Daytime naps protected — with laminated safety glass as standard.
Sealed, discreet panels with no child-accessible moving parts.
Nurseries have a problem adult bedrooms do not: the sleep happens during the day, when London is at its loudest. Deliveries, refuse collection, school run traffic and street works all peak in exactly the window when a baby is meant to be napping.
A nursery specification therefore prioritises daytime broadband reduction and child safety. Laminated glass is standard in every unit we fit — if struck it holds together in the interlayer rather than breaking into fragments.
Between 08:00 and 18:00 a typical London residential street runs 8-15dB louder than overnight, and the events are more varied — reversing alarms, wheelie bins, car doors, drilling. Broadband reduction matters more than tuning for one dominant source.
All our acoustic glass is laminated, which is inherently safer than toughened or float glass in a room where a child plays. Fittings are specified without accessible pinch points, and catches on lift-out panels are positioned above child height.
Where the nursery window is a designated escape route, we fit sliding or hinged units with tool-free operation rather than lift-out panels.
Nurseries are usually kept warmer than the rest of the house, and single glazing makes that expensive and draughty. The same installation drops the window U-value from around 5.0 to 1.8 W/m²K and eliminates the cold downdraught next to the cot.
Nurseries are acoustically the most demanding room in a London house, because the sleep happens during the day when external noise is at its highest. Deliveries, school run traffic, refuse collection, roadworks and neighbours' building work all fall inside the nap window, and a young child woken at 13:30 does not go back to sleep.
The specification therefore has to hold up against the daytime ambient rather than the quieter night-time one. We specify the heaviest laminate the frame will carry with the deepest cavity available, and we prefer a sealed panel with no meeting stile: fewer joints, fewer leakage paths, and nothing that can be rattled or opened by a child.
Everything in a nursery specification is checked for what a toddler can reach. Panels are glazed in laminate rather than toughened, so a breakage holds together in the interlayer instead of falling as fragments. Catches are set at adult height. There are no trailing cords, no accessible track and no removable beading at low level.
Lift-out secondary glazing is the delivery route we recommend most often here for exactly these reasons: the panel is completely static in normal use, has no mechanism at all, and can be taken out by an adult in seconds for cleaning or for access in an emergency.
A sealed nursery needs an intentional air path. We keep trickle ventilation operable and, where the room has no alternative, recommend mechanical background ventilation — CO2 build-up in a small sealed room with the door closed is a real issue and we would rather design for it than ignore it.
Blackout blinds and secondary glazing interact physically, so we survey the blind fixing before manufacture and set the frame to clear it. Retrofitting a blind in front of a secondary panel that was set too far into the room is a common and avoidable annoyance.
| Specification | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard nursery window, 6.4mm | from £480 | Laminated safety glass included |
| Main-road nursery, 10.8mm | from £620 | 150mm cavity |
| Child-safe catch upgrade | £35 | Per window |
| Free acoustic sound survey | Free | Daytime measurement |
All prices supplied and fitted in London, inclusive of survey and warranty (10 years standard, 25 years premium and heritage). See the full secondary glazing price list.
Camden, NW5
Problem: 58dB daytime average with 88dB refuse-collection peaks; naps consistently cut short.
Solution: Single 10.8mm acoustic laminate slider at 150mm cavity with child-height catch positioning.
Result: Daytime level reduced to 29dB; refuse collection no longer audible enough to wake the child.
Free London survey, measured dB assessment and a written specification within 48 hours.
