Internal windows in a design?

[Dreadnaught]

What do people think about internal windows in a design?

 

I have large plate glass floor-to-ceiling window on one side of a corridor which could throw light into a bedroom on the other side of the corridor if I put an internal window. That internal window could perhaps be high up (I have 3m ceilings in that area). Its also worth mentioning that that bedroom has no other windows other than roof lights.

 

I am slightly concerned about sound ingress with internal windows. And whether they can be made to look any good. 

 

Anybody have any internal windows in their design? What do you think of them?

[PeterW]

I stay in a hotel that has an internal window between the bathroom and the bedroom...! It doesn’t let noise through and it has a built in blind between the panes which is electric and just looks superb.  

[Dreadnaught]

  On 26/08/2018 at 20:37, PeterW said:

it has a built in blind between the panes which is electric and just looks superb

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Oh that's a clever idea, and most encouraging.

[Jeremy Harris]

We have an internal window from our very high (~6m) hall to one of our bathrooms.  I made the window from glass bricks, as these let light in yet provide good soundproofing.  It works very well, and lets in a surprising amount of light.

[Dreadnaught]

  On 26/08/2018 at 20:45, JSHarris said:

We have an internal window from our very high (~6m) hall to one of our bathrooms. 

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Oh interesting. What was your motivation? Did that one bedroom not have much external light?

[newhome]

  On 26/08/2018 at 20:37, PeterW said:

I stay in a hotel that has an internal window between the bathroom and the bedroom...! It doesn’t let noise through and it has a built in blind between the panes which is electric and just looks superb.  

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I stayed in a hotel in Barcelona that had this. Looked great! 

 

[jack]

We have a full width window between our bedroom and the double height space above our kitchen/diner. It was inspired by pics we saw of Trevor Nelson's house a few years back:

 

 

I think the idea can be very interesting if handled well.

[Dreadnaught]

@jack, wow, spectacular!

[NSS]

  On 26/08/2018 at 21:39, Dreadnaught said:

@jack, wow, spectacular!

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+1 ?

[Ferdinand]

I think they can work suprbly @Dreadnaught, but you need to avoid thinking about them like external windows.

 

It is about what yo want to let through ... light, views, colour etc ... and what you want to keep out, and from which spaces and angles.

 

Tints, stained glass, shapes eg whole walls or vertical or horizontal slits at eg eye level or not eye level, are part of your toolkit.

 

Personally is have a special love of etched glass and modern stained glass used as a screen, to give a view through but also a foreground focus.

 

Go for it.

 

Ferdinand

Edited August 26, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Russell griffiths]

Probably an obvious comment, but remember it wil need to be safety glass if within 800 mm of the floor. 

[mike2016]

Yep, plan to have one looking down from the landing onto the open plan living / kitchen area with a perch/window seat. Large Velux windows in the living/kitchen vaulted ceiling will offer a perspective outside also. 

[Jeremy Harris]

  On 26/08/2018 at 20:52, Dreadnaught said:

 

Oh interesting. What was your motivation? Did that one bedroom not have much external light?

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Out of necessity, the bathrooms have no windows (planners wouldn't allow roof windows on that elevation, and the first floor is room in roof).  Bathrooms with no windows are fine, but I felt it would be useful to steal some light from the very bright hall, which has a 5m high fully glazed gable that's South facing and dead opposite where I've fitted that bathroom internal window.  I used glazed bricks because they are much cheaper than very thick acoustic glazing (we would have needed something like recording studio glazing to keep "bathroom noises" from echoing around the large hall area) and also because glazed bricks added a bit of interest and looked a bit nicer than an obscured glass window.  The other advantage they have is that they are hermetically sealed hollow glass, so there's never going to be a risk of a seal breaking down and condensation forming inside the bricks.

 

The annoying thing is that glazed bricks used to be made in their thousands here in the UK, but now it seem you have to import them from France for some reason.

