Secondary Glazing for Offices

The problem in an office is peaks, not averages

Staff rarely complain about a steady background hum. They complain about the bus pulling away, the siren, the train, the delivery reversing outside the meeting room. Those peaks break concentration and force calls to be repeated. Adding mass and a sealed cavity to the window wall knocks the top off those peaks, which is the change people actually notice on the floor.

Specification that suits office use

Horizontal sliders suit most commercial casement and curtain wall openings because they clear easily for cleaning and airflow. Fixed panels give the best seal in meeting rooms and boardrooms where nothing needs to open. Acoustic laminated glass room side, deliberately mismatched against the existing pane thickness, plus the deepest cavity the reveal allows, is the standard acoustic recipe.

• Sliders on general floor plate openings
• Fixed panels in meeting and board rooms
• Acoustic laminated up to 6.8mm
• Low E glass where cold complaints dominate

Cold, draught and perimeter comfort

Perimeter desks near single glazing are cold in winter regardless of what the thermostat says, because of radiant loss to the glass and the draught running down it. Staff respond with heaters under desks, which distorts the whole zone. A sealed secondary layer with Low E glass raises the internal surface temperature and removes the down draught, which usually settles the complaints without touching the heating system.

Lease friendly and reversible

Tenants can rarely alter a facade, and landlords rarely fund window replacement mid lease. Secondary glazing is fixed to internal reveals only, needs no external access, and can be unscrewed at lease end with make good limited to fixing holes. That combination is why it passes landlord consent when other options do not.

• No facade alteration
• No scaffolding or external access
• Removable at lease end
• Suits listed and leased town centre offices

Fitting around a working floor

We survey and template first, so fitting is assembly rather than fabrication and dust is minimal. Work is programmed by zone, usually evenings, weekends or during a floor move, with desks sheeted and cleared as required. Most zones are handed back the same day. RAMS, public liability documentation and site inductions are standard, and we can work to a client's permit to work system.

Where secondary glazing will not fix it

If the noise is coming through a lightweight spandrel panel, a poorly sealed curtain wall joint, the ventilation grilles or the ceiling void from the floor above, glazing alone will not solve it. We will say so at survey rather than sell panels that cannot deliver, and we are happy to work alongside an acoustic consultant's report.