A harbour terrace, held by almost nothing.
A representative profile of this job type, drawn from work we do week to week. Photography and figures will be replaced with the finished project's own record.
The brief
A renovated harbourside home with a terrace that looks straight down the water. The owners wanted nothing between the sofa and the view: no top rail, no posts, no visible fixings. The certifier wanted a barrier that would hold a crowd load at a metre high over a six-metre drop. Both are reasonable; the job is making them the same balustrade.
The engineering
No top rail means every panel stands alone, so the glass is laminated: crack a pane and it stays in place, holding the line while it waits to be swapped. Wind load on an exposed terrace shapes the spec as much as the code does, so the panels and spigots are sized for gusts, not just leaning guests. Spigots are duplex stainless, core-drilled into the slab edge and set dead level, because a frameless run shows every millimetre of error.
The build
Templated on site, glass ordered to the measured openings, spigots set out with a laser and grouted plumb. The panels went in over two mornings; the balustrade reads as a faint line of light across the view. The certification paperwork went to the private certifier the same week, and passed without a return visit.