Glass block windows in bathroom?

[SuzyQue]

My daughter just bought a house. The only window in the bathroom is over the bathtub. It is at normal window height (not high up) and the people who owned the home before just put blinds on it (?). Well rather than drywall it all up and have no window in the room, or cut and re-drywall to put in a horizontal window higher up, we were thinking about replacing it with glass blocks including one with the vent window. Anyone ever used them in their bath.~~

 

[kpadalik]

When my parents remodeled their bathroom, they put a large wall of glass block (4ft x 4ft maybe?) by the garden tub. Except for a skylight in the ceiling, that is the only window. It looks really nice!

 

[DianeV]

Our house we lived in and are renting out now has block window we put in. Just make sure you use the iced type look or something frosted for extra privacy. It has worked just fine

 

[Whitty]

Keep in mind that "real glass block" allows a lot of heat to pass through therefore making your bathroom really hot all the time. There is also an acrylic product that you can get "low-e" tint on it to make it cooler. "Real glass block" holds up better. I'm not sure if it would be a problem in your area though....

 

[tipsytrtle]

my husband just put one in on a rental property in the bathroom looks good.. i wish we had one now LOL

 

[My2Cinderellas]

we had a regular window in the bath at our old house. Originally it did not have a shower head, so the regular window over the bathtub wasn't an issue. But somewhere along the way one of the previous owners added a shower head and tiled the walls. But left the regular window. When DH moved in (he owned the house when we met) the previous owner had hung a 2nd shower curtain to cover the window up, but that also blocked the light. the window frame was moldy and rotten and nasty.

We has glass blocks installed and loved it! We found a box of the shower tiles (4" squares) in the garage and DH made a border around the window to finish off the edges. The blocks we chose had a random wavy pattern and let in tons of light but you could not see in from the outside.

The window was on the east side of the house, and the amount of light with the glass blocks was blinding first thing in the morning, especially in the winter with the different angle of the sun. But it was a real selling point when we sold the house. It let in so much light and looked updated. The glass blocks and installation were around $400-500 10 years ago.

 

[MBinTN]

You can also buy spray paint (it's made for glass) to give the glass a frosted effect. Rustolem makes it. This will give you cheap and temporary privacy until you replace the window with whatever you choose.

 

[CLR4321]

Another option is to get frosted glass windows. I have one in my bathroom, am not sure about the cost as I rent my house, but can say that it is perfectly private...we don't even need curtains!

 

[minnie1928]

The house behind me had glass block windows over their garden tub. It looked really nice and she was very happy with it, until at a neighborhood get together my other neighbor told her that she could see through the glass block from her kitchen window. Several days after that a curtain went up over the glass block. The privacy factor is not as good as you would think.

Also, FWIW the glass block window had major issues with seals and condensation. During the 8 years they had the house, the window was replaced at least 3 times. Finally they pulled it out and put a standard window in.

 

[dis-happy]

I agree, it's not as private as you think! If it's located where other people can see in (and I take it that's the reason you are doing this) don't do it. If you are in there at night with the lights on you can see a lot of shadows and shapes, enough to at least kind of know what you are seeing.

The simplest and easiest way to fix this problem: you can buy a product that sticks to your glass and it comes in lots of different patterns, from more opaque to less opaque. Cut to fit, wet the window, lay it on there, press out the bubbles and you are good to go. I put this on my garage windows and love it...it lets the light in but no one can see inside. I purchased mine at a wallpaper store, it's good stuff.

Other than that, I'd go with some nice planatation shutters thata can opened and directed as needed for light and privacy.

 

[MrandMissVacation]

Our home has them in all the bathrooms (and the laundry room). I wasn't sure about it at first,but we love it. Easy to clean. Lots of natural light. We don't use curtains or blinds and I feel that our privacy is maintained. Looking through is distorted.. can't really 'see' anything.

Michelle

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

Is there a ventillation fan in the bathroom? You need some way for air to circulate in there. If you do not have a window opening, some building codes require an exhaust fan to be installed. You may want to investigate this before you use glass blocks in the window opening.

 

[SuzyQue]

Yes there is a ventilation fan and we would also like one of the glass blocks to have the vent with screen opening.~~