Structural units of glass can be used to create walk on areas of glass for use in a full glass floor or floorlight.
The purpose of these walk on areas of glass is normally to allow the travel of light into below areas that may not receive a lot of light from elsewhere, such as basement spaces or other windowless rooms.
Normally the glass specification required will be a top, walk on layer of toughened and laminated glass. This is multiple layers of toughened glass that are then laminated together for extra structural strength.
If the walk on glass floor or floorlight is separating two different climates this laminated structural glass panel can be integrated into a horizontal double or triple glazed unit to provide the relevant thermal performance needed.
For walk on areas of glazing it is normally suggested that some kind of anti-slip resistance be applied to the external face of the glass floor, especially if the walk on surface is outside and exposed to weathers such as rain.
This anti-slip resistance can be created using many different techniques. You could use a sandblasted layer of glass as the outer layer in the glass construction. This will create a slightly rougher external surface to the glass floor for anti-slip properties. You could also use specialised screen printing on the external face of the glass to create a ceramic anti slip pattern on the surface.
For all thick, layered glass constructions, such as those needed for a walk on glass floor or floorlight low iron glass is recommended to reduce the green tint that can be noticeable in layered glass constructions.
Low Maintenance Glass can be used to allow easier cleaning to high traffic walk on glass floors. Specialist fire rated glass units can also be used on glass floors if a fire rating is required.