Commercial Glass
Commercial glass is often thicker. There is no real difference between home and business glass except that when dealing with storefronts usually the glass is thicker than in homes. The most common glass thickness we see is ¼” glass when it comes to businesses. Common commercial glass systems use aluminum framing with either single pane ¼ glass that’s annealed, tempered or laminated. For insulated glass in commercial settings, you’ll usually see ¼ glass with a ½ spacer sealing them together. This makes the units 1” thick where home units can range anywhere from 7/16 ot 15/16.
Residential Window Glass
Home window frames can vary a lot depending on what time they were put in and also in what type of materials are used to make the frames. Common types of frame material for homes can be wood, vinyl, fiberglass or aluminum are some of the ones we see most often. Residential glass thickness in many applications is 1/8 or Double Strength glass. For insulated dual-pane units in home windows, you’ll often see 1/8 glass with a spacer in between. For older single pane glass sometimes you’ll see single strength 1/16th. Residential glass can also come in annealed, tempered or laminated glass however laminated glass is pretty rare in residential window systems.
Home Patio and Sliding Doors
When it comes to home sliding doors compared to gliding storefront doors there are some big common differences. You won’t see the common size single or dual-pane tempered glass sliding doors in commercial or business settings. Many times the sliding doors you’ll see at stores or malls or shops use thick glass like 1/2 or 3/8 Tempered glass. This glass can be a lot more expensive than the thinner glass that most patio doors use. Patio door glass can be as thin as 1/8″ in many cases and sometimes in 3/16.
Commercial vs Residential glass replacement costs
The reason commercial glass replacement will often be more expensive than residential glass is mainly because of the thickness and size of the glass. Commercial glass replacements are often larger than average home windows however when you’re dealing with high-end custom houses this rule of thumb often isn’t true.
Turnaround times of home vs business glass
Turnaround times for insulated and custom tempered monolithic glass can range from 7-10 business days. The most custom the glass or larger the order the longer it can take. For basic home dual pane window glass sometimes the turnaround can be as quick as 3-4 days depending on how busy the glass manufacturers are. We use only the top glass manufacturers: Trulite, Glaztech, and Stadium for fast turnaround emergency units.
Getting a free quote for commercial and residential glass
Valleywide Glass can help you figure out what is required for your glass replacement. We are available via phone, email and text message. We always recommend potential clients have some approx. details about their glass, this will ensure they get fast and accurate quotes when they are dealing with the headache of broken glass. A few pictures can often be helpful also. For emergency service, this is definitely the best way to get fast glass service in Phoenix. Feel free to text pictures, approx. details and your information to our company cell phone at the top of the page.