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DIY glass floor

This post explores "DIY glass floor", one of the most appealing and unique elements for any home's interior design. This flooring option offers an eye-catching finish, creating an artistic style, while also working to open up a room and add depth. DIY glass floor installation ensures that the process is simplified with a minimal weight load, and is more durable in comparison to other flooring materials. This specific design element can offer a sense of grandeur for a room, with its sleek and clean finish that will allow light to reflect through the glass.

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The article describes the technology of glass flooring. You will learn about laminated glass – how it is produced and used in modern interiors. The article provides step-by-step instructions with a video for installing a glass niche with your own hands.

DIY glass floor

For hundreds of years, glass has not lost its popularity due to its unique properties – hardness, chemical resistance and transparency. At first, only window rails, decorations and mirrors were made from it. With the development of industry, high-strength, ultra-transparent, tinted and many other types of glass began to appear.

What is glass made of

All translucent products are created from two materials that are fundamentally different in composition and origin..

Silicate.This is exactly what we used to think of as glass. The raw material for it is melted quartz sand. Products are hard, brittle, but gain strength at considerable thickness.

Organic.Made from acrylic polymer since 1928. Products are much stronger and lighter than silicate ones, but they are not resistant to chemicals.

Both types are relevant, have an impressive track record of advantages and are constantly competing with each other. With regard to the glass floor, they are almost equal, occupying different niches. Next, we will consider which positions are optimal for these varieties..

How can floor glass be used

There are several options for a glass floor – the glass itself can be applied in different ways and the final result depends on this..

Glass tiles

This is the easiest way to add glass to your floor. Such tiles are manufactured in a factory way – a ceramic plate with a pattern-substrate and a contact surface is fused onto the outer layer of glass 3-5 mm thick. That is, two tiles are connected, as it were – an outer and an inner.

DIY glass floor

Plexiglas is also used for typical tiles, but more often for walls than for floors.

Laying such a tile is no different from cladding with ordinary tiles, it can be glued to the floor and walls. Actually, the result is the same – the outlines of the tiles are immediately guessed..

Advantages:

  1. Standard elements and familiar technology.
  2. Tiles are available for free sale and to order.
  3. You can create a photopanel with a single pattern.

Disadvantages:

  1. Lack of uniqueness – the exclusive pattern of the tile itself does not get rid of the typical recognizable seams and joints.
  2. Taunt.

Factory glass tiles, on the one hand, are exclusive, and on the other, a mass-type product.

Glass plate

This term refers to a full-fledged transparent plate. It is made from triplex, a multilayer material that was discovered by French chemist Edouard Benedictus about 100 years ago. All the uniqueness of triplex in a special transparent film that glues layers of glass under vacuum. It works like a reinforcement, holding stress against shock and stress. Typically, silicate glass cannot bend and break. Glass, connected in layers through a film, acquires high resistance to vibration, deflection, shock and other loads.

DIY glass floor

The strength of triplex is high – with three-layer gluing and a thickness of each sheet of 10 mm, it can withstand a load of up to 0.1 kg / cm2. One square meter holds up to 1000 kg. Further actions with the slab are limited only by the customer’s imagination – the material is as strong as plywood, which means it can be used as part of the supporting structure. Cost 1 m2 triplex 20 mm without pattern – about 50 cu e.

DIY glass floor

Floor – showcase or niche with your own hands

The triplex board can be laid on logs, like plywood or OSB. This does not require additional gaskets. A reliable base allows you to make a support spacing of 600-800 mm for a three-layer slab and 1 m for a four-layer.

Training. The niche support frame is best made of a 60×40 profile pipe or a stained oak bar. Cell sizes:

  • with a triplex thickness of 20 mm (2 layers) – 600×600 mm (maximum);
  • with a thickness of 30 mm or more (3 layers) – 1×1 m.

The design of the frame, like the shape of the glass plates, can be different – from an ordinary rectangle to a curly stained glass.

DIY glass floor

Working process

1. A niche should be created at the stage of overhaul of the floor – it needs to be cleaned to the slab and screeds should be made – roughing, finishing and leveling.

2. In order to create a real three-dimensional floor, you first need to determine the location of the niche (“showcase”). Usually the central area is chosen – at the intersection of the diagonals of the free space of the room.

3. Since it is impossible to drive a niche into the floor slab, raise the frame. To do this, mark the perimeter of the niche and attach the UD-28 profile, or a corner or profile of the required height to the floor. We fill the resulting space with a screed – this will create a niche step.

Attention! The level of the tread screed must be equal to: frame edge height plus glass thickness minus flooring thickness minus adhesive layer (2-3 mm) minus plywood thickness (15 mm). In this case, the height of the niche space will be equal to the height of the frame rib, and the entire floor will be flush along the plane.

4. We fill the framing space with the screed mixture. It is advisable to use a laser level.

Attention! Remember to lay a damping layer under the wall.

5. On the step screed (after hardening) we attach the plywood with a gap of 10 mm with a 60 mm “quick installation” dowel. We cover the contact plane of the plywood and the screed with construction glue (Homakoll, Kiilto, Hercules, KS) for a 2–3 mm comb. Fill the gap with a non-shrinking rubber sealant. How to properly fix plywood, read here.

6. Before installing the frame, cover the contact plane with sealant – this will neutralize the slightest distortions of the screed and frame. The space between the frame and the step is also filled with a sealant (colorless, non-shrinking).

7. Decoration of the inner space of the niche. Here you need to follow the original design project – paint, structure and refine the visible parts of the niche bottom. If backlighting is provided, the LED strips are glued and tested at this stage. Wires can be routed in gaps in plywood sheets.

8. Then on the frame you need to stick double-sided tape in 3-4 layers and lay the fragments of the triplex. Fill the gap between the plates and the step with transparent sealant.

9. The framing of the niche can be finished with any material that must be selected in advance – the level of the screed height depends on its thickness.

Glass Floor Showcase – Step by Step Video

Triplex slabs on the floor can be applied in simpler ways. For example, lay it on a pre-prepared flat surface without a niche, and arrange LED lighting around the perimeter of the joints. Given today’s variety of glass décor, the result can be stunningly beautiful..

Glass decor options:

  1. Completely transparent without decoration. This option does not carry a drawing, but allows you to view decorations on a substrate, which can even be 3D.
  2. Relief. Such glass is more often used for walls; on the floor it can be found in saunas, baths or on serial glass tiles..
  3. Drawing by sandblasting machine. Allows you to select a computer-specified drawing – a pattern, monogram, specific shapes, letters, logos. Only the outlines are visible on the glass.
  4. Mirror with a picture. Transparent parts are mirrored.
  5. Photo printing. This is a complex and expensive technology that allows you to make bright color patterns on glass..

Those who like to surprise their guests will love the idea of ​​laying triplex slabs directly on the logs. At the same time, the lower floor is visible and a fantastic floating effect is created..

DIY glass floor

Any piece of interior and decoration can be made from triplex – stair steps, cabinet doors, ceiling, walls, furniture. It all depends on the design of the room. Unfortunately, for its processing – cutting, cutting, grinding – special expensive tools and machines are required. Therefore, to create triplex slabs of the required size, you will have to contact the company, but everything else can be done independently.

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Comments: 2
  1. Tatum

    How can I safely and effectively create a DIY glass floor? What materials should I use and what steps should I follow to ensure a sturdy and visually appealing result?

    Reply
  2. Penelope Hayes

    Can you share any tips or recommendations for installing a DIY glass floor? I’m interested in adding a unique feature to my home and would love to know more about the process, potential challenges, and any safety considerations involved.

    Reply
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