Newly constructed buildings in Ontario must use heat-strengthened laminated glass

Ontario’s Building Code will soon require newly constructed buildings to use heat-strengthened laminated glass to prevent balcony glass from breaking and falling to roadways below.

Effective July 1, construction companies must use heat-strengthened laminated glass (the same type used in windshields) when glass is close to the edge of a balcony. Also, heat-strengthened laminated glass or heat-soaked tempered glass must be used when glass balcony guards are inset from the edge of the balcony, notes a statement from Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The new obligations are based on recommendations of the Expert Advisory Panel on Glass Panels in Balcony Guards, membership of which includes engineering consultants, developers, municipal building inspectors, insurance providers and members of codes and standards writing bodies.

The ministry reports the revised code is intended as an interim solution to ensure public safety while the Canadian Standards Association develops a national technical standard for glass panels in balcony guards. The obligations do not require existing buildings to retrofit to the new requirement.

The changes follow a number of high-profile incidents in downtown Toronto last year. In one incident, falling glass caused injuries to a woman walking on the street below.

“This amendment will help protect the public and offer clarity and certainty to the building industry,” says municipal affairs minister Kathleen Wynne.

The changes “impose new standards, making Ontario’s Building Code provisions the most stringent in Canada with respect to the use of glass panels in balcony guards,” adds Michael Steele, director of technical standards for the Residential Construction Council of Ontario, and a member of the expert panel.