Glass Office Walls

Glass office walls conjure the notion that those who live around them shouldn’t throw stones. An apt proverb even in the office world, where life is work and work is creation and creations are something to protect. Proverbs aside, you can create just about anything with movable glass wall systems including offices, waiting rooms, meeting rooms, or office accent walls. We can even create the ideal glass office entrance to help welcome people into your world.

On this page we’re sharing typical examples – from actual projects - of popular uses and configurations. If you don’t see the one in your mind’s eye, we can design a custom glass wall specifically tailored to your requirements.

Please understand!
These prices are approximate guidelines for glass wall cost. The final price depends on project details like size, customization, upgrades & downgrades, and site location and conditions. For your convenience, we include the average cost of delivery & installation (D&I) into our total cost of glass office walls, which can be significant. This system requires specialized knowledge, considerable skill, and expensive equipment.
Unless you’re the engineering-contracting type, don’t DIY it.

GLASS 101

Interesting trivia for your next dinner party: It takes at least 932°F for glass to start melting into a liquid state.

If you’re considering glass office wall partitions for an upcoming project, it’s helpful to understand a bit about glass… which has an interesting 5,000 year history but we’ll skip to the relevant parts.

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Then & Now

Pre-1960, the most commonly used glass for commercial applications was plate glass, also referred to as sheet glass or flat glass. It was heavy, had some imperfections in the smoothness, and was expensive to produce. After 1960, the U.S. standard was to use a float glass process to create something lighter, stronger, smoother, and more affordable.

Float glass is created by melting silica (most commonly quartz) with basic oxides like sodium, potassium, calcium, or magnesium (all natural!). This molten mixture floats over a surface of molten tin and is cooled through a controlled process. The result is a strong glass with uniform thickness and flatness.

Float Glass: Annealed -vs- Tempered -vs- Laminated

ANNEALED GLASS

During the float process, glass is annealed to remove molecular stresses and create a more durable and easier product to work with. However, if broken, annealed glass fractures into large, jagged shards that can cause serious injury and is considered a hazard in architectural applications. Need your glass even stronger and safer? Temper it!

TEMPERED GLASS

Most glass in today’s office glass wall systems is tempered. To temper it, the molten glass is heated through the same controlled thermal process but cooled more quickly. The result is 3-5 times better resistance to impact and applied pressure than annealed glass. If it breaks it safely crumbles into smaller, less dangerous pieces, which is why it’s also referred to as safety glass. This comes in handy just in case someone decides to throw you a curve ball… fashioned from stone. Bulletproof glass is a category unto itself and covered elsewhere.

But there’s a catch: once glass is tempered it can’t be cut or drilled, or it will lose its “magical” strength and likely shatter. This means all necessary cutouts and holes must be specified with precise dimensions before it’s tempered.

LAMINATED GLASS

This consists of a thin sheet of plastic sandwiched in between layers of glass on each side. The laminated sheet can be clear or decorative, and offers impressive features like greater strength, sound absorbency and even UV protection.

Why Glass Office Partitioning?

What you should really be asking yourself, is: Why NOT glass office partitioning? What’s not to love? Why spend your days boxed in and surrounded by traditional boring walls that close you off from the outside world, when you could see through walls like Supergirl?

Here are just a few reasons why glass office walls and doors are in high demand in commercial office buildouts:

Aesthetics of Architectural Glass

Office walls with glass can add a clean and contemporary aesthetic, a luxurious sense of elegance to any office space. The nature and characteristics of glass maximize visual transparency and provide a solid and durable boundary. It allows the outside in and keeps the inside where it belongs. Our interior glass walls create division and physical boundaries yet maintain the openness and sense of community in today’s popular open office design.

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Smart Office Space Planning

A good office space plan is first driven by the physical reality of a structure’s boundaries and limitations, and clearly illustrates the practical and purposeful use of available open office space. It considers the circulation of people around each other, their work tools, and building systems. It leaves no room for surprises. A smart open office layout considers that your needs evolve over time and provides built-in adaptability, which is critical in the ever-changing world of business and commerce.

Interior glass wall systems can efficiently divide and optimize an office space one way and then another way. One single purchase can offer a degree of adaptability that drywall simply cannot. Maybe we should call our system Adapt-A-Wall!

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Sound Absorption & Office Noise

While the open office concept has been all the rage in the early decades of this 21^st century, those who live with them understand the competing nature of noise -vs- concentration. Acoustics -vs- accomplishment. Sound barriers -vs- barriers to getting the job done.

