Choosing the right balcony door

A balcony door separates the living room space from the non-residential one - a balcony or loggia. On such an extension, housewives store homework or seasonal items - skis, bicycles and rollers. Sometimes old household appliances or all at once are stored on the balcony.

It can be a separate (single) or part of a window block - a plastic or wooden structure with a movable sash and window. If the balcony opening has a window, then you will have to order the whole block: door and window made of plastic or wood.

A single balcony door not only divides the space, but also serves as a source of natural light if there is no window in the room.

Balcony doors are divided according to the type of opening:

• Swing, or swivel.
• Swing-out.
• Shtulpovye.
• Sliding.
• Folding doors.

The swing model opens like a regular interior - swings open to or from itself. This is the most common option not only in terms of its design, but also in terms of cost - it is the most affordable.

The swing-out door resembles a swing door - opens according to the same principle. It can also be "tilted" - fixed at the lowest point to ventilate the room.

Shtulpovaya door - PVC construction with two hinged leaves... If the width of the doorway is 900 mm or more, then you should think about it. Shtulpovaya door - it is always two leaves, while one of them is necessarily movable. The second can be any: mobile or motionless (deaf). The width of the flaps can be different or the same.

For example, the width of the balcony opening is 1200 mm. It is unrealistic to install one door into it, so you will have to choose a shtulp design. The width of the flaps can be the same - 600 mm each. Another option is to choose sashes of different widths: 700x500 mm, 800x400 mm or 900x300 mm. A narrow sash is usually made stationary and a wide one is used.

French doors are fully glazed wooden frames... They visually expand a small kitchen due to the large amount of sunlight. Without that, a large kitchen or another room is illuminated and filled with life, they create home comfort and are diluted with an original approach to the design of the opening.

Sliding openings like a compartment - move apart into a prepared niche or along the walls. When installing them, radiators often have to be removed altogether or moved to a new place. And this is perhaps the only drawback of sliding balcony models.

Glass sliding doors let in the sun's rays well and act as an additional source of light.They leave a wider passage than classic swing doors, as they move as wide as possible. Sliding doors are famous for their safety: they cannot accidentally hit someone when opening.

The accordion door saves room space thanks to the opening system - it folds. "Accordions" retain heat worse and isolate noise, therefore they are rarely used as a balcony structure.

For the manufacture of balcony doors, PVC, wood and aluminum are most often used:

• Plastic balcony door - the most popular. PVC construction perfectly protects from cold weather and keeps home warmth. It isolates street noise and will especially appeal to residents of megalopolises, whose houses or apartments are located along busy streets or on the ground floors.

• PVC door differs in lightness and versatility. But do not forget that plastic doors are not made of pure plastic - such a design would be unreliable. It is based on a metal, often aluminum frame. Sandwich panels (outer shell of the door) are created from plastic.

• Balcony leaf made of wood - the good old classic, but it was noticeably pushed aside by plastic models. The advantages of wooden models lie in their environmental friendliness and natural origin. They "breathe" - let air through and do not allow the room to "suffocate".

• Less common are aluminum structureslight in weight and stylish in appearance. Such doors are installed in rooms with high ceilings or wide openings. Aluminum models are often found in shopping centers, offices, less often in standard apartments. They are not practical from the point of view that they poorly isolate noise and retain heat. Therefore, they are not suitable for spacious residential buildings and apartments located along a busy highway.

GOST is a state standard that defines the requirements for the quality of goods, services or works, a certain standard. Door and window openings of any apartment or house must comply with GOST or have certain parameters: height and width.

The standard dimensions for a balcony door are determined as follows:

• Width: 600 to 900 mm.
• Height: from 1900 mm to 2200 mm.

There is no exact dimensional standard for a door, be it a balcony, interior or entrance door. The height and width of the doorway may vary between houses and apartments. - in a private house, they are usually wider than in an apartment. In new houses, the balcony door can also be wider according to the design. Even the type of building affects the size of the opening: in "stalinkas" they are wider and higher than in "Khrushchev" buildings.

The width and future size of the canvas is influenced by the material from which the house is built. Thick brick walls, for example, will be able to support more door weight than thin concrete or panel doors. Non-standard models also have a right to exist, including in the case when the owner of the apartment decides to increase the width of the opening himself. In this case, the canvas or window block is created according to individual dimensions.

The following sizes are called non-standard:

• Height: 1600, 1700, 1800, 1850 mm and any other up to 1900 mm and more than 2200 mm.
• Width: 400, 500, 950, 1000 mm or any other up to 600 and more than 900 mm.

The choice of a balcony door is influenced by the layout of an apartment or house and what functionality it should have. And:

If there are small children or animals in the house, the exit to the balcony should be as convenient as possible for them or, on the contrary, be able to restrict their access to the loggia. Free access to the balcony means that there is no high or steep threshold from which children can fall.

