diff --git a/lily/spacing-determine-loose-columns.cc b/lily/spacing-determine-loose-columns.cc
index 90db1e0..7fddb84 100644
--- a/lily/spacing-determine-loose-columns.cc
+++ b/lily/spacing-determine-loose-columns.cc
@@ -111,7 +111,8 @@ is_loose_column (Grob *l, Grob *col, Grob *r, Spacing_options const *options)
 		{
 		  extract_grob_set (h, "elements", helts);
 		  for (vsize k = helts.size (); k--;)
-		    if ("" != robust_scm2string (helts[k]->get_property ("glyph-name"), ""))
+		    // Only non-empty bar lines count.
+		    if (h->extent (h, X_AXIS).length () > 0)
 		      return false;
 		}
 	    }