requirement height) and "fill-in" the space with the glass bricks. If not, you could put a post in at the other end (floor-to-ceiling), then use the "shelf" timber you have as a top rail and build the wall from glass bricks, with the timber as a capping rail and something to stop the wall collapsing if someone leans against it.

It looks like the railing is on the edge of a wall - can you put uprights in that start part-way down that wall and extend up the required height? That would take care of your bracing needs, as long as you put them where the studs for the lower wall are.

Recycled windows would probably need toughened glass added to make them comply with code requirements.

posted by dg 15 March | 22:18

Now that I'm out of the sunlight, I can see the photo better and it's clear that the railing does not go between two walls. This means you either need to run a post from floor to ceiling at the end of the railing/wall or brace that end somehow, which can be difficult to do as a retro-fit. If you don't want to do the post thing, you'll have to do some structural work inside the wall below the railing (at the end at least) to make it strong enough.

If you are happy to put a post in, it will be a simple matter of fixing that to the floor and the ceiling (you may need to get inside the ceiling space and fit a noggin between trusses or something to provide a solid fixing point there), then filling the space with glass bricks and fitting a solid top rail, which could be the existing top rail, along the top.

Doing this with glass bricks will not be much harder than any other method, but you can't afford to have any movement if you use these, where you can get away with some if you have a more conventional balustrade.

An alternative to a post would be to put a short "return" back into the room you took the photos from, to brace the end of the wall.

posted by dg 15 March | 22:44

dg, it looks to me like there is a post at the right end. It's being used as a coat-rack.

posted by deborah 16 March | 01:48

So it does. In that case, go for it, MGL! Lay your glass bricks as per the instructions and use the timber from the existing rail/shelf as a top rail - you may have to put something under it to "lock" the top rail to the bricks. The wall should be the same height as the balustrade on the other side of the stairs, though, which may be more bricks than you want to buy...

posted by dg 16 March | 03:23

NC Building code requires handrails at 34" to 38" above the stair nosing (leading edge/lip). The guard wall is to be 42" above finished floor. (higher than the handrail - because that's the way they want it.) It also has to be able to resist a 50 pound/linear foot load (ie -the drunk person falling into it.) Glass block alone will not do this. Suggest you use dg's instructions above. Just be sure to very securely attach the top rail to each side.

posted by mightshould 16 March | 08:00

Yikes. Getting it up to code will mean at least 13 more blocks, which brings the cost for materials alone to almost $600. And anchoring it is going to be a royal PITA. Thanks for the info, everyone. This is what I was afraid of - biting off more than I can chew. Okay, I'm going with plexiglass panels for now and saving my money to do something more up to code and attractive later.

posted by mygothlaundry 16 March | 13:43

Please post a picture when you're done! Can't wait to see what you come up with and how it turns out.

posted by mudpuppie 16 March | 14:04

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