If you have a glass terrace, it can be overwhelming to know how to keep it clean and fresh. This article explains why glass terraces are made of safety glass and the coatings that are used to protect the safety glass while it is being transported and installed. It also describes the materials and techniques the professional installer uses to clean the glass in a glass terrace roof and provides specific instructions on how to do it yourself.
When a glass terrace is delivered and installed in your home, it will come with tempered glass or safety glass as standard. When something falls on tempered glass, it breaks into tiny granular particles that, while sharp, do not pose a serious threat to man or beast. Plate or float glass when broken breaks into a million little pointy pieces.
If float glass is installed on a glass veranda, there is a risk that at some point in its life one of the sheets of glass will break, producing a shower of dangerously sharp splinters. These would rain down on people or animals below and cause injury. Broken float glass also produces a carpet of small and sometimes almost invisible sharp objects that can remain hidden for a long time. Due to the risks of float glass, tempered or safety glass is always used in glass terraces, glass roofs and skylights.
Tempered glass is usually shipped with some type of protective layer wrapped around it. This prevents it from breaking if something hits the glass. It also means that the men who load and unload the glass have a protective barrier surrounding the glass to prevent minor bumps and scratches from damaging it.
The protective layer will be a sheet of plastic or bubble wrap, sometimes with foam blocks to keep the individual panes of glass apart. The glass itself will almost always have a slightly tacky coating on it for the plastic sheet to cling to the surface and ensure it doesn’t come off during handling, exposing the glass surface to potential damage.
It is this coating that the glass terrace installer must remove before finally installing the glass. The way they do this is by using a solution of isopropyl alcohol (75%) or methyl alcohols. Each side of each glass pane to be installed is wiped clean with a cloth or paper towel by moving the cloth back and forth in a horizontal direction first, then vertically. This means that every part of the glass is covered. Stains that might be visible if cleaning were done in one direction are also gone.
When your glass terrace is finally installed, it should look very shiny. To keep it looking sparkling, the best thing to do is to have your window cleaner clean the surfaces with a wand cleaning system. Regular cleaning will prevent the buildup of dirt and debris that can make the structure look unsightly. You can do it yourself with a cloth, preferably linen gauze, and warm soapy water. The best window cleaning detergent is Fairy Liquid. Simply wash the windows with the cloth and remove any excess liquid with another cloth or sponge before finishing with a scrim working vertically and horizontally over each pane of glass until it looks really shiny.
How do you get to the part of the glass terrace that is closest to the wall of the house? It should be possible to do this using a drag board that you can fit through the glass bars. Glazing bars must be designed to support the weight of a man. Leaning on the glass bars in this way should allow you to reach and clean the more inaccessible parts of the glass gallery. You should always check with the installer who supplied the deck to make sure it is strong enough to handle the type of loads involved in cleaning.
Alternatively, there are greenhouse cleaning steps available to hire. These are wonderful devices. The foot of the steps rests on the ground and the upper part of the first section rests on the gutter of the glass gallery. The second part of the steps falls on the roof and supports the person who wipes the glass. The entire apparatus is prevented from slipping by a cable that is attached to the sunroom itself. This means that this job can be done with just one hand.
If your glass terrace is very large, it is better to hire a professional cleaning company to do the job. In this way, your security will not be compromised and you will keep the structure in perfect condition for years to come.