Office partitions and interior glass in Phoenix

We supply and install interior glass partitions, conference room walls, glass office fronts and glass guards for Phoenix workplaces. Interior glass carries the same safety glazing requirements as exterior glass, and the acoustics are usually the part people get wrong.

Glass thickness and how high it can go

Frameless partition systems typically take half-inch, five-eighths or three-quarter inch glass, with half-inch the common starting point. The track is usually a slim aluminum extrusion, often around an inch square, fixed at floor and ceiling.

Half-inch glass runs to about 10 feet before it needs help. Above that you’re into thicker glass, heavier track, a structural header, or glass fins, and the cost curve changes shape rather than sloping. If your ceiling is high, tell us at the measure, because it changes the system rather than just the glass order.

Vertical joints on a frameless system are typically dry, with no adhesive: an H section between panels in a straight run, an F section at a 90 degree corner, and a T where a wall meets a run. That dry jointing is what makes a demountable wall genuinely demountable, which matters if you expect the floor plan to change.

Acoustics, honestly

This is where glass partition projects disappoint people, so it’s worth being direct about it.

Manufacturer lab figures for glazed partition systems run roughly like this. A single glazed frameless system tests around 35 STC. The glass alone is about 31 for monolithic tempered and about 38 for laminated. A double glazed system reaches 43 to 44, and up to about 49 with laminated glass in a double glazed configuration.

Those are lab numbers and your office will not achieve them. Sound goes around a partition as readily as through it, and in a typical fit-out it goes over the top through the ceiling plenum, under through the floor, and along shared ductwork. A 44 STC partition sitting under a continuous suspended ceiling with an open plenum above it performs nothing like 44.

What moves the needle, in order: taking the partition to the deck rather than the ceiling grid, sealing the head and base properly, and the door. A single glazed door in a double glazed wall sets the performance of the room, and so does a 10mm gap under it.

If the brief is a conference room where confidential conversations stay in the room, say that at the start. It’s a different specification from a conference room that just needs to look enclosed.

Safety glazing indoors

The hazardous location rules don’t stop at the front door, and interior partitions land in them routinely.

• Every glass office door is a hazardous location, all panels, no size exemption.
• Sidelites and partition panels within a 24 inch arc of a door, where the bottom edge sits under 60 inches.
• Full-height partition panels over 9 square feet, with the bottom edge under 18 inches, the top edge over 36, and a walking surface within 36 inches. Because partition glass normally runs to the floor, most panels meet all four.

In practice, most of the glass in a glazed office fit-out has to be safety glazing, and door glazing over 9 square feet has to meet the higher impact category. It also has to carry a permanent etched mark, not a sticker. Tempered and safety glazing covers the requirements in full.

Glass guards and railings

Glass in a guard or a railing is a hazardous location regardless of size or height, and the requirements are stricter than for partitions.

What the glass has to be depends on what sits below the guard. Where there is a walking surface underneath, and it is not permanently protected from falling glass, the code requires laminated glass built from fully tempered or heat-strengthened plies, at least a quarter inch, meeting the higher impact category. Where nothing is below, or the surface below is permanently protected, monolithic fully tempered glass is permitted provided it meets the same impact category. Glass railings and guards covers this properly.

Two structural requirements follow from it:

• Each guard section needs at least three glass balusters, or other support that keeps the guard in place if one baluster fails.
• A top rail is required, with one exception: it can be omitted where the balusters are laminated glass with two or more plies of equal thickness and the same glass type, and the building official approves it. The approval is part of the exception, not an afterthought.

Guards also have to carry a 50 pound per linear foot load applied in any direction at the top. Glazing is not permitted in parking garage handrails except in pedestrian areas.

What we don’t do here

We’re a glass company. We supply and install the glass, the track and the hardware. We’re not doing your ceiling grid, your electrical, or the demolition, and on a fit-out we work alongside whoever is. Tell us who’s running the job and we’ll coordinate around their sequence.

Our warranty

Interior glass and installation carry a lifetime limited warranty on our workmanship, for as long as you own the property.

Common questions

Who installs glass office partitions in Phoenix?

We do. Call (602) 777-3717 with the address and the ceiling height, and we’ll arrange a site measure.

How thick does partition glass need to be?

Half-inch is the usual starting point and runs to about 10 feet. Taller than that and you’re into thicker glass with heavier track or a structural header.

Will a glass partition make the room private?

Visually, no, unless you add film or blinds. Acoustically, only up to a point. A single glazed system tests around 35 STC in a lab and a double glazed one reaches the mid-40s, but sound travels over the top through the ceiling plenum unless the partition goes to the deck. If confidential conversations are the requirement, say so before we specify anything.

Does interior glass have to be tempered?

Most of it, yes. Glass doors always are, so are panels within 24 inches of a door, and so are full-height panels over 9 square feet near a walking surface, which is most of them.

Can I use tempered glass for a glass railing?

Not on its own. Guards require laminated glass made from tempered or heat-strengthened plies, so the interlayer holds it in place if it breaks.

Can a glass partition be moved later?

If it’s a demountable system with dry joints, yes, and that’s usually why people choose one. Tell us at the start if the layout is expected to change, because it affects which system goes in.

Get a site measure

Call (602) 777-3717 Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:00pm with the address, the ceiling height and what the rooms are for. See commercial glass for how quotes and deposits work.