You have taken immense pains with your basement studio; got designer furniture, had the walls done up in Arkansas building stone and decorated the room with the most striking curio collection. And yet it just fails to bring in the praises. The reason for your basement décor not taking off might very well be the dark, gloomy environs of the place. And your best bet in this case would be to go in for the glass paver. Light issues need to be sorted out right at the outset.
This concept has been in use in commercial buildings for a long time. And now, glass pavers find increasing use in homes as well. However, when one is thinking along the lines of the glass paver, light issues are not the only things uppermost on his mind. He may be looking for glass pavers to serve as flooring so that light from the rooms on the upper level reaches the lower ones but glass pavers can also be used for the windows and the walls for design purposes.
When you settle for the glass paver, light problems have no better solution. For instance, you can have the floor of your living room done up in glass paver to allow light to filter through to the basement area beneath. Used this way, the glass paver flooring will also light up the walking surface of the living room.
But if you plan to use the glass paver in this way, you need to keep a few things in mind.
Firstly, you have to ensure that your glass blocks are sturdy enough to bear the weight of people walking and stamping on it, the furniture and also the walls. Secondly, if the glass pavers are being used in the flooring of any exterior facing application, you have to also make sure that they are thermally efficient along with an insulating R-value equaling the double pane glazing of the top-notch windows.
If you have a room with particularly poor lighting, have a glass pavered wall to allow light from the adjoining room stream in. In fact, this is a pretty nifty use of the glass paver. Light problems notwithstanding, you can cut down on your electricity bill too.
With the glass paver, light troubles are addressed admirably. So are design issues. And quite avant-garde ones at that too. Glass blocks are increasingly being used in the interiors to not only lighten the space but also to add some interesting design variations.
Thus you can opt for colored light designs to lend vivacity to an otherwise stark room. Or you can have the door leading to the garden done up in glass blocks just to have the feeling of the outdoors coming in. Glass pavers used artistically throughout the room impart a certain sophistication to the interiors. In fact, a glass pavered partitioning or a glass-fronted door is a great way to liven up a staid room and give a sense of space.
When you are going in for the glass paver, light concerns or design, you can be sure that you are not in for any hassle.
For these days glass pavers come with sturdy but lightweight aluminum frames and weather-proof sealant to make for easy installations without the use of mortar and also allows for building movement, expansion or contraction of the glass and other adjacent materials.
And with the pavers being individual units, any damage to one part doesn’t mean expensive overhauling of the entire unit.
When it comes to the glass paver, light, design and stability concerns are no concerns at all.