# Glass thickness



## BeZaKa (Jul 26, 2013)

In the process of building a couple of large enclosures for BHP/Bredli. Can anyone recommend minimum glass thickness for the doors? (Doors will be approx. 2 feet/60cm tall by a little over 3 feet/90ish cm wide) Cheers.


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## J-A-X (Jul 26, 2013)

For me it's always a 5mm minimum. The bigger the area the stronger the glass needs to be. So you need to go thicker or go to laminated or toughened. 
For the size you mentioned 5mm should be fine


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## BeZaKa (Jul 26, 2013)

J-A-X said:


> For me it's always a 5mm minimum. The bigger the area the stronger the glass needs to be. So you need to go thicker or go to laminated or toughened.
> For the size you mentioned 5mm should be fine



Thanks, feedback appreciated. I wanted to er on the side of caution so may look up toughened glass, I don't want to go over kill but want more than the minimum. Thanks again J-A-X


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## Virides (Jul 26, 2013)

Toughened glass is weak on the edges (by comparison to the face). If you go to Clark Rubber ask for 3mm Black Foam Adhesive Strip. It is about 10mm wide with removable tape with a very sticky adhesive that will bond to almost anything and apparently to concrete. Apply this to the sides of your enclosure where the glass will contact at either end. This will dampen the shock of hitting the enclosure when you close/open the panels.


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## thomasssss (Jul 26, 2013)

Virides said:


> Toughened glass is weak on the edges (by comparison to the face)..


all glass is weak at its edges :?, not to sure but i would think that toughened was the stronger out of the three particularly on its edges , i know when i was a glazier i was able to be a hell of alot rougher with toughened than i ever would of dared to try with float or lam


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## Hamalicious (Jul 26, 2013)

I use either 4mm or 5mm float glass and i've never had a problem. Most of my enclosure doors are between 400mm and 600mm wide/tall.


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## junglepython2 (Jul 26, 2013)

I mainly use 4mm, some pieces over a metre long. Housed adult olives and womas that often strike the glass and I've had no dramas.


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## Virides (Jul 26, 2013)

thomasssss said:


> all glass is weak at its edges :?, not to sure but i would think that toughened was the stronger out of the three particularly on its edges , i know when i was a glazier i was able to be a hell of alot rougher with toughened than i ever would of dared to try with float or lam



Toughened glass is about 3x as strong as float on the face and the edges. But toughened glass is under constant strain at a molecular level and in some circumstances can explode without any impacts. And so because of this, having the foam located at the impact edge, will help prolong the life of the panel. All glass, tempered or not, has to be treated carefully and the foam just adds some care to the panel


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## Jacknife (Jul 27, 2013)

I use toughened 5mm on all my builds, from 2x2x2's all the way up to 6x6x2's...
At 6'x6' panels start to get a little heavy


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## wokka (Jul 27, 2013)

I have some 6.8mm cracked laminated on my Olive and BHP enclosures. It has been that way for years. I dont know how 5mm float would last with a pair of snakes totaling say 15 kilos hitting it!


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## J-A-X (Jul 27, 2013)

wokka said:


> I have some 6.8mm cracked laminated on my Olive and BHP enclosures. It has been that way for years. I dont know how 5mm float would last with a pair of snakes totaling say 15 kilos hitting it!



While I only have a 9ft coastal that could do that sort of damage it's exactly the reason I went for laminate on his enclosure. Combined with the fact the glass is at floor level and in a main living area of the house that often has visiting kids under the age of 5 (we all know how quick they forget house rules of 'rough /ball play goes outside' )


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## thomasssss (Jul 27, 2013)

wokka said:


> I have some 6.8mm cracked laminated on my Olive and BHP enclosures. It has been that way for years. I dont know how 5mm float would last with a pair of snakes totaling say 15 kilos hitting it!


amen to that , i dont want to go into it again as i have done so in many threads but as a former glazier i cant believe people use float glass in enclosures using sliding glass tracks 

it comes down to harm minimisation , we do it in every other aspect of our husbandry ( ie by not live feeding , keeping temps optimal by using thermostats and monitoring them with thermometers etc etc ) yet when it comes to DIY it seems to be ignored in alot of cases

JAX- im not totally sure but i think you will find that by australian standards ( or atleast NSW) any window that is at ground level must use either laminated glass or toughened


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## J-A-X (Jul 27, 2013)

thomasssss said:


> JAX- im not totally sure but i think you will find that by australian standards ( or atleast NSW) any window that is at ground level must use either laminated glass or toughened



It's 'law' in SA too for any fixed window (house window) but not sure on furniture (entertainment units, display cabinets etc) but I was erring on the safe side. 
My banks of enclosures all have 5mm float but they're in a separate room that gets locked when visitors come with children


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