Frameless windows? Too good to be true

Q. I’m wondering about opening up my interior walls and installing some windows at the corners that are frameless so the views out the windows at the corners don’t have the corner look. That would make the view nicer. I saw examples on the Internet and it looks great. Since I have a lot of rebuilding to do from storm damage, this looked like a nice improvement. What do I need, and will I have to get a building permit?

A. I searched the Internet and found what you were looking at, and my suspicions were confirmed. The author of the article is a professional magazine writer who needed to do more research. The magazine presented color photos, used words like “vistas” and “charming” and even labeled the design “post-modern.” What it also could have done, to be more thorough, was inform readers that the corner windows, which are folded glass with no frames, require special cantilevered structure, and the application isn’t allowed in at least 40 states because it violates building codes.

On one of the first pages of the International Building Codes, there’s a diagram illustrating wind conditions and twisting/torsion of buildings, which is most extreme at the corners. Instead of just describing the windows post-modern, the writer also should have called them the “pre-disaster” elements of the building. Once the windows twist and shatter, the overhanging roof is pulled upward and rips away.