09 / 15 Facades and shopfronts
Curtain walls.
Glass walls hung off the floor slabs on aluminium mullions and transoms, for office and commercial buildings.
01What it is
Curtain walls, explained.
A curtain wall is an outer wall of glass and aluminium that carries its own weight and the wind, but not the building. It hangs off the edge of each floor slab on brackets.
It is built in one of two ways. A stick-built wall is assembled piece by piece on site, mullion by mullion. A unitised wall arrives as factory-made panels, each a storey high, that lock together as they are lifted in.
Where it suits
- Office blocks and showrooms
- Stair towers and atria
- Buildings that want a continuous glass face
02Choices you will make
What goes on the drawing.
Each of these is decided before anything is cut. If you are not sure, say so in the quote list and it will be talked through.
- Build
- Glass
- Look
03For a price
What to send us.
- The architect’s elevations and floor-to-floor heights
- The structural engineer’s wind load figures
- The slab edge details
The quote list
Pricing curtain walls? Send every size in one message.
List each opening, its width and height, how it should open, the glass and the finish. The quote list turns it into one tidy WhatsApp message, and it adds up the glass area as you go.