February 8, 2012

What Makes Glass Pool Fencing Tough And Long-Lasting

A swimming pool in your home is a great feature. It is a place where you can slow down and have a refreshing swim after a hot, tiring day. It is a place where you can hold barbecue parties with your buddies. It is a place where you can enjoy the weekend with your family.

But as a homeowner, you must know that having a swimming pool in your yard is a double-edged sword. While it does increase the value of your property and provides enjoyment, it may also be an accident prone spot. People can slip on small spots of water. Children fall into the pool and drown if they are unable to swim.

To prevent these mishaps, a lot of nations have passed and implemented laws that require homeowners with pools in their property to fence their pools. Wood and iron fencing systems once ruled, but presently, glass pool fencing has become quite popular. Not only are they easy to maintain and elegant to look at, they are also quite resistant and strong.

You may ask why this modern fencing system is tough while it is made of seemingly fragile glass. Well, the glass that is used is called toughened or tempered glass, which is processed by controlled chemical or thermal treatments to increase its strength. Physically, it can withstand high temperatures and impacts that would otherwise shatter normal glass. Toughened glass has a minimum surface compressive stress level of 69 MPa although for it to be considered “safety” glass, this level must be more than 100 MPa.

What happens if the glass is subjected to an impact that can actually break it? Well, due to the tempering, the glass shatters into small pieces. These minute pieces are less likely to cause further injury. Normal glass, on the other hand, splinters into extremely sharp shards which can result to even more injury.

Tempered glass used in glass pool fencing is durable but is susceptible to scratching. Thus, many manufacturers may apply various laminates or coatings to the glass to diminish the likelihood of scratching the surface.

If you need tough glass pool fencing and balustrading Perth, get in touch with Glass Fencing Warehouse.

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