Why are glass upstands and splashbacks in a kitchen so expensive?

kmmr

3M long sounds quite big too. Not sure if having two shorter pieces would work for you - but there is a chance it would be cheaper. But would saving a few hundred pounds make up for the mild irritation of always having that extra line in the wall!

If it's not the big 'statement' thing in the your kitchen, then I think you could get away with tiles. My splashback is bright red in a plain kitchen, so I didn't mind spending the money to make it look the best.
http://clearlybuilt.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc_0981.jpg

I just went with a local glass supplier, and gave them the red paint.

adrian_bond

hi op. i havent read the entire wall as im very busy this afternoon sorry. however, i have completley clad my entire kitchen walls in glass when i redesigned and re built it last year! biggest was 300 by 70 cm tall, the smallest 30 x 15cm. there are 9 pieces in total, 8 being 6mm thermally toughend clear glass (not ultra clear, just normal clear glass), and the window cill is 15mm clear toughened. i work for a marine glazers and designed them myself (this realy is easy - dont panic). had them cut and ground at work (also very easy, even the socket cut outs) and then painted the back surfaces of the glass in 3 coats of brilliant white tile paint. (it must be at least 3 coats as it must be totally opaque or the wall will show behind. i then glued the glass to the wall using mirror adhesive. it must be mirror adhesive as normal silicone sealants have an acidic additive that would attack and corrode the paint which would look terrible. i then sealed all the edges in place using clear mirror adhesive and beaded them off to give a seamless edge.

the glass being clear (but not ultra clear) when painted white gives a slightly aqua greenish hue which looks great on the wall, especially with white cupboards. if you wanted to use a different colour for the glass then please specify ultra clear or optiwhite glass from the glass manufacturers. this will allow any colour to be used without the greenish white colour affecting the desired colour. i did another kitchen for a freind and they painted it a wine red colour (used ultraclear) which looks great with their gloss black cupboards.

now to the cost. as i work for a glaziers i got the glass at cost price. the paint was £10 a tin (i used half a tin in 3 coats), the mirror adhesive for the wall was £10, the sealant was £10 for 3 tubes. in total i did the lot for £100. yes thats £100!

the fact that some splashback specialists are charging £2000 upwards makes me sick to my stomach. the paint they use is a special epoxy type, which is very closley mimicked by stable tile paint (moisture, and heat resistant up to a suitable point). glass can be sourced from any decent glass supplier very cheaply, and it doesnt need to be polished edges (ariessed (or ground) edges are fine). it does need to be thermally toughened tho just to be safe incase it breaks (if you go nuts with a hammer you will still have trouble to break it) so if it does, it breaks into tiny unsharp squares instead of long daggers like normal glass. if you want to avoid sockets then the glass should be absolute peanuts in comparison. http://www.mycolourglass.co.uk/faq.php gives a good idea of how to do it yourself. if you wanted you can use them, but i never have as its probably ridiculouly priced like the rest. interestingly enough there was a compnay in norwich called contract glass doing exactly that until very recently where it went bust, as no-one can justify spending £3000 on glass for a kitchen wall. ridiculous.

if you want to discuss it then please PM me and i will send you an email picture of my kitchen. they are all available via flickr (im called aidobond on there if you can find me) if you can find them. im not sure how to use the website properly im afriad! best of luck, and it really is very simple. dont give the spashback glaziers a fricking penny!

Adrian

Alan_M_2

Have a chat with these people http://www.hbglass.biz/

They are one of my customers and travel all over the UK doing commercial glass fits.

Auntie-Dolly

Glass tiles come in at around £180 m sq too.

Innys

UPDATE.

It seems if you shop around, you may get a more reasonable quote. The firm who came round this morning said it would cost £1,100, including VAT. Makes you wonder how someone can justify charging £2,300 plus VAT.

£1,100 is still more than I wished to pay, but I'm losing the will to live...

1more?

i got glass splash back, i bought it from a local glass supliers,
i have a large piece to fit behind my range & 6 x 20cm high pieces to go around work tops
i have clear glass & have painted behind the glass lime green most people think its green glass & when i want to change the colour i just have to change the paint
total cost was less than £300
hth

Leif

Sounds like it might be cheaper to get the sockets moved. That does not cost that much, less than £100 per socket, and you'll have to do some redecorating of course.

paddyrg

The main performance/specialist glass manufacturers in the country are Pilkington Aerospace (Kings Norton, Birmingham), they could give you a quote. Being performance and speciality glass, they are used to one-off jobs and have some of the most talented glassworkers you'll find in the world.

adrian_bond

paddyrg wrote: »

The main performance/specialist glass manufacturers in the country are Pilkington Aerospace (Kings Norton, Birmingham), they could give you a quote. Being performance and speciality glass, they are used to one-off jobs and have some of the most talented glassworkers you'll find in the world.

im may be wrong here (i really hope i am) but pilkington aeorspace will specialise in things like chemically toughened glass (used on planes and concorde etc where they dip the untempered glass in moulten salt for 24 hours to harden it. its incredibly expensive (if thermally toughend is £100, then chemically will be £1000))).

plus they are one of the 3 glass suppliers that the planet has (all 3 of which have been fined £100 million each year for price fixing but still get away with it every year). expect to add at least another 0 on the end of the most expensive quote, unless you get very lucky and they are happy to do small domestic jobs, depending upon the amount of design time required.

seriously. design them yourself (they are rectangles) put the cutouts in them on the drawings (if still required. please folow the guide on my previous post)) and take them to a glass merchants and ask for 6mm thermally toughend glass. it shouldnt be very expensive, and you can get exactly the same look with 3 coats of tile paint behind the glass 9unless you want a bright colour then you will need ptiwhite or ultraclear low iron glass, which they will also have. search for aidobond in flicr. my photos of mine are on there (im sorry i dont know how to share the link properly) and i did mine very cheaply. looked better than the glass act stand at the grand designs show too! hope this helps.

Adrian

Strangled

Just had some supply only from a guy in Halifax, holes cut out etc, £350, popped the hob on and ... crack . He had'nt used toughened glass, I now have to re-template and he's going to send a replacement.

Looks nice but not happy .... I can see problems