We installed a lot of windows in our new house and now realize people can see right into the upstairs bathroom and hallway through the front door sidelights.
I’m thinking of etching the glass in the sidelights to allow light to pass thru, but give us some privacy. They are double-paned, divided light, probably tempered glass (whatever’s energy efficient).
No design, just fully etch the glass.
What would work well, look great, last a long time and not cost too much?
Thanks!
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Replies
There are a number of etching kits available (I think Lee Valley carry Armour Etch) through most art/crafts/hobby stores. What you're proposing to do is to "frost" the entire pane, something we used to do with a piece of wet-or-dry abrasive. Can I suggest a web-searchs on 'frosting glass' and 'etching glass' and see what it turns up. Make sure you catch the "stick-on" etching kits, thin mylar sheets that stick to the glass surface glass and provide the frosted/etched appearance.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
There are also sprays for this effect.
There are films too, applied to the inside that will make it all but impossible to see in except possibly at nght, while retaining your ability to see out if that is an issue.
Eric
mask off the muntins and a small cheap sandblaster, from HF will do it lickity split.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
You're supposed to think of window locations before you build! That's the point of design.
There are lots of ways to add privacy. The panes can be sandblasted, etched with acid, or covered with a peel-and-stick plastic film. You can also add curtains (something that lets in the light but obscures the view), or put on an additional pane on the interior of, say, frosted glass, textured glass, or stained glass.
Etching solutions are quite dangerous, so you must wear rubber gloves and keep children away, and rinse thoroughly.
Even if the glass is tempered (which by code it must be, being beside a door) it can still be etched or sandblasted.
Aluminum foil ... works well on double-wides in the deep south.
Or a can of Krylon ... works well in the ghettos everywhere.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
im kinda partial to the snow in a can for most of the mobile homes around here. stays on all year long , just like the christmas lights.
shuff
Hot dog bun bags, slit down the sides and held on with duct tape...just like stained glass.
youve been to south georgia.
While I too had some doubts about the look of window films I have seen them installed and I was impressed. A lot depends on the quality and designs on the film used and how well they are installed. Everything from subtle frosted floret to various, gaudy to classy, stained glass is available.
An advantage of some of these film is that if you don't like the look the film can be easily removed as they are held on by static electricity not adhesive. Once properly cut to size they can be removed and replaced in minutes. I know one HO that has several sets of these film for her front entrance windows rolled up as sets in a nearby closet.
She changes them out as the mood strikes her. She also has 'holiday theme' films that she sometimes puts up. A few of these are a bit more gaudy than my taste but they do unify her decorative theme when various other elements are artistically placed on the porch and front door.
I would think these films might be worth a try. I understand they are $20 - $40 for a roll. Relatively cheap. Being removable has some advantages over actually etching the windows in that once etched you have to replace the glass, an expensive proposition for insulated glass, to get back to ground zero.
Most home centers have a selection of removable films and I'm sure the internet can suggest many more designs.
When i make etched glass windows, i etch first and then turn the etched side to the inside of the thermopaned window--lots easier to keep clean. Acid washing can be very spotty in large panels, and doesn't work that well done vertically. Sandblasting on a finished residence--been there, done that, and it isn't pretty, even with a shroud around the worksite.
An extra panel of etched glass (or architectural or art glass--and the sky's the limit as far as patterns and colors here) would do the trick nicely. I framed a single sheet of stained glass in cherry, leaving the irregular selvedge edge exposed, for a guy who just loved the way the whole 3x5 sheet looked. It would also add a bit of thermal performance to your sidelights.
leaving the irregular selvedge edge exposed I don't follow you here... Irregular edge of the glass? or the cherry? Where was it used.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
It was the irregular edge of the glass, more properly called a "rolled edge". The glass is blown, opened up and flattened out. The edge is somewhat thicker and irregular, so it's usually cut away and not used for lead or foil work. I don't know the maker of the glass, but it was a marine blue, so it looked like an ocean wave caught in the act.
The customer had walked past the stained glass shop whose framing i do, seen this big piece of art glass on display in the front window, and waltzed in and ordered it framed. I cased the already-cut edges of the glass in a routed groove, leaving the rolled edge exposed, about 3-5" down from the *top* side of the frame.
I don't know if he used it as a room divider or what, but i encase stained glass at glue-up, making both sides equally attractive - no retaining strips, in other words. The shop owner told me the customer, once he saw it framed like that (i went out on a limb with this idea), loved it, but couldn't decide then which side he wanted the floating edge.
Splinter,
That sounds gorgeous. Any chance you took a picture before delivery?
I didn't take a shot, but the shop owner always shoots digitals, so i just called there. She's away for a few days and the help i talked to doesn't have a clue about finding them. Sorry.
Register with a local nudists society.
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
Aha!!!!! Neked wimmin again!
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
You gotta know I ain't giving up till I see one !
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
Luka: Persistent Devil, aren't you!!!???
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
Durn tootin !
And someday it's gonna pay off, or I'm gonna be pushing up daisies.
Either way, I'll be happy.
