Compliant Glass Railing Panels for deck railing in Ontario

by John
(London, ON)

Wondering if there are minimum performance specs to be code compliant for glass panels surrounding a deck. I am in Ontario. The deck railing will be 36" high. I have tempered glass panels which measure 8" wide by 34" by 1/4" thick...really hoping these are acceptable.

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Editor's Comments

This is a great question and the answer is yes there are minimum standards for glass panels in railing systems.

For certain you need tempered safety glass and 3/8" thick will be a sufficient thickness. Since you are in Ontario, I grabbed a copy the particular code. After taking a read of the Ontario residential building code, Section 9.8.8.7 Glass in Guards I found the following:

Safety glass or tempered glass conforming to CAN/CGSB-12.1-M, "Tempered or Laminated Safety Glass is required.

You could also use wired safety glass but that is not what anyone uses for deck railings. The present version of the code I read made no mention of whether or not 1/4" glass panels would suffice. They may well though.

So the long and short of this is you will have to find a copy of the document referred to in order to get the final details.