A film quotation is a promise about a building. The price depends on how much film, how much access, how much preparation and how many surprises — and only the first of those is easy to estimate. The rest come from a survey, and the survey is usually skipped because the buyer wants a number the same day.
What follows is the sheet we would use if we were quoting the installation ourselves. It is not a template for a report; it is a list of facts that change the answer.
1. The glass, not the window
Start with the build-up, because it eliminates options before price is even discussed. Single float, laminated, body-tinted, coated, or a sealed unit — and if it is a sealed unit, whether the coating is on surface two or three, and whether the cavity is air or gas.
Two practical tests that need no equipment. Hold a lighter or a phone torch at an angle and count the reflections: two reflections means a sealed unit or laminated glass, one means a single pane. Then look at the edge of the unit through the glass at a shallow angle: a hazy or milky band at the perimeter means the seal has started to fail, and a failing unit is not a filming candidate, whatever the film.
Record the thickness if you can read it on the spacer or the etch mark, and the pane dimensions for the largest and the smallest pane. Pane size is the input to every thermal stress question, and it is the number most often missing from an enquiry.
2. The frame and how the glass is held
For anything above fragment retention, the frame decides what is achievable. Note whether the glazing is dry-glazed with a gasket or wet-glazed with a bead, whether the rebate is deep enough to run an anchor, and whether the frame is aluminium, uPVC, timber or a structural silicone joint.
A dry-glazed unit with a soft gasket can be walked out of its frame with a lever regardless of film thickness. That is not a film problem, and a supplier who promises otherwise is selling a product that will not perform at the moment it matters.
3. Which way it faces, and what shades it
Record orientation per elevation, and what is outside: another building, a tree, a canopy, a reflective facade opposite. Two things follow. The solar load is set by orientation and shading, and the privacy question is set by what is opposite — a mirror film facing another office block is a complaint waiting to happen when the low sun bounces into their floor plate.
This is also where the daylight question gets answered. A north elevation with a glass curtain wall often needs glare control rather than heat rejection, and the cheaper specification is the correct one.
4. The room behind the glass
Film is bought by the building and judged by the room. Note what happens at 2 pm: desks facing screens, a reception with a monitor wall, a consulting room where someone sits at eye level, a stockroom where the packaging fades, a hotel room where the guest closes the curtain and defeats the whole installation.
The visible-light target comes from here, not from the film catalogue. This is the single most common source of callbacks: a film that hits the cooling target but leaves the floor too dark, or a frost band set at standing height in a room where everyone is seated.
5. Access, and what it costs
On commercial work, access regularly costs more than the film. Note floor level, whether there is a lift, whether the glass is reachable from inside without furniture removal, and for exterior work whether a cradle, rope access or a scaffold is needed and who books it.
Two details save money later. Interior work in an occupied building needs an out-of-hours slot, which changes the labour rate. Exterior work needs a weather window, which changes the schedule and sometimes the film: an exterior film applied in the wrong temperature will fail at the edge, and no amount of skill fixes that.
6. The number of panes, and the number of kinds of pane
Count panes per elevation and then group them by type. A building with four glass types is four specifications, four cutting lists and usually four delivery dates. Quoting it as one line per square metre is how a profitable job becomes a loss.
| Line | Record | Why it changes the price |
|---|---|---|
| Glass | Build-up, thickness, coating, largest pane | Eliminates options; sets the thermal stress question |
| Frame | Type, glazing method, rebate depth | Decides whether anchoring is possible at all |
| Elevation | Orientation, shading, what is opposite | Sets the solar load and the privacy risk |
| Room | Occupancy, screens, eye level | Sets the visible-light target and the frost band height |
| Access | Level, equipment, hours, weather | Often the largest single line in the quote |
| Quantities | Panes per type, per elevation | Drives cutting waste, packing and delivery phasing |
What the survey is really for
It is not to fill a form. It is to find the two or three facts that will decide whether this job is straightforward, marginal or wrong for film — and to say so before the order rather than after the installation. A survey that produces a price but no risk statement has done half the job.
When you send an enquiry to a supplier, the same six lines are what makes the reply useful. Without them you get a range per square metre, which is not a quotation and will not survive contact with the building.
Send a survey and get a specification back — glass, elevation, quantities and destination port are enough to start.
