My house is all double glazed except a pair of french doors which have toughened glass. The doors are wooden and I have just found some rot. All the doors and window frames in the house are dark stained wood.
I need to think about replacing the french doors but the opening is only 50 inches wide so the normal sliding doors are not an option. As the opening is fairly narrow I also want to maximise the daylight so I want fairly slender frames.
Any ideas anyone?
Go for aluminium frames - you'll get a lot more glass than if you go for uPVC.
Go for the powder coated thermal break variety. They look very smart, and have a thermal efficiency approaching that of uPVC - especially if you use K-glass.
Does it *all* need to open? If not, you could have a fixed pane and a normal width hinged door - which would give more light than two narrower doors.
I have two similar openings. One is 53" wide and has a single wide door and non-opening side panel. The other is 50" wide and has a pair of narrower doors - all in thermal break aluminium. If you're interested, I could email you a picture of either or both tomorrow (it's getting a bit dark to do it today!).
Thanks for that - it would be better if the 'side panel' could also open as it is really useful for moving furniture in if I can have the full opening on occasions.
What sort of cost might I be looking at? I am reluctant to approach the usual Double Glazing firms for just one item.
"John" wrote | My house is all double glazed except a pair of french doors which | have toughened glass. The doors are wooden and I have just found | some rot. All the doors and window frames in the house are dark | stained wood. | I need to think about replacing the french doors but the opening | is only 50 inches wide so the normal sliding doors are not an option. | As the opening is fairly narrow I also want to maximise the daylight | so I want fairly slender frames. | Any ideas anyone?
Sounds like you want wood to coordinate with the rest of the house and offer thin frames.
Wickes have a selection of unequal-sized French doors which have a 'normal' width door on one side and a 'narrow' width door on the other, so you can use the normal door for access and then open the other half when you want the full space opened.
Owain
I honestly don't know about cost because one of mine was part of a whole-house double glazing job nearly 20 years ago, and the other was part of a recent extension - where the builder bundled the cost of the windows into the overall cost.
If it all needs to open, it would look better as two equal doors. The narrow panel only gains you a bit a light in cases where it *doesn't* open - so you save some frame members.
As far as a supplier is concerned, look in Yellow Pages and try to find someone who makes windows locally. *Don't* go to the national companies!
Some options
a) Get the Magnet, Jewson and Boulton and Paul//John Carr/Jeld-Wen catalogues and see if there is a standard product that will fit in the gap that you have.
b) Ask local glass merchants if they can supply aluminium frames. If so give them dimensions and ask for quote to supply or supply and fix.
Also, go to
Michael Chare
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