[vivienz]

Brilliant ideas.  Looking forward to seeing how this one develops.

[ToughButterCup]

  On 26/08/2018 at 20:29, Dreadnaught said:

What do people think about internal windows in a design?

[...]

Anybody have any internal windows in their design? What do you think of them?

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We have three (one's a  door) 

The whole house design relies on the light harvested by those three windows. Looking at them now (they've only just been installed ) I'm thinking about privacy: you can see straight through our house..... and my relaxed attitude to undress. Hmmmm.

 

[jack]

  On 26/08/2018 at 21:39, Dreadnaught said:

@jack, wow, spectacular!

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Just to be clear, that's Trevor Nelson's house, not mine!

[Dreadnaught]

  On 27/08/2018 at 13:30, jack said:

Just to be clear, that's Trevor Nelson's house, not mine!

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I did wonder. I suspect yours is even more colourful! ?

[jack]

Way less, actually. We haven't done much furnishing, and even when we do I suspect it'll be a bit quieter than his place. I really, really like it though.

[Mr Punter]

We used full height glazing to the stairs in this open plan room and another stair / landing which works OK.  Like @Russell griffiths said, safety glass and this was also laminated for fall protection.

[Lesgrandepotato]

We have one, it’s pretending to be an old door in a converted space. It connects the atrium to the upstairs lounge. It’s just a standard velfac double glazed unit. Only one on the house!

[AliG]

We have a glazed wall between the pool and the gym.

 

I am not sure that this applies in England, but in Scotland it had to meet the requirement for walls between rooms to cut sound by at least 40dB.

 

It is roughly 2.3x2m, we were quoted some insane prices to get the acoustic qualities, I think the highest quote was £4000.

 

Eventually we got a place to do it, the quote said a single unit, what it didn't say was that in their small print if the glass is over 1.2m wide then it will be more than one pane even though it is a single unit. So £2000 and not what we wanted or specified. There is some argument about who is at fault for this, it seems ridiculous to put this in your T&Cs not the actual quote.

 

It is 2 layers of 11.5mm laminated glass. It does provide fantastic sound insulation, much better than a stud wall.

 

Anyway, my wife wants it taken out and replaced with a single unit, all the people who do glazed screens said they cannot supply it, then I realised that our hall windows are almost the same size.

 

We have contacted Rationel and they say that they can provide a double glazed window with 40dB of sound reduction, I think they can go up to 42-43dB in triple glazing. I reckon this will be about £1000-1500.

 

We had reservations about using an outside window as the frame wouldn't look right which is why we contacted people who do glass screens, however, we are now looking either into hiding the frame in the wall or getting the cheapest frame and then taking the double glazed unit out and putting it into a channel in the wall.

[Lesgrandepotato]

I’m not sure sound bleed is an issue. (Unless it’s in building regs) our window is fitted and currently has a 10mm gap above it. It needs me, some compriband and a brave pill to access it and I’m seriously considering making it openable once we have building regs signed off. It’ll let us vent heat from the lounge into the atrium in winter and open the whole house around the negative space oak tree to have an extra party mode. 

[AliG]

I checked the building regs for England and Scotland and the 40dB reduction only applies if the room can be used for sleeping, our gym could be classed as a bedroom.

 

The regs also do not apply between an en suite and a bedroom and in England a wall which also has a door in it.

[Lesgrandepotato]

Makes sense ours is from a lounge to the atrium. 

[Mr Punter]

  On 02/09/2018 at 10:45, AliG said:

I checked the building regs for England and Scotland and the 40dB reduction only applies if the room can be used for sleeping, our gym could be classed as a bedroom.

 

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As you just have a pool and a gym you would not need to consider acoustic issues. Although the gym could, in future, be used as a bedroom, it looks unlikely and the regs only take account of the current usage. An example is that you will need a heat detector in a kitchen, but if it were to become a lounge or bedroom you may need a smoke detector.