Office window tinting for glare and heat
When staff keep turning their screens, or work with the blinds down by mid-afternoon to keep the sun off the desks, they are showing you which windows need tint. We measure the floor window by window and choose a film for each one, so the glare is dealt with at the desks that have it and the rest of the floor keeps its daylight.
For offices and practices in the towers of Chatswood, St Leonards and North Sydney, and up the highway to the Hornsby town centre.
Where office glare comes from
Many of the office towers in Chatswood, St Leonards and North Sydney have glass curtain walls. Each face of the building gets the sun at a different time and angle, so the glass that bothers the desks is rarely the whole wall.
East and west glass
Morning sun on the east face and afternoon sun on the west come in low, under the ceiling and straight across the desks. Low morning and afternoon sun is the hardest to shade from outside, so it often ends up as a film job.
The north side in winter
The summer sun is high over the north face. In winter it sits low and reaches much further into the floor, onto desks that were fine all summer.
Light off the tower opposite
A south face gets little direct sun, but the sunlit north face of a glass tower across the street can throw a bright patch straight back through it. That glare comes through the south bays, so they are the ones to film.
The window behind the chair
A bright bay behind someone shows up as a washed-out patch on their screen. The glass at their back can matter as much as the glass they face.
One floor, window by window
An example floor drawn from above, with its schedule beside it. Every bay of the curtain wall gets its own line and its own film, and some get none.
Pick a line in the schedule to find its bay on the plan. Swipe the plan to see all of it.
- Medium tint
- Light tint
- Clear
- Low-reflective
- No film
Film for office glass
The film for each bay is picked from the 3M range while we stand at that bay, with the desks and screens in front of us. Every step darker cuts glare and daylight together, and an office that has the lights on at noon has swapped one complaint for another. The aim is that staff can read their screens and leave the blinds open.
Where two bays sit side by side, we usually give them the same film, so the curtain wall reads evenly from the street.
The same tint slows the fading of carpet and furniture near the glass. A ground-floor room the footpath looks into can take a privacy tint instead; office window tinting sets out when that works.
Working from home as well? Glare in the home study is the same problem in a smaller room.
| Clear film | Heat, and some glare, at bays where nobody faces a screen for long: reception, breakout, corridors. Hardly visible from outside. |
|---|---|
| Light‑tint film | The usual glare film for a desk bank. The glass looks a shade deeper and the floor stays bright. |
| Medium‑tint film | Low east or west sun sitting straight on the glass. The floor near it is noticeably dimmer. |
| Low‑reflective film | Glare bounced off a neighbouring tower, and any bay where the outside look of the facade must not change. |
| No film | Bays with no screens and no glare. They still go on the schedule, marked as left clear. |
Curtain wall glass and the building
In most towers the facade glass belongs to the building rather than your tenancy, and the building wants its face to look the same from every floor. That decides which films are possible before glare comes into it. Lift bookings, sign-in and install times work as they do for any office job, set out on meeting room frosting.
The outside look
Film that changes how the glass looks from the street is usually the building owner's call, through the building manager or your lease. Clear, light and low-reflective films change the outside look the least.
The glass is checked first
Curtain wall glass is often tinted, coated or double-glazed, and the wrong film can hold heat in the glass until it cracks. Film makers publish which films suit which glass, and we check each glass type against that before a film is chosen.
Room to reach the glass
Desks, blinds, plants and anything on the sill come back from each bay while it is filmed. What needs moving goes on the schedule, bay by bay.
For the building manager
The film's name, a sample, and the list of bays it goes on, so they are saying yes to a specific job.
Measure, cut, fit for an office floor
A floor is filmed one face at a time, so only the desks beside the bays being done move at once. When the fit happens is settled with you, and with the building manager, before it goes in the diary.
Measure
Every bay on every face, numbered. Which desks and screens face it, when staff notice the glare, what the glass is, and what sits on the sill.
Cut
Film cut to each bay, so two different films in one wall meet cleanly at the mullion between them.
Fit
Face by face, at the time agreed. We trim every edge tight to the frame, then move to the next bay.
What the wrong film costs an office
One dark film on every face
The glare goes, and so does the daylight at desks that never had any. The lights stay on all day.
A stripe across the tower
A mirror film on one floor shows from the street as a band across the facade, and the building may want it removed.
Film the glass cannot take
Film on the wrong glass can crack it from the heat. Replacing a facade pane involves the building, its glazier and access from outside.
The sunny face filmed
When the glare is light bounced off the tower opposite, filming the glass the sun is on changes nothing at the desks. Staff keep moving their screens.
Questions about office window tinting
The windows are part of the tower. Who says yes?
Usually the building owner, through the building manager, with your lease setting out what you can change. Ask them early. We can give them the film's name, a sample and the list of bays.
Can you film only the bays with glare?
Yes. The schedule has one line per bay, and bays without a problem are written down as left clear.
Will film help with glare off the building across the road?
Usually, when it goes on the bay the reflection comes through. On the measure we trace the bright patch on the screen back to its window before choosing which bay to film.
Can staff keep working while you install?
The floor stays in use. Desks next to the bays being filmed move back while we work there, and the timing is agreed before the job is booked.
Do we still need our blinds?
Keep them. Film takes out the everyday glare, and a blind still helps for the short spell when a low sun sits straight on a screen.
We move desks around a lot. Will the film still suit?
We schedule for the layout you have, and say which bays would need a second look if the desks move. Film can come off, so a bay can be redone for a new fitout.
Office window tinting across the North Shore
Reference
- Your Home: Shading, the federal government's guide to building for comfort and energy use. It explains why low morning and afternoon sun on east and west glass is harder to shade than high sun on north glass.