A handle with a key, a mosquito net on the door or a special lock can restrict access to the balcony. A safe balcony door is shockproof, even if it is completely transparent and consists of a profile and a glass unit. It is wrong to think that an all-glass door is not suitable for a family because of its danger and impracticality. If the glass unit has 2 or 3 chambers and is made of tempered glass, its manufacturer has a good reputation, such doors to the floor can be safe.... Burglar-resistant hardware is useful for the balcony door of a residential building or loggia on the 1st or 2nd floor.

This concept is even broader than security. Today, a standard plastic door operates in two modes - opening and ventilation. It is simply unreasonable to choose a standard door to the balcony without the possibility of folding and airing the room.

If the door is too high or wide, high or, in simple words, non-standard, then there may not be a hinged system in it. A blocker comes to the rescue - a plastic nozzle on a box with "steps".

The main material is plastic (PVC) or wood. There are doors with an aluminum body - metal-plastic, but they are rarely installed in houses and apartments. It is expensive and impractical compared to the first two types.

PVC construction is the most popular on the market... Thermal insulation of even the cheapest plastic doors will be better than wooden doors in the middle segment, thanks to the tightness of each glass unit and a reliable sealing system. Plastic models are good at isolating noise from the street... They are durable: the standard plastic model will not lose its attractiveness even after 45 years - numerous tests prove.

The taste preferences of each family are different: someone chooses a transparent door to the floor, others prefer a model with a sandwich panel. Some people love natural texture and shades like wood, others are classic: white, gray and not against plastic.

There is no definite opinion about which doors are better - glass or separated by a plastic panel. Each of them is good and different in cost: glass doors to the floor are more expensive... Sliding models look stylish, their price is 2 or more times higher than the usual swing doors for the balcony.

It is not always possible to put a sliding door on the balcony - only if there is a free wall on which the door will be placed in the open position. If there is a threshold in the kitchen or a room with a balcony, then this feature must also be taken into account when ordering a canvas. Before installing the sliding door, the threshold will have to be removed.

A plastic balcony door consists of separate parts: a frame, a sandwich panel, a double-glazed window, a box, and fittings. Together, they determine how much the door will cost and how good the performance properties will be. PVC door frame is an aluminum or plastic profile, the basis of each leaf.

If we talk about wooden models, then in them the frame is created from wooden blocks and filled with another wood material - MDF panels, insulation.

A sandwich panel is a plastic balcony door panel, usually located at the bottom. It consists of two layers of plastic, between which there is a heater. Sandwich panels do not differ in design. Their quality and ability to better or worse retain heat and isolate noise are influenced by the material itself - plastic. The thickness of the plastic for the "sandwich" can be from 8 to 32 mm: the panel up to 24 mm is used in economy-class doors, 28-32 mm - in the middle and premium segment.

The advantages of a sandwich panel lie in the fact that it:

• "Hides" the clutter on the balcony or obscures the unsightly view of this room.
• It retains heat in the room better due to the insulation.
• Insulates street noise better thanks to the same insulation.
• Safer than a full-fledged double-glazed unit if there are children in the house.
• Makes the door lighter and does not load the opening, especially if it is weak.
• Cheaper the balcony door - 1 sq. m of a panel is 3-4 times cheaper than a double-glazed window.

A double-glazed window in a balcony door serves as an additional or only source of light for the room.

It can be single-chamber or double-chamber:

• Single chamber a double-glazed window consists of 2 sheets of glass, which form a free space between them - a chamber.
• Bicameral the package has 3 sheets of glass and 2 chambers - 2 free spaces between them.
• Three-chamber a double-glazed window has 4 sheets of glass and is considered the most expensive structure of the kind.

Which glass unit is better - there is no definite answer to this question. The third glass in the balcony door better insulates noise and retains heat: the noise insulation of the curtain increases by about 10% and the thermal insulation is increased by up to 50%. Triple glazing provides better protection against UV radiation. However, it transmits sunlight worse: it becomes less by about 10%. Additional glass increases the final weight of the door and increases its cost by 30% or more.

Fittings: hinges, handle, lock, blocker, ventilation grill and other elements. High-quality hinges are able to withstand a greater weight of the canvas, and this quality is determined by the ability to withstand weight up to 100 kg, 120 kg and more.

The handle is usually located inside the room, but you can also install it from the balcony side - this handle is called the "smoker's handle". It is advisable to install the lock in the case of a "smoker's handle" so that no one from outside could open the door from the outside.

