10m bi-folding or patio door?

blackshirtuk

Remembered!!

found a couple of pics outside




Night time feature of the Roof Lantern

ns

mandm65

blackshirtuk wrote: »

Remembered!!

found a couple of pics outside

Night time feature of the Roof Lantern

ns

Night time feature must have wow factor, i guess its just LED lights?

Paulrm71

That's a fantastic looking extension blackshirtuk, do you mind me asking the manufacturer of your bifold doors? I am considering either Origin or Shuco, but am undecided. Did/do you have any issues with your doors?
Thanks

blackshirtuk

Paulrm71 wrote: »

That's a fantastic looking extension blackshirtuk, do you mind me asking the manufacturer of your bifold doors? I am considering either Origin or Shuco, but am undecided. Did/do you have any issues with your doors?
Thanks

doors are origin, they have been great even though we installed them ourselves!

actually fairly straight forward once the frame was level and plumb, the doors, glass etc went in very easily.

The lights are just led strips but i think they look great!

ey143

Ok I finally got round to doing it. Here are our ground floor plans and 3D mock ups.

mandm65

cool design ey143, is that a DIY or some nifty 3D design software you use?
BTW small observation, your design suggest that you planned sky light vertically while blackshirtuk has sky light installed horizontally!

blackshirtuk

That looks great, and expensive! Is it a new build or an extension? If extension where are the current walls?

looks like 2 roof lights of different sizes, one large one over the sofa/dining table and a smaller one towards the end of the kitchen island. looks a little odd to me, why not the same size even if both end up up smaller?

ey143

Hi

mandm65 - yes my architect used a program called Archicad to design the remodel of our 1930 house. It cost £4,000 he tells me but it generates 3D rendered images. Its almost like that computer game, The Sims as he showed us in real time whilst on his laptop as if we walked through our new double front door and walk up stairs into each room, look left and right up and down and we can move walls or change anything in real time and see the effect happen. But I'm paying him £6k for a complete service, including 10 site visits during construction phase, handling the permitted development application and a second planning application after we build the extension. We plan to move the front door and stairs to the middle of the house etc. He also will deal with the contracts tendering and payment certificates. Not sure if i will pay this amount again in future for such a service, but on average the 3D model costs between £600 and £1000 depending on the size of the house and how many new rooms you want to see imaged. End users often don't want to pay for this and instead incorrectly visualise the end product based on 2D drawings and then during building phase totally change their mind, costing them several thousands of pounds more to get "their vision" right. If I get his archicad files, I can use a bmx viewer to see the house model on my ipad
But see http://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/ for more info.

The reason for the roof lights placed that way, is because we have a L shaped house which the proposed plans above do not show from the original or from the first floor. I post these below. He tells me that we need as much light into the back of the room as possible because 8m is quite deep. We also have an existing balcony on the first floor which prevents us. Although I agree its nice to have the length of the lantern run immediately above a dining room table or the sofa set. We have enough room to turn the table around through, so still possible.

Existing floor plans


Proposed first floor plans


Rear elevations 1


Rear elevations 2

blackshirtuk

Looks lovely, A much bigger job than mine.

I see you are removing two walls from the old lounge to make way for the new extension. This was what we wanted to do, but on discussing it with the architect realised it was way over what we could afford.

I agree about getting as much light as possible. would it be possible to put a couple of windows either side of the fireplace in the new dining/lounge? Something similar to the ones you can see in our night time roof light pic

I think that with your proposed layout you would be right to go for 1 set of bi-folds... unless you could get the sliding doors to slide into a pocket in the utility wall and disappear completely!!

with regard to the first floor, do you need the "bathroom laundry" seems like all rooms are ensuite anyway. could you incorporate this space into bedroom 3 and then enlarge the ensuite to bed 3 to include a bath and maybe an extra door onto the landing?

Hope you don't think i am being too critical as my intention is only to help you get the best layout.

ey143

Please do be critical, I'm actually badly looking for constructive criticism because I am quite a detailed person and love others input, so I take no offence whatsoever. If you get a moment, pls see my profile and see some of the other threads I have started as I could welcome some views from everyone here too on those.

You mention my laundry room - I couldn't agree more, pls see my other thread on this. Everyone was 50/50 split on this. I might make it a nursery for our 18 month old (and future children) or an office. We have a 2nd floor huge loft with 2 rooms and a separate bathroom.

We are actually turning a 7 bed house with lots of rabbit runs into a more spacious 5 bed house but better laid out.

I want some unique / quirky features to make the house stand out: here is what I told my architect:
I'm currently looking at putting a central vacuum (approx £1,200 total cost exc labour cost) and depending on budget, maybe a heat recovery Ventiliation system which I have seen in high value new homes. But mine is an old house which is too cold so might give this a miss.

Also will have some Eco features too / rainwater harvesting system (approx £2-3k for 3,000 litre tank as I have a large garden and could also feed toilets), ground source heat pump (circa £11k but govt rebate of £800 a year based on average use and free hot water / heating but 2kw use of electricity). Possible laundry chute from 1st floor to utility room (circa. £800).

I like the idea of a pocket for the patio doors but not sure how so many will fit into he utility area bricks. Do you have any other regrets or wish lists which I should think about?

BTW can I ask how much you were quoted for the removal of the walls etc, roof lanterns and bifolds as I need a reality check on these costs.

With regard to thin windows in the large wall, I do like that idea but thought about security issues and seeing a neighbour's wooden fence wouldn't add much value. Also might have a cooling effect and we were thinking of making it a feature wall with dark in and our facing veneer bricks.