A Glass Railing
When the view is worth preserving without any obstruction from pickets in a railing, glass is a great option. That was the case on this project in Mill Valley where the windows and views on the house were all about highlighting and preserving unobstructed views of the surrounding hills and Mount Tamalpais.
In 2012, this was a first for me. A waterproofed deck over living space. 3 walls below the deck are all glass so the supporting structure is steel and cantilevers out from the house. The top of the deck is supposed to be as near to flush with the interior floor as possible. The rail shoe (that’s what they call the piece that holds the glass) had to mount somehow to the structural beam so the problem was how to accomplish this and make it safe, resilient and waterproof.
If there was ever a job for Sketchup this was it. I had to anticipate lots of variables when planning this out. The railing shoe, the thickness of the decking, the size of the shade pocket and work this all out within the size requirements of the structural steel.
The 2 pictures below show an evolution of the design. In the first option the rail show would have needed to be attached directly to the top of the steel beam. This is problematic for several reasons but most importantly it’s not a good waterproofing option. Vertical penetrations over living space are not advisable if another solution can be worked out. This version also does not take into acount all of the wood necessary to support the fascia and metal cladding.
First pass
In the following option we decided to move the rail shoe inboard of the steel beams so that they could be fastened horizontally into the side of a solid piece of wood that got bolted down onto welded studs. In the event of a little leak, that horizontal bolt would not provide a direct path for the water to come directly into the house. This also allowed us to waterproof under the rail shoe so that if that horizontal bolt leaked a little bit, the water would flow onto the waterproofing and down through the deck drains.
Final pass at the design
From below it looks like the next picture. I don’t have any pictures of the construction in progress nor any pictures from the top but you get the idea here and you can see how the 3 sides of the deck have windows below. A tricky problem with an elegant solutions.
Final result