Collection: Glass clips

What Glazing Clips Do

Glazing clips hold panes against the frame without drilling the glass. They are the reason a greenhouse can be glazed by one person in an afternoon, and the reason panes can be replaced individually without dismantling anything.

They also allow movement. Glass and aluminium expand at different rates, and a pane held rigidly would crack as the frame moved around it. Clips grip firmly enough to hold and loosely enough to let the pane shift a fraction with temperature.

The Main Types

• W clips grip the edge of a pane to the glazing bar. They are the most common type and are used on vertical panes and roof glazing alike.
• Overlap or lap clips hold two panes together where one sits over the other, which is standard on traditional horticultural roofs.
• Z clips support an upper pane sitting over a lower one, keeping the overlap correctly seated so water runs off rather than in.
• Spring wire clips use tension rather than shape, and hold well on exposed sites where rattling is a problem.

Which you need depends on the frame profile and the glazing method, not on preference. If you are unsure, take an existing clip out and match it rather than guessing from a photograph.

Material

Stainless steel resists corrosion and is worth the small extra cost, particularly on coastal sites where galvanised clips pit within a few years. A corroded clip loses its spring long before it looks broken, and that is usually what precedes a pane working loose.

Replace as a Set

Clips age together. If storm damage has loosened several, the rest of that batch is the same age and has had the same exposure, so replacing the whole run costs little more than replacing four and prevents the same job recurring next winter.

Check them each spring as a matter of routine. Loose clips are audible in wind, and finding them then is considerably cheaper than finding them after a pane has gone.

Alongside Glazing Work

If you are replacing a pane, replace the clips holding it at the same time. Our replacement glazing covers standard pane sizes, and the spare parts range carries glazing bars, vent arms and door fittings for the same repairs.

Clean the channel before refitting. Grit trapped under a clip is a common cause of a pane cracking under load, and the cleaning range covers the thin tools that reach into the gap.