Most people like the great outdoors particularly if the weather is good. For many, spending time at home enjoying the garden or patio is essential leisure. The patio is usually at the rear of most homes where you can relax in private and enjoy the surroundings. Access onto you patio area is usually via a door way. This door way may lead directly from a lounge or kitchen onto the patio. Access may be via a sliding patio door. These door units have been used in the home for many years now. Many new homes are built incorporating sliding doors that open onto a patio.
Sliding patio doors are usually quite large and therefore let lots of light shine through into the room. They are quite easy to install. You may have a room with a standard window fitted. To convert this window to a patio door is relatively simple job. It will involve removing the old window and cutting out the portion of the wall immediately below the window sill, which is none load bearing. Some making good of the walls at the cut positions will be necessary. There are no structural alternations as the lintel above the existing window will remain in place. Obtaining permission from your local building inspector should be relatively straight forward. Probably their main interest will be in the glass use in the new patio doors. Regulations dictate that it should conform to particular rules from a thermal efficiency point of view. This relates to the rate the glass will allow heat to transfer. The building inspector will also be interested in the safety features of the glass. All glass windows and doors below a certain height (usually 800mm from finished floor level) must be safety glass. The purpose of the safety glass is to reduce injury. If someone accidentally falls against the glass, and the pane breaks, features inherent in safety glass will prevent serious injury.
Sliding type doors would be the normal choice for smaller openings up to say 2.8 m. If the opening is much larger perhaps 5 m then other door systems, such as folding sliding doors, should be considered. This system consists of a number of doors connected to each other with hinges. To open simply fold each door onto its neighbor and slide the entire door system to one side. They are more expensive than the sliding only doors but well worth a consideration.
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