Table Care and Similar Questions
- How do I care for my table, birdbath etc.?
- Don't put a something hot off the fire directly on the glass. If it is hotter than you would hold in your hand, use a hot pad or trivet before setting it on the glass. Normal glass doesn't change temperature rapidly without breaking. Setting down a glass of ice water is fine but I suspect spraying the table or filing a birdbath with cold water on a very hot day might cause problems.
Apply penetrating grout sealer every year or two to keep your table stain resistant. See Grout for more.
Bring it in or keep it dry in freezing weather if you don't ever want to re-grout.
- Can I leave my table out in freezing weather?
- You are taking a chance on the grout crumbling due to freeze thaw cycles. So if you keep it dry it should be okay. I use frost resistant grout but no one makes guaranteed frost proof grout. My first table has been out in all weather for over 10 years (I have photos of it with 6 inches of snow). I finally lost a 2 inch section of grout last year and had to replace it. I sign and number all my pieces. If you tell me what number your piece has, I can send you a packet of grout to match. See Grout for more on re-grouting.
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- What if one of the glass pieces breaks?
- The two layers are laminated together like your car windshield so they are stronger than the original sheet of glass to begin with.
Cracking one of the upper pieces does not harm the table: the upper layer is already in pieces of glass anyway. Most people won't notice the crack. If it really bothers you, it can be replaced by chipping out the surrounding grout with a small screwdriver. Then the broken piece is broken into smaller pieces with a glass cutter, undermine the glue with my own hand made tool (bent Morton Strong Line) and removed with strong dental floss. A new piece of matching glass is cut and glued in. After two weeks it can be re-grouted and then re-sealed. Time consuming but it can be done. I can also use a UV curred glue to seal the crack and keep it from becoming more visable.
Shattering the tempered supporting glass is much harder to deal with (I've only had it happen to one client that I know of -- see the note on using a hot-pad above). I found that the lamination prevents removing the glass of the design from the lower layer. If there is a metal rim, break the grout around the edge of the table so the glass can be removed from the rim as one piece. Put a new piece of glass in the frame (see below for sources). Glue the original two layer top to the new glass and regrout the now slightly higher edge.
- What do you charge for a table?
- See the example pricing page.
- I already have a glass topped table -- can you add a glass design?
- Sure. We start with a tracing of the top and go from there. For distant clients I can make a "custom kit". This "kit" is not an off-the-shelf item but a one-of-a-kind custom designed, cut, ground and masked set of pieces all ready for you to glue and grout to your existing glass topped table. We also send along instructions, tools and a numbered pattern so it it is easy to complete. You can tell your friends you made your table in a couple of weekends (and save about 25% off the price of one of my finished tables plus you don't have the expense of shipping a large table across the country).
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- I have a table to use as a base but the glass broke -- where do I go to get another piece?
- On tables up to a foot or so in maximum diameter, you can use 1/4 plate glass from your local glass supplier. The supporting glass on a large table usually needs to be tempered or very thick. Tempered glass is 5 times stronger than the untempered glass of the same thickness. Tempering requires a large furnace, which I don't have (by the way, you can't cut tempered glass, you have to cut the glass and then temper it).
http://www.glasstopsdirect.com/ gives example pricing
http://www.onedayglass.com/ is fairly local: Vancouver, Washington
Usually any place that sells automobile windshields can also do glass table tops.
One problem with tempered glass is that you really want a metal or other edge protecting it because if you hit it on the unprotected edge of the glass, it may shatter. If you just want thicker untempered glass, Pier One Imports has inexpensive glass rounds (well, inexpensive when you factor in the shipping you would otherwise have to pay).
The other thing to consider is that an inexpensive new table may be cheaper than a piece of glass (see table source question above). On most tables it is easy to swap the glass if you prefer your existing frame so measure carefully when buying a table with this in mind.
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