Garald

Explain?

(And how do I get this kind of four-panel secondary glazing in France? All the hits I get for "vitrage secondaire" are in Belgium! I suppose I could get a kit somewhere else and bring it here somehow...

If it were possible to install secondary glazing with four panes, with the central two planes sliding onto the two side panes, then that would do it (given the right dimensions). The distance between the primary double glazing and the secondary glazing would be large (22cm, or at any rate at least 16cm, if the secondary glazing is recessed), but that's not necessarily a bad thing (I'd need to ask an applied-math friend). Is this what people have in mind? Is it likely to be affordable?

That's the switch for the motorized awnings (which should help during the summer). Right - I'm having a hard time picturing how that would ever work: while only the middle windows move (the outer panels are stationary), they open both in the "normal" way and in the "German" way (they tilt). Basically, I would need to install another set of windows, set on the other side of the windowsill (some 20cm in), with the middle panels opening (in the "normal" way, at least). That is certainly not an inexpensive hack - and I do not know how well a 20cm-deep parallelopiped (as opposed to a 2cm-deep layer of air, say) would provide sound insulation. Or is this really much simpler than I think?

Here are some pictures of my windows. Where would the secondary (tertiary?) glazing go? I don't see where it would fit, but then I don't know anything about this. If I've got the specs right, this window offers a sound reduction of 38dB.

Uh... I own flowerpots? And there is a sidewalk? The noise is airborne - at least the noise that bothers me. There's a little bit of rumble when a bus or truck passes, but that's barely noticeable - it's the motorbikes that really bother me, particularly at night. It's a two-lane street, not a highway. See picture. (The first floor and the attic are mine; thankfully, the ground floor isn't, not on this side (except for the bike garage). The vans you see here are parked on this street.)

I already have new sound-reduction windows (which work pretty well, but any additional dB of sound reduction would be wonderful, particularly at night). You mean a second set of sound-reduction windows, at some distance from them (on the other side of the window-sill, say)? That would be a very expensive and convoluted solution. Yes, I wish I had got top-spec sound-reduction windows rather than sound-reduction windows that are some 3dB weaker than top-spec, but that was not my decision (I found out later) and what is done is done. What I ended up with is very noticeably better than the double-glazing the previous owners had.

OK, the manufacturer (Thiebaut) confirms that that particular model does not have good sound or heat insulation properties. I wonder, however, if there is a model on the market that does have the required properties. I don't see a reason a priori for there not to be one, if the fit is very tight. There are sliding sound-protection shutters (https://www.ehret.com/en/extra-functions/sound-protection) but they wouldn't fit outside my windows.

Right, but what about a model without louvres (given as an option in the link I gave: "volets pleins", even if only the model with louvres is depicted)? They would require me to rethink a few things. Also, they would have to be of the same build as the model I linked to (four panels on each side). But the overall effect seems to still be minor (the contractor will get me the technical specifications)... and look pretty terrible with what I have got. The previous owners had (cheap) roller shutters, so I know. I can include pictures.

For instance, is a model like this one likely to have any sound insulation properties worth mentioning? https://volets-thiebaut.com/volet/volet-bois/volet-bois-coulissant/volet-coulissant-pliant-bois#en-savoir-plus

The shutters I thought I'd get for the street-side windows haven't arrived - it turns out the contractor took forever to order them, and now the factory says it's out of parts. The contractor is proposing roller shutters, adducing that they provide heat and sound insulation, and other kinds of shutters would provide virtually none. I can easily believe that most shutters of a traditional kind provide little heat and sound insulation - I mean, there are spaces between the rails in a shutter panel. But are there shutters that provide about as much sound and heat insulation without being a roller shutter? Sound insulation is a priority - and I simply do not like what roller shutters look like.

Well, air would move around the radiator eventually, but if the bench top is very close to the radiator (1cm, say) and the bench has an apron (that's the term), then the contribution of the two can slow air flow, no? That's at least what the contractor thought.

Sure, I made that calculation at the beginning. The power of the radiator won't get cut? The contractor was very critical of a drawing made by somebody who is not me, showing a border under the bench seat which would have boxed the radiator in to some extent. According to him, that would get in the way of function. Is that right?

