How long does commercial glazing installation take? Timeline by project type
Commercial glazing installation takes anywhere from two days for a small storefront to four to six months for a full curtain wall on a mid-rise building. The range is that wide because the work is different at every scale. Storefront glazing is field-assembled from standard aluminum extrusions and glass. Curtain wall is engineered, shop-fabricated, and installed panel by panel or section by section across an entire building envelope. Knowing which system your project requires is the first step to building a realistic schedule.
What drives glazing installation timelines?
Three things control how long glazing takes: fabrication lead time, site readiness, and system type. Glass units are not stocked items. Insulated Glass Units, or IGUs, are made to order. Low-E coatings, specific U-factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient targets, tempered or laminated lites, custom sizes, all of those go into a shop drawing and fabrication queue before a single piece arrives on site. That queue alone can run four to ten weeks depending on the manufacturer and the order volume in the market.
Site readiness matters just as much. If the structural steel is not plumb, if concrete slab edges are poured out of tolerance, or if the GC has not provided approved Division 08 submittals, glazing crews wait. Every day of waiting on a glazing crew is a real cost.
System type is the third variable. Stick-built curtain wall requires more field labor than unitized curtain wall, which arrives pre-assembled in factory-built frames. Storefront requires less coordination than either.
How long does storefront glazing installation take?
For a single-tenant commercial storefront, plan on two to five working days for installation once materials are on site. A larger multi-bay retail or office entry with sidelites, transoms, and an automatic door cutout runs five to ten days.
The fabrication and lead time before installation begins is typically three to six weeks. That includes shop drawings, submittal review, approval, and glass fabrication. IBC Chapter 24 governs glass and glazing requirements for commercial storefronts, including safety glazing in hazardous locations. AAMA performance grades for storefront systems range from LC to CW depending on the wind load and water resistance requirements for your specific site.
If your project involves replacing existing storefront glass in an occupied building, the installation window often compresses to nights or weekends. Element13 handles both new construction and service and repair projects, so scheduling around tenant operations is something the team manages regularly. Learn more about storefront glass installation for occupied commercial properties.
How long does curtain wall installation take on a mid-rise building?
A mid-rise commercial building with a stick-built curtain wall system typically takes two to four months of field installation time, assuming a well-sequenced crew and materials delivered on a rolling schedule. Add four to eight weeks of lead time for fabrication after submittals are approved. Total project duration from contract to substantial completion on the glazing scope is often four to six months.
Unitized curtain wall, where panels arrive pre-glazed from the shop, can compress field time by thirty to fifty percent on large facades because crews are hanging and anchoring finished units rather than setting mullions, inserting glass, and applying pressure plates and glazing gaskets one piece at a time. The tradeoff is longer fabrication lead time and more demanding shop drawing coordination upfront.
For either system, the aluminum extrusions, typically 6063-T5 or 6063-T6 alloy, require thermal breaks, usually reinforced polyamide or polyurethane inserts, to meet current ASHRAE 90.1 and IECC energy code requirements. Structural silicone and glazing sealants are applied under controlled conditions, often in the shop for unitized systems, to meet ASTM testing standards.
Element13's NACC Master-Certified glaziers handle stick-built and unitized curtain wall on commercial projects across the Denver metro. For a detailed look at what curtain wall scope involves, visit the curtain wall installation page.
How long does window wall installation take?
Window wall sits between storefront and curtain wall in both complexity and installation time. It spans floor to floor and is anchored at slab edges, which means it depends heavily on concrete tolerances. A typical floor of window wall on a four to eight story building takes one to two weeks per floor for a experienced crew. Full building glazing on a project that size runs six to twelve weeks of field time, with three to five weeks of fabrication lead added before that.
Window wall is often chosen on multi-family and mixed-use commercial projects where floor plates repeat and costs need to be managed tightly. The tradeoff versus curtain wall is structural performance: window wall transfers loads at the slab, which can create acoustic and thermal bridging challenges that require careful detailing.
How does in-house fabrication affect your project schedule?
Element13 operates with in-house fabrication and assembly capability. That changes the schedule in a practical way. When fabrication is done in-house, shop drawings, material procurement, and assembly happen under one roof. Questions that would otherwise require back-and-forth between a glazing contractor and an outside fabricator get answered faster. Field dimensions can be checked against shop drawings without waiting on a third party.
