Need help with glass blocks?
Question:want to make a window of nine glass blocks, 3 high and 3 wide. since there is not a lot of weight, would silicone be sufficient to use as the medium for connecting as opposed to mortar?
Answers:
Without knowing your source for the blocks, there are framing sections/tracks, sold, usually, that help set and separate them, as well as very specific mortars and caulks strictly for the purpose.
The weight would be less an issue if you use the hardware available, as long as the wall/walls surrounding the 3 x 3 are adequate to support and hold the blocks. Certainly you may have to frame IN and OUT of the "window" adjusting for any difference in block and wall thickness.
Steven Wolf
Siliuocne is a pig, it gets all over the blocks, and is almost impossible to clean up.
get yourself a pack of those spacer clips, and use mortar, its much easier. I have installed, 20-30 glass block windows, the
1st one I ever did was with silicone, what a mess.
Not really. Silicone is a selant and would never meet any code. In fact without mortar (S type) I would discourage you from using glass block at all.
I did just what you are suggesting. A window three blocks by eight blocks. I've been very satisfied with the results. I dry stacked the glass block then caulked the seams with clear silicone. The joints are invisible against the glass background. If you clean the block properly with something like lacquer thinner, silicone will be a very strong bond. Perhaps not as strong as mortar, but then again how would one really know? I would caution, if your ability to use a caulking gun is suspect, you could have a mess.
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