Interactive 3D Office Glass Partition Designer
Lay out a glass office wall in 3D and see it before the fit-out starts.
- Rotatable 3D partition run
- Panel schedule and weights
- Acoustic and deflection notes
Live 3D model
4 lites · 1/2 inAnimating — drag to take control and check the arc.
Lites
4
single glazed
Glass area
160.6 sq ft
Heaviest lite
217 lb
3-person set
Field STC
~31
Lab 38
Engineering checks
4 issuesGlass span and deflection
The tallest lite is 107". At 1/2 in it deflects 0.55 in at mid-height under the 5 psf lateral load IBC applies to interior partitions; the L/175 serviceability limit here is 0.61 in. This build-up runs unbraced to about 111 in.
Head deflection allowance
Steel deck / open web joists above. Budget 1.00 in of live-load movement. The standard 1 in head channel leaves 0.50 in of travel over the glass after the bite. The worst case. Joists move under office live load.
Fix: Specify a deep deflection head channel and set the glass with the full allowance above it. Glass pinched by a moving deck breaks weeks after handover, and it always breaks at night.
Panel handling
Heaviest lite is 217 lb at 45" by 107". 3-person set, glass dolly plus vacuum lifter. Three-person set. Path must be cleared first.
Fix: Over 200 lb the set needs a powered vacuum lifter and a cleared path from the dock. Price a night or weekend shift, or split the run with an extra vertical joint.
Freight route clearance
Longest panel dimension is 107". Panels travel on edge, so the controlling number is the tightest turn, lift car diagonal or door on the route — you gave 84".
Fix: Add a vertical joint to shorten the panels, book the freight car with the rails out, or plan an exterior hoist. This is the single most common reason a partition sits on a truck.
Safety glazing (IBC 2406)
Every lite here is a hazardous location under IBC 2406.4.3 — over 9 sq ft exposed, bottom edge under 60 in, top edge over 36 in, within 36 in of a walking surface. All glass is fully tempered or laminated with a permanent etched bug in a bottom corner. Door glazing is a hazardous location under 2406.4.1 regardless of size.
Walk-into hazard
The glass is marked — two etched bands at 40 in and 60 in above the floor. That is the height range that catches both a seated eye line and a standing one.
Speech privacy
Lab STC 38 for this build-up. Expect about STC 31 installed. Your target is normal privacy — raised voices muffled (STC 38).
Fix: Take the wall full height to the deck with a plenum barrier, add perimeter and door seals, and move to the double-glazed system with two different lite thicknesses. Matched lites resonate together and give away 3 to 4 points.
Door clear width and ADA
Single swing gives about 34.3 in clear, measured from the face of the leaf at 90 degrees to the opposite stop. ADA 404.2.3 needs 32 in. Interior doors also need to open with 5 lbf or less (ADA 404.2.9), hardware between 34 and 48 in above the floor, and 18 in of latch-side clearance on the pull side.
Resolve these before the glass is cut
Tempered glass cannot be trimmed on site. Everything flagged here is free to change now and costs a new panel later.Panel schedule
| Lite 145" x 107" · 1/2 in tempered | 217 lb |
| Lite 245" x 107" · 1/2 in tempered | 217 lb |
| Lite 345" x 107" · 1/2 in tempered | 217 lb |
| Lite 445" x 107" · 1/2 in tempered | 217 lb |
| Transom over door36" x 23 1/2" · 1/2 in tempered | 38 lb |
| Door leaf 136" x 83 3/4" · 1/2 in tempered, polished edges | 136 lb |
| Head and floor channelMatte black, 216" run | 18 lf |
| Fabrication bandFrom approved shop drawings and a field template | 3–5 weeks |
| Total glass | 160.6 sq ft · 1042 lb |
Sizes come from the dimensions you entered with standard fabrication allowances — half an inch into the floor channel, half an inch into the head, and a silicone joint between lites. It is a planning schedule, not a cut list. We field-template the finished opening before anything is ordered, because tempered glass cannot be adjusted afterwards.
Next step
Send us the wall you just built
Every lite size, the head condition, the acoustic target and all the checks travel with the message. We template against it and come back with a firm number and a lead time.
