Glass overhang

[fRED mCnEILL]

My son wants to build a glass overhang to protect the small deck on his house that leads to the front door from the elements. The overhand will be about 8 feet wide and sloped from the house.He plans to use 8X 8 cedar posts on 8 ft centres supporting a 4X 12 cedar beam. He will then use 2X10 cedar planks to support the glass panels(4X8 tempered glass). He is concerned if the 4X12 (full size) will be strong enough to support an 8 ft. span. Also is there a website to supply material to seal the glass on the rafters?

Thanks for any help.

Regards

Fred

[Bill Dufour]

Snow load, windload, shatterproof? In the mountains near trees a single window of special glass can run into the thousands. And I think the glass is made to order. Talk to his insurance company before doing anything.
Bill D.

[Jerome Stanek]

Garland sealants is where we got our sealer for our greenhouse we only had an 1 and1/2 acres of greenhouse

[Bradley Gray]

I built an insulated, tempered glass green house in 2002 for a client. The framing was 3 x 6 cedar on 36" centers at 12/12 pitch. The span was 80"

I used really nice 2 pc aluminum extrusions with gaskets from this place: http://www.abundantenergyinc.com/

[Larry Edgerton]

Fred, you do not specify the thickness of the glass, that would make a huge difference. there are gigantic swings in glass prices, so check around. I saved $9000 on my last job by finding a new supplier.

I have made a lot of railing out of glass, and there are span tables for what is safe. For example a full glass rail with no top and bottom support in 1/2" can span 11'6". It is incredibly strong. I have them on Lake Michigan facing the wicked winds out of the northwest and have never had a failure.

On the supports, snowload has to be checked and there are tables available at the local building code department to check. I could tell you what I can do here but that does not mean much, local code rules.

[David Gutierrez]

the span of glass will be governed by the load and thickness. over head glass must be safety glazing. in some places it must be laminated. you cannot compare hand rails to a roof glass.
So you will be building a roof made of glass supported by 2x10 rafters sitting on a 4 x12 beam, the beam will be supported on 8 x 8 posts? the beam span will be 8 feet and the joist are spanning 8 feet? what is the rafter spacing? what is the snow load in your area?All of this information is need to answer your question.
There are on line beam calculator you can use for wood beams but all the info above is required. You will also need the same information for your glass supplier to determine the correct glass thickness. FYI 4 x 12 foot glass is expensive,large and heavy. you might consider going to smaller panes.