Grey smoked toughened glass is the tint we sell most of. It does the same structural job as our 10mm clear toughened glass — same glass, same thickness, same standards — but it takes the glare off and reads as a considered choice rather than a default one.

What a tint actually does

Tinted glass is chosen for how it looks and how it sits in strong light, not for how strong it is. Being honest about that saves disappointment: it is the same 10mm toughened panel underneath, so it carries no more load than clear and it is specified the same way.

What you do get is a screen that is easier on the eye where the sun is on it, and one that does not show every mark and fingerprint the way clear glass does. On a south-facing deck or a balcony that catches the afternoon sun, that is the difference between a screen people enjoy and one they squint through.

How private is it?

More private than people expect, and this is the thing most customers do not realise about tinted glass.

Think of it as the middle step of three. Clear glass hides nothing. Frosted obscures almost everything, so you get light without any view either way. Tinted sits between the two — you read shapes and movement through it rather than detail, and it takes a good deal of the exposure out of a screen without closing it down.

That makes it the sensible answer when you want some cover but still want the view: a balcony screen overlooking a neighbour, a hot tub surround, a boundary between two decks, a roof terrace that is overlooked on one side. People often ask for frosted, then realise they have blanked out the very thing they built the balcony for.

So: clear if the view is everything, tinted if you want the view with some cover, frosted if you want to be genuinely unseen.

If you need it thicker than 10mm

Our stock tinted panels are 10mm, which suits most jobs. If yours needs more than that, it is still possible — it just becomes a made-to-order laminated build rather than something off the list. There are two routes:

• Laminate the tinted panel to another pane. You get the extra thickness and the laminated safety build-up, with the colour in the glass itself.
• Use a tinted interlayer. The colour goes into the laminate interlayer between two panes rather than into the glass.

Which one suits depends on the job and the look you are after, so send us the sizes and tell us what the panel is doing. Our toughened and laminated glass range covers the standard build-ups, and our 10mm clear page sets out which thickness suits which kind of balustrade.

Grey or bronze?

We stock both. Grey is the more popular by some distance — it is the more neutral of the two and sits comfortably against stainless, galvanised and powder-coated steel without competing with them.

Bronze is warmer and suits timber and brick better than it suits metal. If you are unsure, grey is the safer choice and the one most of our customers land on.

Where it gets used

Glass decks, patios and caravan parks are the regular ones, along with balcony screens and garden balustrades where there is a view worth keeping but too much glare to enjoy it.

You can see it on a real job on our tinted grey glass balustrade and gate in Barnsley, which shows how the colour behaves against powder-coated steel in daylight rather than in a product photograph.

Ordering cut to size

Every panel is made to your own dimensions, to the millimetre. We do not hold standard sizes and there is no stock list to pick from — put the length and height you need into the calculator and the price shown is for that exact panel, cut and toughened for your job.

Tell us about any holes, cut-outs, notches or radius corners at the same time. Toughened glass cannot be cut or drilled once it has been through the furnace, so everything has to be done before it is toughened and nothing can be trimmed on site. For anything unusual use our bespoke toughened glass service.

Edges, standards and fittings

Panels come with polished edges and a proper 5mm radius corner as standard on all four corners — not the dubbed corner, knocked off by hand, that a lot of suppliers will quote you. Full details are on our material and finish standards page.

Manufactured to BS EN 12150, with impact classification to BS EN 12600.

We supply the glass clamps and balustrade components to suit, or the whole thing as one of our metal and glass balustrade systems with the glass sized to fit.

Nationwide delivery is typically 3–4 weeks; check terms for excluded zones. Made-to-size glass cannot be returned, as with any bespoke item.

Send your sizes to sales@diometonline.co.uk or call 0114 243 9009.

A note on specification

The guidance on this page reflects what we typically supply for jobs of this kind, and is offered in good faith to help you order the right thing. It is not a structural specification and it is not a substitute for project-specific design. Barrier heights, spans, loadings, fixings, substrates and exposure all vary from site to site, and the final specification for your project remains the responsibility of you, your designer, your structural engineer or your building control body. We manufacture and supply to the sizes and specification you give us. If you are unsure, send us the details before ordering and we will tell you what we would normally supply for a job like yours.