Butt-glazed frameless glass wall, 216" by 108", 1/2 in clear tempered, single swing door
- System
- Butt-glazed frameless
- Run
- 216" long by 108" tall
- Ceiling
- 108" — partition runs to the structure
- Glass
- 1/2 in Clear tempered
- Door
- Single swing, 36" opening, 84" leaf
- Hinge side
- Left
- Hardware finish
- Matte black
- Options
- Manifestation banding
- Lite 1
- 45" x 107" · 217 lb
- Lite 2
- 45" x 107" · 217 lb
- Lite 3
- 45" x 107" · 217 lb
- Lite 4
- 45" x 107" · 217 lb
- Transom
- 36" x 23 1/2" · 38 lb
- Leaf 1
- 36" x 83 3/4" · 136 lb
- Glass area
- 160.6 sq ft
- Total glass weight
- 1042 lb
- Heaviest single lite
- 217 lb · 3-person set
- Structure above
- Steel deck / open web joists
- Head detail
- Standard 1 in head channel
- Freight route clear
- 84"
- Acoustic target
- Normal privacy — raised voices muffled
- Expected field STC
- About 31 (lab 38)
- Fabrication band
- 3–5 weeks
- Checks failing
- Head deflection allowance, Panel handling, Freight route clearance, Speech privacy
Text it to us
Opens your messages app, already written
Email it to us
Opens your mail app with the full spec
Call and read it out
(703) 470-7867 · 24/7 Emergency Service
The glass is the easy part
Every glass partition looks the same in a rendering. The difference between a wall that still looks right in year five and one that has a cracked lite by month three is entirely in the details you cannot see: what happens at the head, how flat the slab is, and how the panels got to the floor.
The head is where partitions fail
A steel deck with open web joists moves under office live load — up to an inch across a long bay. If the glass is set tight to that deck, the deck eventually leans on it and the panel breaks, usually at night and usually months after handover. The fix is a deflection head channel deep enough that the structure can move its full design amount without ever touching the glass, plus a slip connection so the head can travel. It costs almost nothing at design stage and it is the reason we ask what is above the ceiling before we ask anything about the glass.
Acoustics are decided above the ceiling
Clients ask for a quiet glass wall and then run it to the ceiling grid. Sound does not care: it goes straight over the top through the plenum and lands in the next room. A single-glazed wall taken to the deck with a plenum barrier and sealed at every edge outperforms a double-glazed wall that stops at the tile. If you need genuine confidential privacy, you need the wall full height, two lites of different thickness so they do not resonate in sympathy, seals on all four sides, and a door with a drop seal — and even then a sliding leaf will cap you around STC 29, because a barn door has no way to seal.
How a 96 inch panel gets to the 14th floor
Panels travel on edge in a crate. The controlling dimension is the tightest turn on the route — usually the freight car diagonal, sometimes a stair return, occasionally a fire door someone forgot about. When the panels do not fit, the options are an extra vertical joint in the wall, taking the rails out of the lift car, or an exterior hoist and a street closure. All three are cheap decisions during shop drawings and expensive discoveries on delivery morning.
Why there is no price here
Two identical 18 foot runs can land far apart once you account for the head condition, whether the floor needs levelling, whether the work is after hours behind a dust wall, and how the glass reaches the floor. We would rather hand you an exact specification and quote it honestly than publish a number we have to walk back on site.
- Deflection head. Ask what is above the ceiling before you ask about glass.
- Floor flatness. Butt-glazed runs show a sloping floor mercilessly. Framed systems hide about 1/4 inch across a bay.
- Manifestation. Two bands at seated and standing eye height. Not a code requirement here, but a claim waiting to happen without it.
- Churn. If the floor plan changes every lease cycle, demountable pays for itself on the second move.
Questions people ask
Because the glass is the cheap part of the decision. What moves a partition budget is the head condition, whether the deck above moves, how flat the slab is, whether the run can be delivered in one piece or has to be jointed to fit the freight car, and whether the work happens during business hours or at 11pm behind a dust wall. None of that is visible in a configurator. You get a specification instead — panel schedule, weights, acoustic expectation and the code checks — which is exactly what a real quote is built from.
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