Part N of SANS 10400 sets the rules for glass in buildings: where you must use safety glass, the maximum pane sizes for a given glass type and thickness, and when a competent person has to sign the glazing off. SANS stands for South African National Standard, the technical standard that the National Building Regulations (the NBR, made under the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act of 1977) point to. If you are putting glass in a shower, a low window, a balustrade or a door, this is the Part that decides whether you need toughened or laminated safety glass.
A note on the numbers below before you build. The exact dimensions come from public summaries and archived copies of the paywalled SABS text (SABS is the South African Bureau of Standards, which sells the full standards) and the gazetted regulations. Treat them as plain-English orientation, not a definitive compliance spec. Confirm the exact current values with your local authority and the SABS SANS 10400-N text before you order glass or submit plans.
What this Part covers
SANS 10400-N (the brief references the 2012 edition, 3.1) covers three things: the glass type and thickness you may use, the maximum size of any single pane for that glass, and the locations where safety glass is compulsory. Windows and external doors must also meet SANS 613, a separate standard that tests a window or door for wind load, impact, water penetration and air leakage. Safety glass means glass made to SANS 1263-1: toughened glass that crumbles into blunt pieces, or laminated glass that holds together when broken.
The aim is simple. Glass that a person can walk into, fall against or that sits over their head must not cut them when it breaks. Part N lists the spots where that risk is real and tells you to use safety glass there.
Key requirements (plain English)
Remember the caveat above: these are orientation figures from public summaries and archived copies of the paywalled SABS text, so confirm the current values with the SABS Part N text and your local authority before building.
Safety glass to SANS 1263-1 is required in locations including:
- Doors and the sidelights next to any entrance door, up to 2 100 mm above the finished floor.
- Windows with a sill less than 500 mm above the floor or the outside ground level (this trigger has no conditions attached).
- Windows with a sill less than 800 mm above the floor with no permanent barrier, where people on a normal walking route move straight toward the window.
- Glass in or near a bath or shower: bath enclosures, shower cubicles, and glazing within 1 800 mm of a bath or shower, measured horizontally or vertically.
- Shop fronts and display windows up to 2 100 mm above the floor.
- Any glass in a wall or balustrade next to a stairway, ramp, landing, pathway, patio, veranda or balcony, and glass within 1 800 mm of the pitch line of those.
- Sloped or overhead glass: skylights, glass floors and awnings.
- A mirror on a cupboard door less than 800 mm above the floor with no solid backing.
- Glass at swimming pools and ice rinks.
- Internal partitions within 2 100 mm of the floor.
- All glazing in places of instruction (A3), detention (E1), hospital (E2), other institutional (E3) and dormitory (H2) occupancies. An occupancy class is the use category the NBR assigns to a building, such as H4 for a single dwelling house.
A few extra rules to remember:
- Glass in a balustrade must be toughened safety glass unless it is rigidly supported on all sides, and it must carry the impact and line loads set in SANS 10160-2.
- Sloped or overhead glass must be laminated safety glass, or toughened if it is framed on all four sides.
- Plain (non-safety) glass is allowed in a door pane only if it is no larger than 1,0 square metre and at least 6 mm thick.
The brief gives indicative maximum pane sizes for frameless toughened bath and shower enclosures (for example, 8 mm toughened glass allows roughly 2,0 square metre for a door panel and 3,3 square metre for a fixed panel) and for external vertical glazing supported all round (for example, 6 mm monolithic annealed glass allows roughly 3,2 square metre, and 6 mm toughened roughly 4,5 square metre). Use these to sense-check a design, then confirm the exact table values in the SABS Part N text, because pane size is the thing most easily got wrong.
When you need a competent person or plan approval
A competent person is someone qualified by education, training and experience to make a determination on a building, registered in their field. For glazing this is a Competent Person (Glazing), often holding a SAGGA (South African Glass and Glazing Association) certificate of conformance.
You need a Competent Person (Glazing) when the design steps outside the deemed-to-satisfy tables. Deemed-to-satisfy means the standard prescriptive route: if you follow the published rules, you are deemed to comply without a separate calculation. Cases that need sign-off include any glazing that deviates from the pane size tables, two-edge supported double-glazed units, structural glass fins, overhead or sloped glazing, glass flooring, toughened shopfront assemblies, and external glazing in buildings over three storeys (over 10 metres). Glazing forms part of the building plans submitted to the local authority, so it is assessed at plan approval along with the rest of the work.
Common mistakes
- Plain glass in a shower. Any shower glazing within 1 800 mm of the bath or shower must be safety glass. Ordinary glass here is a common rejection.
- Ordinary glass in an entrance sidelight. Sidelights next to an entrance door up to 2 100 mm must be safety glazed.
- A low window without safety glass. A sill under 500 mm is an unconditional trigger, no exceptions.
- A balustrade in laminated glass that is not framed on all sides. Balustrade glass must be toughened unless rigidly supported on all sides.
- No permanent SANS 1263-1 mark. Every safety pane must be permanently marked before sign-off, or the inspector cannot confirm it is safety glass.
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