Glass Deck Railing Hardware: Base Shoe, Spigots, Clamps and Cap Rail

This guide is written for deck builders, glaziers and distributors in the United States and Canada who are sourcing glass railing hardware. Prince Railing manufactures it in Rajkot, India and can export it, but our catalogue uses Indian and British trade names. The first job is translating the terms.

One thing first: guard height, design load and the glass that is permitted are set by your local code, which is based on the IRC or IBC in the US and the National Building Code in Canada, as adopted and amended where you build. Nothing here replaces that. Confirm every requirement with your engineer or building official before ordering.

North American terms and our catalogue names

A note on the names: several of our base-shoe products have "continuous bracket" in the title. They are channels, not individual clamps.

Base shoe vs spigot

A base shoe supports the glass along its full length, so the load is spread over the whole run and into many anchors. That is why the deeper profiles are the ones listed for taller and thicker glass. The shoe needs a straight, level surface, and on an open deck it can dam water unless drainage is detailed. More on the system is in our aluminium profile guide.

Spigots lift the glass clear of the deck on two or more short posts per panel. Water, leaves and snow melt pass underneath, which is why they are the usual choice around pools. The trade-off is that the whole panel load goes through a few small footprints, so the structure under each one has to be right. See the spigot railing guide for core-drilled and base-plate versions.

Glass clamps and brackets

Clamp brackets grip the pane at set points and bolt to the deck surface, a wall or the fascia. They use the least metal per foot, and one panel can be taken out by undoing its own clamps. Our range is listed for 12 mm (about 1/2 in) toughened glass, which North American suppliers call tempered glass. The shapes are compared in glass railing bracket types.

Standoff glass railing

A standoff is a round barrel that passes through a hole drilled in the glass and holds the panel off the face of the rim or stair stringer. Prince Railing does not list a standoff in its catalogue. The closest product for a fascia-mounted deck edge is the Side Mount profile, listed for 12 mm glass, which holds the pane outside the deck without any holes in the glass.

Dimensions in mm and inches

• 12 mm glass is about 1/2 in. Most of our profiles, brackets and the side mount are listed for this thickness.
• 17.5 mm laminated glass is about 11/16 in: two 8 mm plies and an interlayer. Selected profiles take it, and one takes up to 25 mm (about 1 in). The build-ups are in our laminated glass thickness chart.
• Supported glass heights are listed as 3 ft, 3.5 ft and 4 ft depending on the profile: 36, 42 and 48 in, or about 915, 1,065 and 1,220 mm.
• Base shoe lengths are 12 ft and 16 ft (about 3.66 m and 4.88 m), depending on the section.

Hardware slots are metric. Nominal 1/2 in tempered glass is usually compatible with 12 mm hardware, but glass thickness tolerances differ between suppliers, so send us the actual thickness from your glass fabricator. Whether tempered or laminated glass is required, and whether a cap rail is required, depends on your code.

Fixing to wood and composite decks

In India, where we manufacture, railings are mostly fixed to concrete. Wood framing needs more thought, because a glass guard works as a lever and a deck board cannot resist it.

• Fix into framing, not decking. Composite and wood deck boards are a walking surface. Hardware has to bear on and fasten into joists, beams or solid blocking.
• Add blocking. Solid blocking between joists under a base shoe or under each spigot gives the fasteners full-depth wood and spreads the load into the frame.
• Through-bolt where you can. A bolt with a washer or backing plate on the far side holds far better against prying than a screw in end grain. A rim joist usually needs to be tied back into the joists before it can carry a fascia-mounted guard.
• Isolate aluminium from treated lumber. Copper-based wood preservatives corrode aluminium and plain steel. Use a barrier membrane under the shoe and stainless fasteners.
• Get an engineer's detail. The fastener size, spacing and blocking layout should come from an engineer or from a tested assembly your building official accepts. We supply hardware and its listed dimensions; we do not supply a code approval for your deck.

Fixing to concrete

On a concrete balcony, pool surround or slab, the hardware is fixed with mechanical or adhesive anchors, and the anchor's edge distance and embedment govern. Core-drilled spigots need concrete. Waterproofed decks are better served by base-plate fixings that do not breach the membrane. The principles are in our anchors and fixings guide.

SS 316 for coastal and pool decks

Salt air and pool water attack stainless steel through chlorides. SS 304 suits inland and sheltered decks. For oceanfront property, docks and pool decks, specify SS 316 for the stainless parts and fasteners; the reasoning is in SS 304 vs 316 and in our pool fencing guide. When the shipment arrives, the grade can be verified with the methods in how to identify stainless grades.

Ordering from North America

Send the run lengths, the mounting surface, the guard height your code requires, the glass thickness and whether the site is coastal. We will tell you which profiles are listed for that height and thickness. Packing, documents and shipping terms are covered in our exporting guide, and country-specific export pages are linked from our export page.