doorsglasswood
I have a hallway door that is 1 3/4" thick. I'd like to be able to see through the door, what is the best way to go about this?
I see glass panes are available for purchase Here but all that I find say "for steel or fiberglass doors only".
What should be used for wood doors?
If it is in a frame 1/4" glass will be sufficient. Your options for glass will be tempered glass or laminated glass because of it's proximity to the ground.
Tempered glass will break into very small pieces like a car window for a door. Tempered glass is stronger than normal glass.
Laminated glass will break like a car windshield. It breaks normally but it is two pieces bonded together with a plastic. The plastic prevents most injuries as well as the mess from breaking. Laminated glass is more often used for safety/security applications.
Although 1/4" is suitable for the application, I myself am always weary installing it as an interior partition. My family business has built all glass offices in buildings and we use 3/8" tempered glass. 3/8" Tempered is extremely difficult to break. When you get up to thicknesses that large as far as cost goes the difference between 3/8" and 1/2" thick glass isn't very significant.
If you go with a thicker size be sure that your trim is strong enough to withstand an impact of the weight of the glass, the weight of a person, and the velocity they are traveling. This is due to the fact that it is more likely to break from breaking out of its frame and falling down, especially in wood.
If the beams are not structural I would recommend you use a router to create a slot in each beam deep enough to slide the glass in far enough to place it where it needs to go and then slide it back towards the other beam into the slot you created there. This is commonly done with metal storefronts and is called a flush glaze.
Expanding on my comment: I think that the main problem with the proposed setup is lacking a slide or rail on the bottom. Without a slide on the bottom the glass door can swing perpendicular to the sliding direction. See the below explanation for what I mean.
I have a sliding shower door with a sliding mechanism on the top (a stainless steel rail with 2 wheels per door on top of the rail) and a tiny U channel on the bottom to keep the door from swinging. I know, I need to clean the shower a little...
The door is sliding in the direction of the blue arrows. The U channel on the bottom is keeping the door from swinging in the direction of the red arrows. This U channel is about 2 CM long and seems to be made from aluminium.
Best Answer
See this very relevant answer for details of what to do to disassemble/reassemble the door.
You'll have to go through a similar process but without being able to cut the door apart, since you don't want to dispose of the bottom panel. Disassembling the door, especially since that appears (based on the door nob) to be an old door, is going to be rather difficult.
If the molding around the central panel is nailed/glued on, you should be able to get one side off and replace the panel with glass, then reinstall the molding. If, however, it's actually cut out of the solid door (which is likely), you will have to disassemble the door.
If you do manage to get the door apart, you'll either want plexiglass (cheaper - except that panicvirus demand has driven prices sky high) and lighter, but susceptible to scratching - or tempered or laminated glass (heavier - but should be OK in an old, solid door like this, possibly comparably priced these days, and scratch/shatter resistant). Plain plate glass will be far too likely to shatter when the door is slammed, and when it does shatter, it will leave large, jagged shards that can cause serious, rapid blood loss.