Home and Garden | Building a Glass Block Wall - Inside Wall

Building walls with blocks of glass may sound imprudent — something like making a child's building set out of bone china.

But modern glass blocks are rugged enough to construct large exterior walls which let in light and keep out the weather. Interior partitions or half-walls of glass block can create rooms within rooms, defining spaces in a house without isolating them from one another.

Glass block also is a popular material for custom shower enclosures and partitions in bathrooms, because it distorts images enough to ensure privacy. (Fig. 1)
Glass blocks offer a lot of design options, including finishes that control the amount of light transmitted and different surface textures that blur or completely distort images for privacy.

Fig. 1

PROJECT BASICS

Project: Moderate
Estimated Project Time: 1 day
Start Tips: Measure the opening into which you're inserting the glass block. The framing dimensions need to account for both the width of the glass blocks and the caulked joints.
Safety Tips: If using mortar to seal the joints, wear heavy-duty gloves.
Recommendation: Do-it-Yourself

INSTRUCTIONS

Glass block traditionally is installed with solid mortar joints like bricks or concrete block. However, good glass block work is a specialized skill, more so than laying concrete block or brick, and usually requires a mason. Before hiring a contractor, make sure that he or she has experience laying glass block.

Some blocks are designed to make installation easier for DIYers. Glass-block kits with clear plastic spacers are stacked and sealed with silicone caulk instead of mortar. Other types include glass blocks that snap into a metal framework and glass like blocks made of plastic that clip together with interlocking flanges. And if you don't want an entire wall of glass, you can buy prefabricated glass block windows that install in a rough opening the way a regular window does.

The blocks are made by fusing two sections together to create an airspace that gives glass block an R-value of about 2.0, which is about the same as an insulated glass window and better than the thermal value of a 12-inch-thick concrete wall. Locating glass block on a south-facing wall adds greatly to overall energy efficiency, thanks to the solar energy it transmits during the day.