Glass balconies/balustrades - would you recommend?

[morelippy]

Thinking about these to make a raised patio safer, but am more than a little concerned about them looking awful unless I'm constantly cleaning them (which won't happen)

Does anyone have them and could either reassure me or stop me making a decision I'll regret?

I’m wondering about this too. I’m dithering between glass (but cleaning, as you say….), or white-painted metal which might look a bit fresher than classic black.

@YallaYallaaa I don't want lots of painting to renew either.. my other idea is wire. Have you thought of that?

I have glass up to my front door, I just hose it down occasionally. It’s no problem

A couple of my neighbours have glass instead of balcony rails and they look great. No idea how often they clean them, though.

Pictures

We have glass - not too much hassle to clean but have found a couple of dead birds nearby since having it installed...think they must've flown straight into it 😢 not something I had considered when choosing glass

You can ask for a coating to be applied to the glass that makes cleaning it easier

@morelippy I did think about wire, but I wonder if it looks a bit industrial?

@mamaca weirdly I had read about the bird thing! You can get (reasonably attractive) stickers with bird silhouettes on them, which apparently make them notice it more.

I get birds flying into my bifold doors I’m not sure there’s much you can do about it. I think it depends on how your house is situated

I've got glass balustrades on my raised patio. Been in two years and I haven't cleaned it yet! It's got self cleaning glass, which seems to work.

It came with silver fixings/poles which I don't like and I would like to update at some point.

Yes @YallaYallaaa I agree wire might be a bit industrial but I don't want to block 'the view'.

Good to hear no one is finding them a pain to keep clean.. I hadn't actually thought how much easier they'd be able to clean being outside so a hose and a big squeegee might be the answer

We just had wired fitted (about 2 months ago) and I’m very pleased with it. We considered glass but for the length we needed (12m) it was thousands more and when chatting with the landscape chaos (not the landscape gardener!) they agreed that cleaning would be a faff.

Before we had full metal which did look a little industrial but I’m delighted with the new balustrade

I’ve hosed these down twice in 12years!

Ditto

Somehow they do just stay clean

how dirty they get can depend on how close you are to polluting traffic. We lives near a busy dual carriageway once, and all the flats had these. They used to get filthy with black grime, I’d be cleaning them every six months.

they’d have stayed clean but for that.