Visual openness is great. What’s not to like about an office without walls? Well, according to 1,000 UK-based office workers who participated in the Noise and Wellbeing at Work Survey of 2019, a lot. Almost half of those surveyed confirmed that they feel negatively affected by noisy distractions in the workplace. Health, stress levels, and productivity can suffer. Some research indicates that most office workers can lose well over an hour of wasted time each day trying to regain their focus after these kinds of interruptions.

A well-thought-out open office floor plan considers not only the visual & economic implications, but the very important acoustic implications as well. The value and benefit of acoustical walls cannot be overstated. Wall “technology” dates back over 10,000 years and remains a vital architectural element. Remove interior walls from your office space floor plan and you’ll become familiar with the law of unintended consequences.

If you’re thinking that modular glass office walls couldn’t possibly block sounds from one room to the next as well as drywall, think again. It might surprise you to learn that it’s possible to create a wall of glass with acoustical properties that approach those of a concrete block wall! The secret lies in the glazing.

The industry standard for comparing the noise reduction capabilities of different building partitions is Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating. To help put things into perspective, here is a reference point:

• STC 25 = you might as well not even have a wall
• STC 35 = your loud coworker is audible but not understandable
• STC 40 = your loud coworker is just a quiet murmur
• STC 50 = you can’t hear your loud coworker speaking (finally!) but if they start blasting music from their computer speakers, there’s a slight chance you might be able to name that tune.
• STC 60+ = you might as well be miles away

Now, here are the average STC ratings for walls commonly used for office interiors:

• STC 27 = Herman Miller AO2 Acoustical Panels (bit of a misnomer there, don’t you think?)
• STC 31 = 1/4” standard glass wall
• STC 33 = Drywall with no insulation (standard walls used in offices and houses)
• STC 35 = 1/4” laminated glass wall
• STC 36 = 1/2” standard glass wall
• STC 38 = 1/2” laminated glass wall
• STC 39 = Drywall with fiberglass insulation (rarely used in commercial interior office buildouts)
• STC 46 = 6” Hollow Concrete (never used for interior walls, more common for perimeter walls)
• STC 51 = Two 1/2” laminated glass panes with 4” insulated air space between, lined with acoustical glazing
• STC 72 = 8” concrete block wall with ½” drywall on each side and insulation in the cavities (wow that’s intense!)

Typical office buildings have interior walls with STC ratings between 33-40. Naturally, other elements have a significant effect on whether you can hear your loud co-worker having a lover’s quarrel over the phone in their office next door. Your ceiling, floor, doors, and even room finishes and furnishings can all make a difference. For example, office carpet will soften the sounds much better than wood, laminate or tile floors. If noise is a serious concern or issue, you can always enhance your space with the proper application of acoustic tiles to help.

Noise Cancelling Headphones: The Ubiquitous Accessory in Open Offices

But the Price Tag...

The upfront cost of glass office wall panels looks high when considered as a sheetrock alternative. If your budget drives your decision making, there’s no doubt you’ll be drawn to less costly drywall.

However, if you pay for the materials and labor to build single-use walls and your needs change at some point, you’ll watch the money saved get torn down and smashed to bits with a sledgehammer. If your budget allows, you can also consider mid-priced drywall alternatives like modular wall systems that can be reoriented and reassembled. With just one reconfiguration, the less costly becomes more and the more becomes less.

Aside from the benefits of reconfiguration and reusability, you might also end up with a very nice tax deduction from the IRS. Not all wall systems will qualify, but specifically demountable wall systems count as tax deductible furniture and/or business equipment. Drywall certainly can’t do that! Not to mention, if the style you choose classifies as furniture (demountable division 10) you’re also eligible for office furniture leasing.

If you want a brand that manufactures demountable glass partitions, you’re on the right page! Keep reading.

Cubicles.com's Demountable Glass Wall Systems

No matter if you’re an architect, contractor, interior designer, building manager, or office owner, everyone can agree that when planning a commercial office space, a wide variety of affordable options - without unneeded complexity - is a winning formula. Who doesn’t want a simple solution and easy process?

SIMPLE

Our system requires the fewest components necessary to divide your space and define its parameters. To transparently separate your teams yet maintain the connectedness essential to winning the game. Our system was conceived from the idea that solid walls block out people, ideas, and information, while office walls of glass invite them in. Our system is all about keeping interior glass wall systems simple.

