Glazing
Glass options, and what they actually do
Glass is the trade off between daylight and privacy, and it is the decision people most often get wrong. Every pattern below is available on every aperture, and all of it is toughened as standard.
- Toughened as standard
- Double glazed and sealed
- Internally beaded
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Compare
The five patterns
Shown on the same door so you can compare the glass rather than the design.
Clear toughened
Privacy 1/5Maximum light, no obscuration. Toughened to BS EN 12150 as standard.
Best for: Doors set back in a porch, or rear doors onto a private garden.
Obscure
Privacy 4/5A textured pattern that scatters light and blurs shapes. The default choice for a front door on the street.
Best for: Front doors overlooked by a pavement or shared path.
Sandblasted
Privacy 4/5A flat, even frosting with a soft matt surface. Contemporary and understated, with no visible pattern.
Best for: Modern styles such as the Messina, Venice and Trieste.
Leaded
Privacy 3/5Traditional lead came in a geometric or diamond arrangement, bonded to the outer pane.
Best for: Period properties and traditional panelled styles.
Coloured leaded
Privacy 3/5Leaded glass with coloured bevels or stained inserts. The closest match to an original Victorian or Edwardian fanlight.
Best for: Terraces and semis where the neighbours still have the originals.
Specification
What is in every glazed unit
Toughened safety glass
To BS EN 12150. It has to be, at door height, and it breaks into blunt granules rather than shards.
Sealed double glazed units
Warm edge spacer bar, argon filled, contributing directly to the door's U-value.
Internally beaded
The beads are on the inside, so the glass cannot be removed from outside without destroying it.
Bonded into the leaf
The unit is bonded rather than just clipped, which stiffens the whole door.
Choosing
How to actually decide
Stand where the postman stands and look at your front door. If you can see into the hallway, and there is a pavement or a shared path behind you, take obscure or sandblasted glass. It is not a close call.
If the door is set back behind a porch, a gate or a decent front garden, clear glass will give you considerably more light and you will notice it every day of the winter.
On a period property, leaded glass is what makes a modern door look like it belongs. Keep the pattern simple; heavily coloured panels date faster than anything else you can specify.
And if the hallway is genuinely dark, the answer is usually not more glass in the door but a sidelight beside it, which throws light much further into the space without compromising the door itself.
See the glass on your door
Every pattern, on your style, in your colour, with a live price.