Secondary Glazing for Commercial Buildings
Offices, hotels, schools, healthcare and listed commercial properties across South Yorkshire.
Acoustic, thermal & security performance — at scale
From boutique hotels in Harrogate to council-owned offices in Leeds and school estates in Bradford, our commercial team delivers fully project-managed installs with minimal disruption to your operation.
- Dedicated project manager for every contract
- Bulk pricing & framework agreements
- Out-of-hours & phased installation
- RIBA-stage technical support & CAD drawings
- Acoustic specification to BS EN ISO 717-1
- Compliant with Part L & Part Q building regulations
Sectors we serve
Offices & workplaces
Cut traffic and HVAC noise. Improve thermal comfort and reduce energy spend.
Hotels & hospitality
Guest-grade acoustic glazing. Phased install to keep rooms revenue-generating.
Education
Reduce playground & road noise. Compliant with BB93 acoustic guidance.
Healthcare
Quieter wards and consulting rooms with infection-control-friendly aluminium frames.
Heritage & listed
Heritage-officer-approved discreet aluminium frames in 200+ RAL colours.
Local authority
Framework-friendly. Bulk pricing for housing, libraries and civic buildings.
What "commercial secondary glazing" actually means
Commercial secondary glazing is a second, independently framed glazed panel installed room-side of an existing commercial window. It is the specified route when the primary window must stay — listed elevations, curtain-wall lease clauses, occupied buildings that cannot take a replacement programme — and when acoustic or thermal targets exceed what the existing glazing can deliver.
Typical commercial specifications we install: 6.4 mm laminated acoustic glass with a 100–200 mm cavity for Rw 45–52 dB on offices facing arterial roads; low-emissivity soft-coat glass with warm-edge spacer for U-values as low as 1.6 W/m²K on hotels and schools; laminated 11.5 mm on ground-floor retail and healthcare for LPS 1175 Issue 8 security ratings. Every scheme is quoted per opening against a measured survey — never per square metre.
We work with facilities managers, main contractors and architects directly. Programme delivery is phased around occupancy, out-of-hours where the building requires it, with dust-sheeted installations and a single point of contact from survey through to sign-off.
Commercial FAQs
Do you handle occupied-building installs?
Yes. The majority of our commercial installs are in live offices, hotels and schools. We phase by floor or wing, work evenings/weekends where required, and each opening is typically completed in under 90 minutes.
Can you meet BB93 for schools?
Yes. Our acoustic specs regularly achieve the Rw 40+ dB reduction that classrooms fronting arterial roads or railways need to bring internal ambient below the BB93 threshold.
Is secondary glazing accepted on listed commercial buildings?
It's usually the preferred solution because the original window is retained. Heritage-officer approval is normally granted first-time when frames are specified in a discreet finish and set back from the primary reveal.
How do you price commercial contracts?
Every opening is measured and quoted individually — we do not price per m². Framework and bulk-order pricing applies at 20+ openings.
Do you provide CAD drawings and NBS specification text?
Yes. RIBA-stage technical support includes typical details, section drawings and NBS-format specification clauses for tender packs.
The commercial case in one paragraph
Most commercial glazing problems are noise, heat loss, draught and glare, and most commercial buildings cannot solve them by replacing windows. Either the facade is listed, the building is leased and structural alteration is not permitted, the cost of scaffolding a five storey elevation is prohibitive, or the disruption of stripping windows out of an occupied floor is unacceptable. Secondary glazing addresses all four problems from inside, one room at a time, and can be removed at lease end.
Acoustic performance and noise reduction
Performance comes from three things: the mass of the room side glass, the depth of the cavity between the two windows, and the quality of the perimeter seal. A deep cavity of 100mm to 200mm, which most commercial reveals allow, does far more than any sealed double glazed unit can, because the wide air gap decouples the two panes. Acoustic laminated glass adds a damping interlayer that flattens the resonance where road and rail energy sits.
Thermal improvement and running costs
A single glazed commercial elevation loses heat continuously and drives perimeter overheating in summer and cold complaints in winter. Adding a sealed room side layer with Low E soft coat glass cuts conducted and radiated loss and removes the draught, which is often what staff actually complain about. On a leased building it is one of the few energy measures a tenant can install and take away again.
How work is phased around an occupied building
Every project is surveyed first and manufactured to template, so fitting is assembly rather than fabrication. Work is programmed floor by floor or room by room, usually out of hours, at weekends, in half terms or during low occupancy periods. There is no external access, no scaffolding and no need to strip out existing windows, so a room is normally back in use the same day. We provide RAMS, insurance documentation and DBS checked fitters where the site requires them.