patio door opening regulation

dustygerb

Hello,
We have just had patio doors replaced and the opening is several inches less than the doors they replaced (23 1/2" from 28"). I consider thus to be too small an opening and , when we had our sifas removed, immediatly after fitting, the sofas had to be broken down to get them out.
The 'fully open' measurement was not given on te plans. What is the minimum size that a domestic patio door aperture should be? Having a devil of a job finding out.

dustygerb

sorry for typos. no specs and bad thumb control

MattMattMattUK

There is no regulation for patio door widths.

Aslan69

23.5" is way too narrow. Standard clear openings are 28-30" minimum, more if it's meant to be accessible. No legal minimum unless Part M applies, but yours isn’t even practical. If the plans didn’t show that loss and no one warned you, they messed up. Push back.

WIAWSNB

Any chance of a pic?
Were timber doors replaced with PVC?

daveyjp

Too small for what?  24 inch wide doors aren't unusual in properties.

TELLIT01

What is the overall width of the opening the doors are fitted into?

casper_gutman

23.5 inches is very narrow for a doorway. My house has a timber door that size, and it was quite difficult when we needed to replace it as all off the shelf doors were too wide and many couldn't be cut down enough to fit.

I'm puzzled that you refer to "patio doors" (plural) being so narrow though. Surely this isn't the total width of a double door opening? If there are two doors can't you open both and get a 47 inch opening? That would usually be plenty for moving furniture in and out.

gwynlas

casper_gutman said:

23.5 inches is very narrow for a doorway. My house has a timber door that size, and it was quite difficult when we needed to replace it as all off the shelf doors were too wide and many couldn't be cut down enough to fit.

I'm puzzled that you refer to "patio doors" (plural) being so narrow though. Surely this isn't the total width of a double door opening? If there are two doors can't you open both and get a 47 inch opening? That would usually be plenty for moving furniture in and out.

They are patio doors that slide within overall opening not french doors that would open fully to give a double door opening.
If they are not considered to b exit doors on a fire route then there does not appear to be minimum width

Albermarle

casper_gutman said:

23.5 inches is very narrow for a doorway. My house has a timber door that size, and it was quite difficult when we needed to replace it as all off the shelf doors were too wide and many couldn't be cut down enough to fit.

I'm puzzled that you refer to "patio doors" (plural) being so narrow though. Surely this isn't the total width of a double door opening? If there are two doors can't you open both and get a 47 inch opening? That would usually be plenty for moving furniture in and out.

I think 'patio door' usually refers to one with a sliding door, where normally only one side opens. If you have two doors opening outwards, they are usually referred to as French doors
I would guess the OP has a sliding door.
We have one and when fully open the width is 29/30 cms, which is pretty much the same as a  normal house door. 

Section62

Albermarle said:

...
We have one and when fully open the width is 29/30 cms, which is pretty much the same as a  normal house door. 

You mean Inches?