Frosting a meeting room without closing the office
Most office jobs start with tint on the outside windows for heat and glare. This guide is for the glass inside: for office and practice managers in Chatswood, St Leonards, North Sydney and Hornsby, what frost each meeting room needs, where the band sits, what happens at the glass door, and how the install fits around the people still using the floor.
Rooms are fitted one at a time. When that happens is settled with you and your building first, and only then does it go in the diary.
The boardroom is finished and bookable again. The meeting room takes its turn, and the interview room keeps its bookings.
Deciding what each room needs
Work it out room by room. Start with what is said and shown inside the room, then look at who sits or walks past beyond its glass. The answer for the boardroom is rarely the answer for the interview room next door, and both can go on one quote. The patterns themselves are drawn on meeting room frosting.
| Room | Ask first | Where it often lands |
|---|---|---|
| Boardroom | Do staff walk past on the corridor side, and does the screen face them? | A privacy band across the eye line and the screen, with clear glass above and below. Some offices have their name cut out of it. |
| Small meeting and phone rooms | Is the room booked back to back? Does it feel small already? | A band. Full frost on a small room can make it feel shut in. |
| HR, interview and consulting rooms | Would it matter if someone outside recognised who is in there? | Full frost, or frost with a clear strip at the top so some daylight still comes through. |
| Rooms the desks take their light through | Do the desks on the far side get their daylight through this glass? | The lightest pattern that still does the job, so the open plan does not lose its light. |
| Glass on the street or a shared corridor | Is this glass part of your tenancy, or the building's? | A question for the building manager before any pattern is chosen. |
Where the band sits
A privacy band has to cover the eye line of the people in the room, and anything on the table or the screen that could be read from outside. That line moves with the furniture. An office chair, a stool at a high table and a wheelchair each put it somewhere different.
So the band height is set at the measure, in the room, with the room's own furniture where it normally sits. If the band has to cover people sitting and people standing, it comes out deeper. Once it is deep enough, full frost or frost with a clear top can be the simpler answer, and we will say so.
The same height is carried along the whole wall and through the door, so from the corridor the line reads as one band. The clear glass left above and below it may still need markings people can see.
Have in the room on the measure
- The chairs or stools the room actually uses, not spares from storage
- The table at its usual height, if it adjusts
- The screen where it hangs, and any whiteboard on the glass wall
- A note of anyone who uses the room from a wheelchair or a standing desk
- Your logo or artwork file, if the frost will carry it
- Someone who knows the room bookings, so the fit order can be drafted there and then
Glass doors in a meeting room wall
The door is the one pane people touch every day, and it rarely starts and stops where the wall glass does. So it is written up separately from the wall.
Handles and closers
Film is cut around every handle, lock and closer on the glass. If the hardware is being changed as part of a fitout, tell us first, so the cuts are made for the new pieces.
Signs and booking panels
Room names, "in use" sliders and anything stuck on the door come off before the fit. They can go back on top of the film once it has cured.
Frameless edges
On a door with no frame, the film stops just short of the exposed edge, so hands and cleaning cloths do not catch it and lift it.
A door in daily use
Nobody can use that room while the door is fitted. Afterwards, staff should open it by the handle rather than pushing on the glass while the film cures.
Timing the install
Only the room being filmed goes out of use; the rest of the floor keeps working. Start with the room that is easiest to spare, often the boardroom, so the first finished room shows everyone the band before the busier rooms take their turn.
| Stage | Your part | Our part |
|---|---|---|
| Before the measure | List the rooms. Ask the building manager for its contractor rules: sign-in, the goods lift and the hours contractors may work. | Ask about the glass, and whether a fitout or a move is coming. |
| The measure | Each room empty for a short while, with its furniture in place. | Measure every panel and door, set the band heights in the room, write the building's rules on the schedule. |
| Before install day | Block each room in the booking system for its turn. Clear signs, stickers and anything on the glass. Move tables back from it. | Confirm the room order and the agreed time, and book the goods lift if the building wants the contractor to. |
| Install day | Someone to sign us in and release each room when its turn comes. | Fit one room, pack it up, tell you it is back, and move to the next. |
| Afterwards | Leave the film alone while it cures, and tell the cleaners. | Tell you how long it needs for the film used, and how to clean it after that. |
Early starts, late finishes and weekends
This page does not offer them. Whether one is possible depends on your building's contractor hours and on the installer's diary, so it is asked about at the measure and written on the schedule once it is agreed.
Until then, plan on the fit happening in the working day, one room at a time, with the rest of the office carrying on.
Three kinds of North Shore office
Who else has a say in the timing depends on the building you are in.
A tower floor
The office towers of Chatswood, St Leonards and North Sydney each have a building manager, who decides when contractors can use the dock and the goods lift. The install time has to fit inside those rules.
A practice in a shopfront
A dental, medical or allied health practice in a shopfront or a small building, like many around Hornsby's town centre, often deals with the building's owner directly. Consulting rooms can take their turns in a quieter session, while the waiting room carries on.
A serviced or shared floor
The operator runs the building for you and may count the glass as theirs. Ask them before choosing a pattern, and bring their answer to the measure.
What a badly timed install costs
Booked before the building agreed
The installer is turned back at the dock, the rooms were blocked for nothing, and the day has to be found again.
Frosted before the fitout settled
A partition moves or a door is rehung, and the film on that glass is cut again.
The room left bookable
A meeting walks in halfway through its turn, and the rest of the plan runs late.
Signs back on too soon
A room sign or booking panel stuck on before the film has cured can lift or mark it.
Questions from office managers
Is fitting film noisy?
Not much. The glass is cleaned, sprayed with a slip solution, the film is laid on and pressed out with a squeegee, and the edges are trimmed with a blade. There is no drilling, so a meeting in the next room can usually carry on.
Can a room be used straight after its turn?
Usually, once the tools are out. What the film needs is to be left alone on the glass while it cures: no cleaning, nothing stuck on, no pushing on the door glass. The film can look slightly patchy while the water behind it dries out. We tell you how long that takes for the film used.
Can you fit before we open or after we close?
Ask at the measure. It depends on the hours your building lets contractors work and on the installer's diary, so it is agreed with you then rather than promised here.
Do we have to do the whole floor at once?
No. The schedule lists every room, and the quote says whether it is written for one visit or several. A single meeting room gets the same measure and the same kind of quote as a whole floor.
Can we add our logo to the frost later?
Lettering is cut out of the frost itself, so adding it later usually means replacing the film on that panel. If a logo is likely, decide before the film is cut.
Who books the goods lift?
Whoever your building asks to. Some want the tenant to book it, some let the contractor book it with your authority. The schedule records which, so nobody assumes the other did it.