Choosing the Right Glass for Your Fireplace

Most people find themselves mesmerized as they stare into the flames of a fire, watching them dance and enjoying the extra warmth. This seems to be a simple pleasure for people who have a fireplace or woodstove in their homes, but there’s more than meets the eye to enjoying the view of a beautiful fire—and it involves the glass used on the fireplace or stove.

You might think the glass for fireplaces is standard, but if you’re looking to install or replace glass for yours, you’ll find that you need to purchase custom glass in Minneapolis, MN. The type of glass you need will depend on the type of fireplace or woodstove you have, so read on for some helpful information based on the three main types.

Regular wood fireplace doors

If you have a standard wood fireplace in your house, you’ll want to use tempered glass, which is simply regular glass that’s been heat-treated so that it will stand up to higher temperatures and break differently.

The breakage style is important, as it relates to physical safety. If you have tempered glass, it will break into small bits, and it will also usually fragment. Regular glass, in contrast, will break into long shards or splinters, which are much more dangerous.

How do you prevent breakage at all? First, make sure that your glass doors are at least four inches away from the front of the grate. If your tempered glass comes into direct contact with flames, it will break. Otherwise, you should be fine, as tempered glass has a thermal shock rating of 400 degrees, meaning that if the temperature rises faster than 400 degrees in a short period, the glass can break. Because most fires take a while to gain heat, tempered glass works perfectly for the doors.

Woodstove doors or inserts

Tempered glass might seem great, but it will not work for a woodstove door or insert, mainly because woodstoves produce extremely high temperatures. In fact, heat inside a woodstove can reach up to 1100 or 1200 degrees, which regular and tempered glass cannot handle. What woodstoves need is ceramic glass, a material that’s not actually a glass but a clear ceramic material that allows you to see the beautiful flames and not worry about any issues with glass shattering.

Now that you know what you’ll need, you’ll want to find the best company to help you with your custom fireplace glass in Minneapolis, MN. And if you’re in need, Custom Glass & Screen can help! With over 40 years in the custom glass business, our exceptional staff have the experience to ensure that your project will look great and keep you safe.

Whether you need repairs or new installations, Custom Glass & Screen can get the job done. On top of fireplace doors, we can assist with glass and screens for windows, doors, showers, mirrors, tabletops and shelving—and that’s only a partial list of what we offer. Call us today to find out more!

Categorised in: Custom Glass, Fireplace Glass

This post was written by Writer