Installing New Fencing

Tinted toughened glass fencing provides a sleek, attractive safety barrier for your pool. This glass is produced in a particular way, making it the ideal material for pool fences.

Creating Toughened Glass

Toughened safety glass starts out as ordinary glass, which then undergoes a special thermal treatment. After being heated to extreme temperatures, the glass is cooled rapidly. Its inner part remains hot while the outside surface cools, and this temperature difference causes physical changes within the glass that ultimately strengthen it. The treatment also sets up a specific breaking pattern that is different from ordinary glass. Not only is toughened glass much more robust and less likely to shatter than regular glass, but if it does, it fragments into blunt cubes rather than dangerous pointy shards.

The tempering process also makes toughened glass highly heat-resistant (which is why it is often installed as kitchen splashbacks around stovetops). These characteristics, durability, safer breaking-pattern, and heat resistance make toughened glass an ideal fencing material for pools, generally out in the hot sunshine.

Producing Tinted Glass

Toughened glass can also be tinted a range of colours, typically blue, green, bronze, and grey. The colouring is added at the very beginning before the tempering treatment when small amounts of metal oxides are included in the original glass mixture. 'Clear' ordinary glass usually displays a slight green cast due to its iron content, which is more evident along the edges. To create a more obviously green tone, additional iron can be added to the glass mixture. Similarly, cobalt and iron can be included to produce blue tints, and iron, cobalt, and selenium to form bronze or grey tones. The resultant glass is then subjected to the tempering treatment to produce tinted toughened glass. The thicker the glass, the stronger the tint seems. Toned glass reduces sunlight glare to greater and lesser degrees depending on the hue and glass thickness.

Matching Tints To The Surrounding Environment

Slight tinting brings an attractive, subtle element to glass pool fences. Particular shades can be chosen to suit the environment. For instance, delicate grey-toned glass can complement a dark grey accent wall behind the pool. Or blue or green tones can accentuate the emerald-green or deep-blue pool water. Tinted panels also provide a more explicit definition of the pool area while maintaining an open, spacious feel.

If you're installing pool fencing, a tinted fence created from toughened safety glass will create both a safe and sleek barrier for a beautiful pool area.