Curtain Walling

Curtain walling is a glazed wall hung on the outside of a building's structure. It carries its own weight and the wind load back to the floors, but does not hold the building up. Car showrooms, office receptions, new retail units and the front of many industrial buildings use it to get big areas of glass.

Shopfront or curtain wall?

A shopfront usually fills one storey between a floor and a beam. Curtain walling runs past floor edges and can cover several storeys, so it is designed differently, with more attention to wind, movement and fire between floors. On a single-storey front, either can work; we advise which suits your opening.

Stick or unitised

Most jobs we see use a stick system: mullions (upright bars) and transoms (cross bars) are fixed on site, then the glass is added. It suits low-rise buildings and awkward shapes. Unitised systems arrive as factory-made panels and suit larger, taller projects.

Design work comes first

Curtain walling must be designed for the wind load at that site, and fixed to a structure that can carry it. We work from the building drawings or the structural engineer's information, and the frame sizes are chosen to suit the spans and loads.

Glass and panels

Glass can be clear, tinted, solar-control or obscured. Solid insulated panels can fill areas such as floor edges where glass is not wanted. Doors and opening vents fit into the same grid.

Fire between floors

Where a curtain wall passes a floor slab, the gap behind it must be sealed with fire-stopping so fire and smoke cannot travel up behind the glass. We include this in the design and installation.

Testing and handover

On larger jobs, sections are water-tested on site. You receive drawings and product information for your building records.