Advice 5: Glass types

When choosing a window model, it may prove worthwile to check what types of glazing are available and adapt them to the needs of home dwellers. Antisol glazing would prove its worth in the kitchen, burglary-resistant ones on the front windows, and soundproof windows in the bedroom facing the street. Double safety glass will be useful in a panoramic window.

The most popular ones are:

• glazing providing protection from sunlight - e.g. Antisol. These window panes are  in-mass colour coated and covered with a special film, coated or laminated. One must decide what level of light transmittance interest him/her and what aesthetic effect is desired. It may be worth your time to ask for glass samples to see for yourself what the effect will be.
• burglary-resistant glass panes, covered with a special laminate that makes them much harder to break.
• safety glass, used to glaze larger surfaces, e.g. balcony windows, that could potentially be damaged in course of normal use:
  • toughened glass breaks into tiny, blunt pieces
  • special laminated glass - hold the structure of the cracked window together
• soundproof windows - marked with a higher level of decibels - RW value - the louder the noise outside of your potential window, the higher that value should be, even up to 42 dB. The standard is 30dB.