A few years back, just about every counter in town sprouted a plastic shield held up with zip ties
and good intentions. They did the job — for a while. Then they scratched, clouded over,
yellowed, and started looking exactly as temporary as they were. The permanent, professional
version of that idea is custom glass, and it’s a different experience entirely. We recently built and
installed one for a local pizza restaurant here in Hickory.

The Project

We fabricated a custom sneeze guard from 1/4-inch laminated glass, mounted in a clean
U-channel base and cut to fit the restaurant’s counter exactly. It went in as a permanent fixture
— no clamps, no wobble, no makeshift look. Just a crisp glass barrier that looks like it was
always meant to be there.

Why Glass Beats Off-the-Shelf Plastic

Acrylic and plexiglass are cheap up front, and it shows. They scratch if you look at them wrong,
haze over with cleaning, and yellow with age and UV exposure. Glass stays optically clear,
shrugs off scratches, and cleans up perfectly with the same sanitizers a kitchen already uses
— no special care, no cloudy film. In a food setting, where the barrier is in plain view of every
customer, that clarity is part of how clean the whole place looks.

Why Laminated Glass Specifically

We used laminated glass — two layers bonded with a tough interlayer, the same construction
as a car windshield. If it’s ever struck hard enough to break, it holds together instead of falling
into pieces. Over a food-prep counter, with customers and staff on both sides, that safety margin
is exactly what you want.

Custom-Fit Is the Whole Point

Off-the-shelf shields come in a handful of sizes and rarely match your counter. A custom piece is
measured, cut, and finished for your space — the right height to protect the food, the right length

to span the counter, and a clean U-channel mount that keeps the glass steady without bulky
brackets. The result protects what it needs to while practically disappearing.

Not Just Restaurants

The same custom glass barrier works anywhere people meet across a counter: reception desks,
checkout stations, pharmacy and bank windows, medical offices, and service counters of all
kinds. If you’ve still got a temporary plastic panel up — or you want a partition that looks
intentional rather than improvised — glass is the upgrade.

What a Project Like This Costs

Pricing depends on the size of the glass, the mounting, and any custom shaping. This particular
sneeze guard — 1/4-inch laminated glass, U-channel mount, custom fabrication, and
installation — came to about $1,450. For a permanent, professional fixture that outlasts a stack
of disposable plastic shields, it’s an easy upgrade to justify.

Want a Custom Glass Barrier for Your Counter?

We measure, fabricate, and install custom glass sneeze guards and partitions for restaurants
and businesses across the Hickory area. At All Glass of Hickory, if it’s glass, we can build it to fit.