How to Identify Patterned Glass in an Older Home

Melbourne is full of houses from the 1940s through the 1970s with textured glass in doors, side lights and bathroom windows. When one pane breaks, matching it matters more than replacing it quickly. A mismatched panel in a run of matching ones is obvious from across the room.

Photograph it before you clear up

This is the step people skip and then regret. Once the broken pane is in the bin, you are working from memory, and textured patterns are very hard to describe accurately.

Take photos before you touch it:

• Straight on, with light behind the glass — this shows the pattern clearly
• At an angle, so the surface relief catches the light
• Close up with a coin, tape measure or ruler beside it for scale
• The edge, so we can see the thickness

Scale is the one people forget, and it is often the deciding detail. Two patterns can look identical in a photo and be completely different sizes.

Check an intact pane elsewhere

The same glass is usually used throughout a house. If the broken pane is in a door, look at the side light, the bathroom window, the laundry. An intact example is far easier to photograph and measure than a broken one.

It also lets you check the thickness with a ruler at the edge without handling broken glass.

The three patterns we stock

Most Australian homes of that era used one of a small handful of patterns:

Spotswood — a distinct linear pattern, strong directional lines. Very common in Australian homes and one of the patterns we are most often asked to match. Available in 4mm, 5mm and 6mm.

Cathedral — a soft, irregular, flowing ripple. Widely used in doors and windows through the mid twentieth century. We stock 4mm, which covers the great majority of original panels.

Satinlite — a fine, close, even texture. The bathroom and toilet window glass. Available in 4mm, 5mm and 6mm.

Telling them apart

Ask two questions and you will usually land on the right one.

Is the pattern directional? If you can see clear parallel lines running one way, it is Spotswood or a related linear pattern. If the texture has no direction, it is Cathedral or Satinlite.

How much can you see through it? If you can make out shapes and movement fairly clearly, it is Cathedral. If everything behind it is reduced to a blur, it is Satinlite.

When it is not one of ours

Plenty of patterns from that era are no longer manufactured anywhere. If yours is one of them, we will tell you rather than sell you something close and let you discover the mismatch after installation.

When an exact match is not available, the usual options are:

• Replace the whole run. If a door has three matching panes and one breaks, replacing all three in a current pattern looks deliberate. Replacing one does not.
• Switch to frosted. If the panel is a bathroom window with no matching neighbours, acid etched frosted gives similar privacy with a clean modern finish.
• Match the closest current pattern — acceptable where the panel stands alone and nothing sits beside it for comparison.

The part that surprises people

Whatever you match, check the position. A patterned pane in a door, beside a door, or below 500mm from the floor must now be safety glass. The original almost certainly is not — patterned glass is not safety glass, and the rules have changed since these houses were built.

In practice this usually means a toughened version of the pattern, or a laminated alternative. Read when safety glass is required before ordering.

Email your photos and measurements to info@affordableglassonline.com.au and we will tell you honestly what we can match.