The locking mechanism for a plastic door can be:

• Turning - provides its swing opening.
• Swing-out - allows you to fold the canvas into ventilation mode. This type of mechanism is installed on a door with a sandwich panel. Heavy non-standard doors are opened for ventilation using a blocker.
• Sliding - less common than the previous ones. Its essence is to move the door from the opening to the side. To do this, one or two walls must be free to move the canvas.

If the wooden door begins to "blow through" over time, this problem can and should be solved. You can insulate:

• Joints.
• Slopes.
• The canvas itself.

Materials that may be required:

• Insulation: the door leaf is insulated with foam rubber, with expanded polystyrene or mineral wool - slopes, any of them or a sealant can be used to finish the slopes.
• Putty and spatulas.
• Door upholstery - natural or artificial leather, wood panels.
• Building mixtures.
• Tools: level, tape measure, screwdriver.

To insulate the door for the winter means to find the cause of the penetration of cold air and eliminate it. To insulate the canvas, you need:

• Remove it from its hinges and place it on a flat surface.
• Remove old paint and smooth the surface.
• Fill cracks with putty.
• Apply insulation to the canvas and nail it with nails with a wide head.
• Put the upholstery on top and fix it with nails.

To close the gaps between the door and the frame, you need to make 3 strips of foam rubber and leather using the same technology - 2 along the width of the canvas and 1 along its length. The prepared rollers must be nailed to the door. To insulate a canvas with a double-glazed window, you will need a putty for windows: she needs to process the cracks at the joints of the window and the canvas.

To insulate the plastic exit to the balcony, use a tubular material based on silicone rubber. The essence of this Swedish technology is to glue a tubular profile into pre-cut grooves on the door. Insulation of a double-glazed window is reduced to gluing a special film on it - a material based on polyester. Such a film transmits light well and does not allow cold to pass through.

You can insulate the balcony door using silicone sealant... The composition is poured into a special pistol and applied to the door joints. If there is glass in the canvas, you must first remove it and apply the composition to the panels, then "put" the glass unit in place.

You can change the old balcony door for a new one with your own hands:

• Dismantle it together with the box.
• Clean the opening from the remnants of the canvas, dirt and dust. You can use cleaners and detergents - the opening should "shine".
• Install the new box in place of the previous one - the opening must be dry.
• Seal gaps and crevices with polymer foam or any insulation.
• Install the door - "put" it on the hinges and adjust the door. The canvas should fit snugly against the box, easy to open and close.

Glass replacement is done like this:

1. Remove the damaged glass unit: separate the glazing beads on the long and short side of the frame with a plastic spatula and mallet.
2. Remove the broken glass unit from the frame: use special rubber suction cups or rolled newspaper to keep the sharp edges with it.

The glass can burst or simply fall apart during its dismantling, so they work in gloves and tight work clothes, which will not be a pity:

1. Clean and rinse the frame from glass residues and dirt.
2. Put plastic spacers in the frame - bridges.
3. Install a new glass unit: first put the bottom part, then the top edge.

For information on how to install a balcony door, see the next video.

The shape of the balcony door can be different: from the usual rectangular to oval and semicircular. This design is called an arched block. This is a great idea for a narrow opening with windows on both sides.

If a rectangular plastic door with a sandwich panel at the bottom is a classic solution, then the all-glass structure looks fresh. In addition to its stylish exterior design, it transmits sunlight well and promises a panoramic view from the window.

Color plays an important role in the design of a balcony door: white is the most common shade. Brown and gray - a stylish solution for a modern interiorwhich create a particularly warm atmosphere in it. A stained-glass door to a balcony is a product with a pattern on a double-glazed window to the floor.

French doors to the balcony got their name from the hot climate of Provence. They are completely glass and have two hinged doors. It doesn't matter what is used for their production - wood or plastic, double French balcony models captivate with their lightness and the fact that they visually make the room more spacious.

Modern plastic doors look stylish in any apartment with an interior from loft to modern, in the Scandinavian and high-tech direction.In a panel house, it is better to prefer PVC products - they are light in weight and visual design, do not overload the interior and are suitable for any style.

Arched doors to the loggia look original in a spacious apartment or house. Sliding structures are distinguished by the fact that when they are planned, 1 or 2 walls are required for the free opening of the canvases.

The price of a plastic door depends on the profile, and all Russian manufacturers choose one or more European profiles as a basis:

• Rehau;
• KBE;
• Veka;
• Novotex;
• Salamander;
• Schuko;
• Kommerling.

The first three are German manufacturers who have proven themselves better than the rest. Other European manufacturers, which sometimes cost less than the "giants" with a worldwide reputation, deserve trust. A well-known manufacturer of wooden balcony doors - Veko Pro.

There are hundreds of other companies, for example, Windows BMS from St. Petersburg or Windows Peresvet from Moscow. Wooden balcony doors are usually custom made.