New Kitchen/Living extension. What glass sliding doors and rooflights?

[Triggaaar]

Hi all

 

We've just applied for planning permission for a single story extension in Brighton, and if it passes (and we can get the money) I'd like to start with build as soon as the worst of the winter is over.

 

That means trying to get quotes as soon as I can, which means trying to make decisions now.

 

The plan is for the finished room to be 7.6m wide x 9.2m long, 2.8m high (internal). The intention is for the East elevation to be glass sliding doors. The opening should be 7m or 7.2m wide,  2.76m tall, and we'd like to go for 3 panels. Either fixed on one side, with 2 sliding, or all 3 sliding (budget dependent). So the doors should be flush with the ceiling.

 

The doors need to be relatively easy to open (most good makes are). That aside, this is the order of my criteria:

1) for the doors are for them to last a long time. I don't want them to be knackered after 10/15 years.

2) for them to not cost too much

3) for them to have a reasonable thermal efficiency - we're in an Edwardian house, so the rest of the house isn't great with heat. This new room (75 sq metres) is going to be used the most though, so if possible I'd like it to be pretty efficient. Presumably some heat will leak through the door to the rest of the house, so there's a limit on how far we should go with insulation. I imagine tripple glazing would be too expensive for us, and decent double glazing should do.

4) profile width. Slim is better than wide, and if it cost a little more (all other things being equal) we could go slim, but I wouldn't want to blow the budget for a slimmer profile.

 

Some of the brands we're looking at:

Air door 600 LS

Solarlux SL 160

Express bifolds (sliding doors)

Skyglaze

 

Here are the proposed elevations:

 

 

Any suggestions on brand or installation companies would be much appreciated

 

Also, we'd like to install a flat rooflight (or 3). Looking at the East Elevation, this would go on the left, close to the house - so over what is currently the side return.

I've looked at a few manufacturers, and while it's reasonably affordable to buy a 3m x 1m rooflight, the price wouldn't include installation, and at about 170kg, it won't be easy to get up there and installed. 3 smaller units would be easier, but they'd cost more and IMO won't look as good.

Note, there's no enough access round the back of the house for large machinery, so I expect everything will need to be carried around.

 

I've been watching my share of building programs, and one option that looks good is a metal frame system, which gets fitted before adding the individual glazing. That would give a decent size without each element being too heavy. But I've no idea where to shop for something like that.

 

Again, any suggestions would be much appreciated