I have low, broad cast-iron radiators under my living room/library windows. I've been thinking of creating reading nooks covering the windowsills (which exist now because of insulation), extending above the radiators. Is this a good idea, or would it drastically decrease the radiators' effectiveness? Also, how do I keep the radiators from overheating/warping the wood in the long term? (Is there a minimal distance?) Here is what I have in mind:

Oh, these doors have been there since goodness knows when - the contractor said it would be hard to find them in those dimensions nowadays. I just had them stripped of paint (since lead paint was detectable on them) and repainted.

There's no Havsta model that is both short and shallow.

Sure, tell me (... and I'll have to chug the shelves along on Eurostar).

I'm sure there would be cost-efficient ways to use other HAVSTA units as a source of matching material; one can take https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/havsta-plinthe-blanc-50388664/ , for instance - just three units like these could be repurposed to be build an open top shelf for these six bookshelves. The bottleneck is just the lack of cabinetry skills and tools on my part. Of course I could try to find a joiner...

So - the noise level in what will be the library/piano room is acceptable (thanks to the anti-noise double glazing), but I'm looking forward to gain every dB of silence I can. Not sure of whether I will install curtains - from what I understand, even lined curtains may not help that much (and for them to help at all, one needs to use a single panel with velcro on the sides... I wonder what my gf will think of that). I haven't noticed any cracks or empty space around the window frame, but one can never be too sure. So, I've just been looking for acoustic sealant - to find, to my surprise, many kinds and brands of sealant, just not any (in France) that is specifically branded as acoustic sealant. Is all sealant created equal? Should I just be looking for any tube of sealant (with one of those Spanish-Inquisition devices for getting the sealant out of the tube)?

The dominant species in my library is now the HAVSTA bookshelf (https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/havsta-etagere-avec-plinthe-blanc-00388633/). As you can see in the picture below, I have plenty of space above the bookshelves, and the need to use it. As you can also see, just putting books directly on top of the bookshelves looks very untidy. What would be some easy hacks for extending these bookshelves? (Note: I have a drill, but I am not an experienced handiman, so keep the difficulty level low. Of course one can always learn, but please mind that I cannot lose fingers - I need them so as to torture innocent pianos.) One possibility would be wall-mounted BESTAs (https://www.ikea.com/fr/fr/p/besta-structure-blanc-00245917/). Downsides: a) possibly too tall and shallow (though as you can see I have mostly paperbacks) b) the tone of white and the material ( = not wood) may just be off by enough to give an uncanny-valley effect. Pine in the same tone of white would be ideal, but I may be open to other colors (though that might make things look like a bookshop for hyperlexic children). I'm obviously open to sources other than IKEA. PS. If only HAVSTAs came with just a bit of supporting tripping on top, like their predecessor (what was it called?)... PPS. Yes, I'll get made-to-order shelves for the street-side bookshelves, which are more of a challenge. Saving for that by relying on IKEA for the rest.

:(. Well, in case it serves as any consolation, I'm having trouble ordering German bookcases to be delivered to France. Wait - is there no IKEA in the UK any longer? Or has it gone up in price?

Oh, I meant IKEA "solid pine", as in their higher-end stuff, not their usual stuff.

Nice. So, this means what - that pine is as good or almost as good as the rest for shelves, but that hardwood is better for the frame? (It would also be helpful if there were a subspecies called "IKEA pine".)

Right, that's part of what I want to know. Of course I can avoid that by reading reviews, and ordering one before ordering more. There could be more subtle mistakes, though.

But how do I evaluate the quality of solid-wood kit furniture (that is not IKEA)? Take, for instance https://www.otto.de/p/home-affaire-buecherregal-soeren-aus-massiver-kiefer-in-2-hoehen-und-2-tiefen-mit-viel-stauraum-394011906/#variationId=394011928 (which I cannot order from France, but whose dimensions are basically what I am looking for). Is that really better than BILLYs (which are much cheaper)? Would it last? Is it worth it? (It's a fraction of the cost of a made-to-order bookcase, even if one skips the carpenter and goes for a made-to-measure kit furniture website such as Pickawood (or are there notably better websites of the same kind?).)