What fades first in a glass room
It usually shows as a stripe: paler boards in front of the stacker doors, or a rug that turns out to be two colours when the sofa moves. Film on the glass slows fading down. No film, blind or glass stops it altogether.
What fades, and how it shows
Dyes and finishes fade, so the things that give it away first are the ones with colour in them. The line is sharpest wherever something has been sitting in the same place for a long time.
Rugs and carpet
Dyed wool and silk show it early, and strong colours soonest. You find it when the furniture moves: a bright patch where the sofa stood, flatter colour everywhere the sun reached.
Floorboards
Timber changes colour in sunlight. Depending on the species and the finish it goes paler or deeper, and the change stops in a hard line at the edge of a rug or a sideboard.
Curtains, blinds and upholstery
The fabric facing the glass takes the whole day. Curtain linings, cushion tops and the back of a sofa that faces the doors are where it shows, often along a fold.
Art, prints and photographs
Works on paper, watercolours and colour photographs are the pieces galleries keep in low light, because their colour is the easiest to lose. On a wall opposite a west window or a highlight window, they are the first thing to move.
Timber furniture and leather
A dining table under a skylight, or a leather chair beside the doors, fades and dries on the side that faces the light.
Before the measure, read the stripe
- Lift the corner of the rug, or slide a chair, and look at the line on the boards.
- Note when the sun sits on it: morning, midday or afternoon, and whether it is worse in summer or winter.
- Follow the light back to the pane it came through. That pane goes first on the schedule.
- Take a photo of the stripe and add it to your enquiry.
Why things fade behind glass
The Australian Government's Your Home guide names ultraviolet, violet and blue light as the parts of sunlight most responsible for fading. The right glazing reduces fading, it says, but does not prevent it.
Plain window glass already holds back part of the ultraviolet and lets the rest through, which is why a rug fades behind a closed window. Film on the glass cuts down the ultraviolet that reaches the room. The violet and blue light is part of the daylight you renovated to get, so it keeps coming in.
That is the honest limit. Film slows fading down, and it slows it most on the panes where the sun sits longest. It does not make a room fade-proof.
| Ultraviolet | Fades dyes and wears down fibres and finishes. Plain glass stops some of it. Film on the glass stops a good deal more. |
|---|---|
| Violet and blue light | Visible daylight, and it fades dyes too. Keeping all of it out would mean keeping the daylight out, so every glass room lets some in. |
| Heat | A warm patch of floor fades and dries faster than a cool one. Heat-control film takes some of the heat at the pane. |
| Hours of direct sun | Fading adds up with time in the light. A rug in the sun every afternoon goes faster than one that only sees daylight. |
Where the light lands in four kinds of glass room
The renovation at the back of a North Shore house often has more than one of these in the same room. Each puts the sun somewhere different, so each fades something different.
Sliding and stacker doors
North doors under an eave
The eave keeps the high summer sun near the doors. The low winter sun comes in under it and crosses the floor, so the rug in the middle of the room is the one at risk.
Side windows
West glass
Afternoon sun comes in low in every season and goes straight across the room. The far wall, the sideboard and whatever hangs there take it for hours.
Overhead glass
A skylight
The sun comes down in a patch that walks across the table and the bench through the middle of the day. Table tops, chair seats and anything left on the bench fade first.
Clerestory glass
Highlight windows
Light from high glass lands on the opposite wall, lower down as the sun drops. Book spines and art hung on that wall fade first, and nobody thinks to look up at the window.
Film, and the other things that slow fading
Film is one part of the answer. We would rather you knew the rest before you book.
Other ways to slow it
- Shade outside the glass. Your Home recommends eaves, awnings and louvres matched to each side of the house, and external blinds or louvres for skylights.
- Draw the blind for the worst hours. A blind or curtain closed while the sun sits on the rug does a lot of good for a small effort.
- Move things now and then. Turn the rug, and swap the art on the sunlit wall with a piece from a darker room.
- Frame precious pieces behind UV glass. A framer can fit UV-filtering glass to a watercolour, print or photograph, and it protects the piece wherever it hangs.
What film will not do
- Bring back colour that has already gone
- Stop fading altogether
- Stand in for UV glass on a work on paper you want to keep
Fading fixes that fall short
A dark film to save one rug
The whole room goes dim, all year, for one piece. Film on the pane over the rug, or a clear film across the doors, usually does the job without the gloom.
The doors done, the skylight left
The rug is safe and the dining table under the skylight keeps losing colour. Overhead glass belongs on the same schedule.
Film on glass that needed a second look
Your Home notes that filmed glass in direct sun runs hotter than bare glass, and that installers follow industry guidelines so it does not crack. We record what each pane is made of before the film is chosen.
Waiting for the stripe to go
Film protects from the day it goes on. The pale boards stay pale, so settle where the rug will live before the install.
Fading on the schedule
Tell us what is fading and where it sits, and we write it against the pane that lets the light in. A room with six panes of glass may need film on two of them, and the schedule shows which two.
The quote is priced from that schedule: the panes, the film on each and what it takes to reach them. More on the glass itself in film for sliding doors and pavilions and film for skylights and highlight windows.
A glass room, marked for fading
- W1Garden side, skylight over the dining table: Fade, Heat
Timber table top in the light at midday.
- W2Garden side, stacker door 3: Fade
Wool rug in the sun from this pane through winter.
- W3Garden side, west window by the bookcase: Fade, Glare
- W4Garden side, highlight window opposite the art wall: Fade
Watercolours opposite. Ask a framer about UV glass as well.
Questions about fading and film
Will film bring the colour back?
No. Film protects from the day it goes on, and what has already faded stays as it is.
Why is the stripe further into the room in winter?
On glass that faces north, the eave keeps the high summer sun near the doors or outside them. The winter sun is lower and comes in under the eave, a long way across the floor. A rug in the middle of the room can take more sun in July than in January.
Does a darker film protect more?
A darker film lets in less daylight, and daylight is part of what fades things, so it helps a little more. It also darkens the room every day of the year. For most glass rooms we suggest a clear or light-tint film on the doors, and keep deeper film for a pane that sits right over something you care about.
Can you film just the pane over the rug?
Yes. Tell us which pane it is, or mark it on the drawing, and it goes on the schedule on its own line.
We have double glazing. Is fading already handled?
Not always. Your Home says the right glazing reduces fading without preventing it, and double glazing varies with the glass inside it. We note what each pane is made of at the measure, and some units need the film checked against them before anything goes on.
Is film worth it for framed art?
Film on the window helps everything on that wall. For a watercolour, print or photograph you want to keep, UV-filtering glass in the frame is worth asking a framer about as well.
Glass rooms we measure
Reference
- Your Home: Glazing. Its section on fading names the parts of sunlight that do the damage and says why glazing can reduce fading but never prevent it. It also covers window film on existing glass.
- Your Home: Shading. How eaves, awnings, louvres and external blinds control the sun on north, east and west glass and on skylights.