Our Bunbury bathroom has a full-height window beside the bath and a glass shower screen. The glazier says ordinary annealed glass is fine for the window because it is not a door. When does bathroom glazing have to be safety glass?

The glazier is wrong, and the reason is the test itself. The bathroom glazing rule does not ask whether the glass is a door. It catches all glazing in bathrooms, ensuites and spa rooms, including shower screens, bath enclosures and associated windows and doors, where the lowest sight line is less than 2.0 m above the highest abutting finished level of the floor, the bottom of the bath, or the shower base. [1] A full-height window beside a bath has its lowest sight line close to the floor, so it is caught. Ordinary annealed glass does not comply.

The datum that matters. The 2.0 m is measured from the highest of three levels: the finished floor, the bottom of the bath, or the shower base. [1] Next to a bath, the bath bottom can sit above the floor, so the window only escapes if its lowest sight line is 2.0 m or more above whichever of those levels is highest. A full-height window cannot get there.

What the window and screen must be. Where 8.4.6 applies, the glazing must be: [1]

• Framed panels: Grade A safety glazing material in accordance with Table 8.4.2.
• Panels or doors with any edge exposed: toughened safety glass in accordance with Table 8.4.6, minimum nominal thickness 6 mm.

A framed window takes the first route. A frameless or semi-frameless shower screen has exposed edges, so it takes the second: toughened, at least 6 mm. The 10 mm rule for unframed doors elsewhere in the house does not apply here, because it expressly excludes doors incorporated in shower screens or bath enclosures, and doors in bathrooms are sent back to 8.4.6. [3]

Where annealed glass is allowed in a bathroom. Only two places: [2]

• Mirrors, with a fixed vanity or bench not less than 760 mm high and 300 mm deep across the full width of the mirror, in front of it.
• Splash-backs, fully backed by and continuously adhered to a solid wall or a fixed cabinet or bench, with a bench of the same 760 mm by 300 mm across the full width in front.

A window is neither, so the exemption does not help.

The other compliance route. Part 8.4 is the deemed-to-satisfy route. It need not be followed if the glazing is designed, constructed and installed to AS 1288 for the glass and AS 2047 for windows instead. [4] [5] That is a design route for the glazier to document, not a reason to use annealed glass on a hunch.

Proof on site. Safety glass must be marked by permanent etching or a label that cannot be reused once removed, stating the Standard it was tested to, the manufacturer or supplier, the grade, the nominal thickness and the type. [6] The explanatory information says the label should stay in place so practitioners can confirm the right glass went in. [6] Leave it on until the certifier has checked it.

A shower screen caution. Safety organic-coated and laminated products near showers can be damaged by thermal shock, when hot shower water hits the screen in cold weather. [7] Worth raising when the screen is specified.

Practical next step. Tell the glazier the window is caught by 8.4.6 because its lowest sight line is below 2.0 m. Ask for Grade A safety glass in the window frame, toughened safety glass of at least 6 mm for any shower screen panel with an exposed edge, and the safety glass marking left on both for inspection.

WA edition note. WA is on NCC 2025, and a permit applicant may still elect NCC 2022 (Amendments 1 and 2) for applications made before 1 May 2027. [10] WA's only change to the glazing section is window installation (WA 8.2.2), not the human impact rules. [8] NCC 2022 has the same 2.0 m trigger, the same two glazing options and the same mirror and splash-back exceptions, so the election makes no difference here. [9]