: )
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
In this kind of a situation, you can put a small dowel, with a very short curtain, surprisingly close to the bottom of the window.
And still provide complete privacy to anyone in the room who is not actually standing at, or pressed up against the window.
Do some experimenting with paper and duct tape. Cover a small portion of the bottom of the window. Then go stand in the entryway, and have your wife walk around in the bathroom, in the way that she normally would. It can be even lower for you, than for her, so she should be the one walking around up there.
Change the paper and tape until you find the right height that will give you privacy, while obstructing as little of your own view, as possible.
"Criticism without instruction is little more than abuse." D.Sweet
Edited 8/21/2004 10:01 pm ET by Luka
Go to an art show.. or art gallery that carries stained-glass art work. Look for an artist that does work that you like.
Hire the artist to do stained glass side lights. Just another idea.
If you want to frost the windows, there are chemical products out there to do this... but be aware that they are going to make a piece of glass that is rough on it's surface. It also is not as easy as it looks. Very toxic and STINKS to high heaven.
sandblasting? Yea.. it wold work... but the mess... and the potential for uneven blasting is VERY high.
Films? Never have been a big fan... but they are an inexpensive fix until something more permanent can be done.
You also cold have the glass panes replaced with something more opaque. There are companies out there that offer window repair that probably could do this right on-site (at least we have companies like that around me)
Just a few thoughts... hope it helps.
I etch glass for a living (if you can call it that), and highly recommend that you not try to get it sand blasted in place. I once did 144 standard panes in a church that another glass artist had sandblasted before they were installed. I had to do them ON SITE because they looked like crap when installed. They will be vacuuming black silicon carbide out of their rugs till the second coming. I started out w 50 lb of grit, weighed what was left over, and somewhere in that church are ten lbs of grit. It's 220 grade, so not recognizable as grit unless you know what you are looking at - you think it is dust. We spread large sheets of PVC to catch most of the grit, and reused it many times. That's the first problem. Second - doing a uniform frost on a large area is the most difficult of all etching skills. A sidelight qualifies as a large area. You think you have it uniform, then you look at it from a different angle & it bites you in some portion of the anatomy you don't want to name.
That being said - take Splintergroupie's advice & get a glass artist to install some sort of privacy glass - there are lots of them that distort images w/o cutting down on the light transmission. Particularly the wavy patterns. It will be cheaper and much more artistically pleasing in the end. You won't see the non-uniformity six months after completion of blasting.
Don
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anybody mention the possibility that if the existing window is tempered, that sandblasting or etching could thin the hardened layer to the point where any random bump could shatter it.
Both etching and sandblasting can be done on tempered glass. The compressive layer produced by thermal tempering is approximately 25% of the thickness deep. So, for a quarter inch pane, you have at the very most a sixteenth of an inch to play with on either surface. Both processes stay well under that, so you're fine with either one.
Wayne: I have done a fair amount of tempered glass. As long as you don't do any more than the surface, you are safe. Yes, you have to go pretty deep to cause failure. I once grabbed a scrap out of my bin to do a practice carving on. Carved quite a while before it suddenly just disappeared from my hand. No sound, no feeling - just an empty hand and a pile of hex shaped scrap in the bottom of the cabinet. I'd forgotten that I had some tempered scrap in there.
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
I wondered about that too, but someone said it was okay to etch or sandblast tempered glass, so I thought I must be wrong.
You are right, Unc. Sandblasting tempered glass will result in a sudden fracture.
Most all the "etched" glass you see in door lites nowadays is done by silkscreening a UV-cured ink on the surface of the tempered glass.
Have you tried White silica sand for over all etching of large panels? I have done a few that way with very good results. And if they are standing upright you can see the pattern as you blast. I also blast four passes on the glass . horizontal ,verticle and then corner to corner .
don: never tried white silica. Mainly because it is too dangerous for the dust it creates. Secondly because it doesn't last very long - like one pass through my pressure pot. I get at least 5 passes from SiC. White is coarse as the Devil, however, and just might do it well. I use 220 grit SiC, and it leaves a satin finish on glass. The coarser white sand might do a more uniform job. Still the most difficult type etching to make a large area uniform.
DonThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
Right on both counts . I only use mine once' cause it is cheap and dusty. No sense in raising more dust than I have too. Alwasys wear a dust mask. I think that it would last up to three times but not worth the trouble.
I am only 15 miles from the US Silica mine. Easy access to cheap grit. I use what they call a #14
I have not used the fine grit that you have so that could be a big differance in the ease of a uniform finnish.
Is this seriously a big issue?
No one can likely see in during the day - There's more light outside than inside, so it would be difficult.
At night, how many people are going to be standing there peeping through your sidelights? And how many naked people will be parading down the hall? Isn't the bathroom door normally closed when someone is inside?
Not trying to be smart - I just don't see why it's a big deal....
Men forget everything. Women remember everything. That's why men need instant replays in sports. They've already forgotten what happened.
I once priced a job for a woman who wanted an etched glass panel to hide the toilet from sight while she stood at the bathroom sink or passed by in the hallway.