In-depth guide
A glass door is still a door when it runs wall to wall
The heritage /wall-to-wall-doors/ path stays. Internal frameless doors are an AS 1288 assembly in B1D4 and a human-impact door in 8.4.2.
At a glance
The useful facts before the deep dive
Wall-to-wall glass doors are how open plans stay closable. They are also how people walk into a pane they never saw. This page keeps the heritage URL and attaches the two sentences that matter: B1D4 for the standard, 8.4.2 for the door.
Internal versus external
An internal frameless door is not in an external wall. B1D4 sends it to AS 1288. An external framed sliding or swinging door goes to AS 2047. An external frameless sliding or swinging door goes to AS 1288. Write which one you have.
The 10 mm sentence
8.4.2 says unframed doors, other than those incorporated in shower screens or bath enclosures, must be glazed with toughened safety glass with a minimum nominal thickness of 10 mm or laminated toughened safety glass with a minimum total thickness of 10 mm. A 6 mm shower leftover is the wrong object in a hallway. Framed glass doors follow Table 8.4.2 instead.
Visibility
A wall-to-wall pane is what 8.4.4 worries about: a panel capable of being mistaken for an opening. If it is not made apparent, 8.4.7 wants an opaque band at least 20 mm high between 700 mm and 1.2 m unless a listed exception applies. Design the band. Frost can help and still fail the geometry.
Tracks, pivots and cavities
Cavity sliders need a pocket that can take the weight. Surface sliders need a head that will not sag. Pivots need a floor that can take a closer. Mirrored wall-to-wall doors are still doors — see mirrors. Acoustic claims are not numbers we will invent. Measure three widths and two heights, then ask for the 8.4.8 mark.
Common mix-ups on wall-to-wall glass doors
- Reusing 6 mm shower glass in a hallway.
- Calling an internal frameless door AS 2047.
- Skipping a visibility band.
None of those mix-ups are solved by a nicer render. They are solved by naming a clause.
Questions to put on the drawing
- Internal or external, framed or frameless.
- 8.4.2 path and thickness.
- 8.4.7 marking.
- Floor and head structure.
If the practitioner cannot answer those in writing, you do not yet have a specification for wall-to-wall glass doors. You have a conversation.
Sources this page is allowed to lean on
Public pages only: Housing Provisions 8.4, Housing Provisions 11.3 when a fall is involved, Volume One B1D4 when the assembly type is in dispute, AS 1288:2021 as described by Standards Australia, and the NCC referenced documents for the AS/NZS 1170 series. We do not invent a thickness for a “normal” house.
The windows hub is the map.
This URL is on purpose. The archive already taught people to look here. The sentences are new. The footer disclaimer still applies: general information, not professional advice, and other people’s marks stay other people’s marks.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (1)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (2)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (3)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (4)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (5)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (6)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (7)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Reading order for Wall-to-wall glass doors (8)
Read the matching hub first if you arrived here cold. Then read this page for the noun in the URL. Then open safety standards and keep it beside the drawing. Then write the clause on the request for quote. Then let a licensed practitioner correct you. That loop is the method of this rebuild, and it is the only way Wall-to-wall glass doors stays honest.
If you are writing a trades or home guest post, cite the ABCB or Standards Australia URL, not a memory of this paragraph. If you are a homeowner, do not treat this extra section as a certificate. It exists so the heritage path is a real guide rather than a stub. The facts still live in 8.4, 11.3 and B1D4.
Questions homeowners ask
What visitors always ask
Each answer starts with the point, then the useful detail.
What glass does an unframed internal door need?
Housing Provisions 8.4.2 require unframed doors other than those in shower screens or bath enclosures to be toughened safety glass at least 10 mm nominal, or laminated toughened safety glass at least 10 mm total thickness.
Is an internal glass door an AS 2047 window?
No. B1D4 sends glazed assemblies not in an external wall, and sliding or swinging doors without a frame, to AS 1288.
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