Table Care and Similar Questions
- How do I care for my table, birdbath etc.?
- 1) Don't change temperature on it quickly. Normal glass doesn't change temperature rapidly without breaking. 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.
Don't hit it with cold water when it is hot from all day in the sun. Setting down a glass of ice water is fine but I suspect spraying the table or filling a birdbath with cold water on a very hot day might cause problems, although no one has reported any..
2) Apply penetrating grout sealer every year or two to keep your table stain resistant. See Grout for more.
3) Bring it in or keep it dry in freezing weather if you don't ever want to re-grout.
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- Can I leave my table out in freezing weather?
 You are taking a chance on the grout crumbling due to freeze thaw cycles. 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 (photo of it with 6 inches of snow). I finally lost a 2 inch section of grout 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.
- 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. You can also use a UV curred glue (sold to mend car windshields) 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?
- Pricing has lots of variables and I'll be glad to discuss a project with you.
- I already have a glass topped table -- can you add a glass design?
- Yes we can use your table or one of ours. We start with a tracing of the top and go from there.
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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 a 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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- Links etc., Do-it-yourself info
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