CUSTOMIZABLE

Our custom glass wall units are designed to do a lot with a little. Minimal and simple components translate into easy customization and fabrication. This minimalistic approach also translates into a glass wall installation process that requires less time compared to other systems of glass wall panels.

Consider the possible applications: glass office partitions, free standing office dividers, transaction window walls, a frameless glass wall, glass wall cubicles, glass wall doors (hinged or pivot), sliding glass office doors, the list goes on.

TEMPORARY

Movable office walls aren’t something you think about until you’re confronted with the challenge of change. The desire to move an existing wall has surely been around for a long as walls have. However, the ability to do so with relative ease is an invention of the modern era.

When office glass wall systems are movable they’re referred to as demountable walls. Demountable wall systems attach to your existing building structures (walls, floors, ceiling, support beams, etc.) but are not part of the building structure like drywall is.

What is attached can be detached or demounted. Another way of saying reoriented, reconfigured, repurposed, reused, or removed & resold. If the inherent value of demountable glass partitions doesn’t tip the balance over the competition, there’s also the previously mentioned tax deductibility of your investment through section 179 tax code.

Types of Glass for Our Wall System

Our glass office panels are available in clear or frosted glass. A frosted glass wall is an effect achieved by applying 3M glass films to the clear glass surface. This film can be applied at any height including quarter, half, three-quarter or full height, and can even be custom designed with your branding.

If a high STC rating isn’t critical for your space, we can value-engineer your glass wall panels with polycarbonate instead of real glass. Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic polymer that has a frosted/opaque appearance, and plastic is always less expensive to produce than glass.

When including the aluminum rails, the overall glass wall thickness is 2”. The glass itself is 1/4” thick by default. An upgrade to 3/8” thick should be specified for glass conference room walls or anywhere a higher STC rating is desirable.

1/2” Laminated Glass is typically reserved for glass office wall panels taller than 8’ or where a STC rating above 38 is necessary. For maximum sound protection, choose laminated glass double glazed units where an STC 50 rating can be achieved.

Configurations for Our Office Walls

Not all aluminum frame glass wall systems are created equal. We’ve built versatility into our system by offering dynamic combinations that address a variety of visual requirements, design aesthetics, and budgetary realities.

STANDARD SIZES

Our glass office partitions are available in widths from 2.5 to 4 feet. Standard panel widths are 30” | 36” | 45” | 48”. Standard glass wall heights go up to 10 feet. Keep in mind that anything higher than 9 feet will require ceiling support, in addition to the standard floor mounting that’s necessary with all installations. Depending on the size and layout, further mounting to your building walls will help with rigidity and stability.

It’s possible to accommodate your specific requirements with custom sizing, but you’ll need to factor in more dollars and more time. Common sizing is common for the economies-of-scale benefits they offer, like the cost of materials, standard fabrication, delivery and installation equipment, etc.

STANDARD ASSEMBLIES

You can opt for your glass wall panels to be glass-only, or you can add melamine laminate for enhanced privacy or “visual pop”. Full and partial height laminate wall panels come in an array of pleasing colors or woodgrains. We offer 16 standard office wall partition assemblies as depicted below:

LAMINATE ACCENT WALLS: Full or Segmented

TEMPERED GLASS WALL PANELS: Full or Segmented

COMBO GLASS & LAMINATE PANELS

Options for Office Glass Doors

Demountable wall units with glass doors are popular for creating private spaces with a welcoming entry. Our system offers a variety of door options that can be combined with our stc rated wall assemblies. If low stc rated doors are suitable for your project, specify hollow wood doors instead of glass and save some coin.

Not only can our doors be integrated with our wall system, they can also be ordered as stand-alone doors ready to be installed into a door rough opening provided by your contractor. We offer 10 standard door options (single or double assembly):

FRAMED ALUMINUM GLASS DOOR

Aside from selecting door type, there are also hardware details like the following:

GLASS DOOR HARDWARE

In Conclusion…

Wherever office separation walls are needed, glass wall systems are worth your consideration. If you’re still not convinced that demountable partitions are the right investment, don’t take our word for it – look to our many satisfied customers:

Superior Essex - Atlanta, GA		View Glass – Milpitas, CA
Private Client Home Office – Boston, MA	__	Innovative Business Solutions – Rohnert Park, CA
Oakmont Contracting – Baltimore, MD		Controlco – Pleasant Hill, CA

Want more glass wall ideas? For bucket loads of inspiration, scroll through our Office Glass Doors and Glass Partitions Walls Pinterest Albums!