Privacy Film and Safety Strips

Glazing Safety Strips and Privacy Film

Full-height glazing and frameless glass doors present an obvious hazard: people walk into glass they have not registered as being there. Marking the glass so it reads as a solid surface is the standard remedy, and AS 1288 covers glass in buildings, including where glazing needs to be made visible. Whether a particular panel requires marking depends on its type, position and the building, so confirm the requirement with your certifier or glazier rather than assuming.

Four products cover it. Safety Stripes are supplied in black, white or frosted at $65, applied as a horizontal band across the panel at the height a person's eye meets it. Glazing frosting at $40 covers a larger area where privacy is the objective as well as visibility — meeting rooms, consulting rooms, bathroom glazing and office partitions.

Choosing between them

The decision is usually about what the glass is doing. A band is enough where the only issue is making the panel visible, and it keeps the outlook through the glass. Full frosting is for where the glazing also needs to obscure, and it changes the character of the room, so it is worth checking against the architect's intent on a fitout rather than applied as a default.

Both are applied to clean glass and are best done before a space is occupied. On a commercial fitout this is normally scheduled alongside the rest of the signage package rather than as a separate trade.