For GCs managing tight construction schedules, this matters. A submittal revision that would take two weeks through an outside fabricator can often be turned in days when the team fabricating the glass is the same team reading the structural drawings.
This in-house capability also supports design-assist and value engineering work earlier in the project, before glass gets ordered, so there are fewer change orders later.
What can delay a commercial glazing project, and how do you avoid it?
The most common causes of glazing schedule delays are:
- Late or incomplete Division 08 submittals. Glass cannot be ordered until shop drawings are approved. Every week of review delay pushes the fabrication queue and the site start date.
- Structural or slab tolerance issues discovered after glazing begins. Mullion alignment depends on the substrate being within spec. Field corrections take time.
- Scope changes after glass is ordered. IGUs are custom-fabricated. A dimension change means a new order, a new lead time, and a gap in the schedule.
- Sequencing conflicts with other trades. Glazing crews cannot work safely if overhead concrete pours or welding work is happening in the same area.
- Weather holds on sealant work. Structural silicone and glazing sealants have temperature and humidity application windows. Forced delays in cold or wet conditions are real on Colorado job sites.
Element13's approach to avoiding these is communication before problems become delays. The leadership team, with over 40 years of combined experience, builds project schedules that account for fabrication lead times, submittal cycles, and trade sequencing. When something changes on site, the team flags it early.
Element13 also performs in-house air and water testing using ASTM E283, ASTM E331, ASTM E547, and ASTM E1105 protocols. Field testing during installation catches problems before they become warranty claims, which protects both the GC's schedule and the owner's long-term building performance.
How does Element13 manage scheduling for occupied buildings?
Service and repair projects on occupied buildings require a different scheduling approach than new construction. Tenants cannot have a storefront left open overnight. Building entrances cannot be blocked during business hours without a plan.
Element13 is signatory to the Glaziers Union Denver and operates with union-trained crews. That means field personnel are trained in safe, efficient work practices and phased installation sequences. The team phases jobs around occupied hours: early mornings, nights, weekends, or sequenced bays so access is maintained at all times.
For warranty-phase and post-construction repair work, Element13 also functions as a rescue specialist for projects where the original glazing contractor has left problems behind. That includes diagnosing water infiltration with in-house diagnostic testing, resealing or reglazying failed units, and documenting the corrective work for the building record.
For a full picture of the commercial glazing installation process, or to explore the broader range of glazier services Element13 provides across the Denver metro, those pages go deeper on each specific scope.
Frequently Asked Questions
Field installation on a mid-rise curtain wall project typically runs two to four months. Add four to eight weeks for fabrication after submittal approval. Total elapsed time from contract to glazing completion is commonly four to six months, depending on building size and system type.
Storefront is a non-structural system anchored at the floor and head, used for entries and ground-level glazing. Curtain wall spans the full building envelope, is hung from the structure floor to floor or at the roof, and carries its own dead load. Curtain wall requires more engineering, longer lead times, and more field labor.
IBC Chapter 24 requires safety glazing in hazardous locations, which for storefront typically means tempered glass meeting ASTM C1048 or laminated safety glass meeting ASTM C1172. Locations within 18 inches of a walking surface or within a certain distance of a door edge are common trigger zones. The project's architect of record specifies the exact requirements based on the building use and configuration.
Commercial curtain wall systems are typically specified at the CW or AW grade under the AAMA classification system. CW is Commercial grade, suitable for most low to mid-rise applications. AW, or Architectural grade, is required for high-rise or high-exposure conditions with demanding structural and water performance requirements. The project's structural engineer and glazing specifications determine which grade applies.
Division 08 covers doors, frames, and glass in the CSI specification format. A glazing submittal under Division 08 includes shop drawings showing framing layout, anchor locations, and glass unit sizes, plus product data for the glazing system, thermal performance calculations showing compliance with ASHRAE 90.1 or the applicable energy code, and test reports confirming the system meets the specified AAMA performance grade and ASTM structural, air, and water resistance standards. The GC provides the approved architectural drawings, structural drawings, and any project-specific performance criteria. The glazing contractor prepares the submittal package for engineer of record review and approval before fabrication begins.
When Glass Door Problems Can't Wait Contact Element13
Your building's glass front entrance doors handle hundreds of entries daily. When they fail, have cracked glass, broken closers, or hardware that won't engage, it's not just inconvenient, it's a security risk. Property managers and general contractors know that entrance problems reflect poorly on the entire building and create liability concerns.
