And drain laid beneath

We are in pursuit of AHA Garage doors whom we saw at the Kent Show about Entrance doors. Hopefully we shall see them soon.

Meanwhile you can see the Hormann Entrance Doors website by clicking here

Velux have some Roof lanterns using curved glass (or flat) with motorised opening, venting and curtains.  Our friends have found them cost competitive with lanterns as they are only available in stock sizes.

click here for the Velux website flat roof page

That’s also the downside for us – as we want two at 1000×600 and at that part of the size range they only have square units.  We might at a push be able to do 900×900 to replace 1000×600, but it might be tricky with the hidden roof installation.

However we have priced up a curved glass 900×900 and it comes in at £1250.  A 600×600 comes up at £1075 so 800×800 would be in between. It seems to me though that the problem we are trying to fix is getting more light into the north side of the building, so reducing the roof lanterns makes less sense. The ability to have motorised blinds is attractive.  

click here for the 600×600 quote

click here for the 900×900 quote

Now for the bigger 1500×1000 lantern over the dining room, always in shade, it might be interesting. In flat glass this came out at £1478 and for curved glass £1640.  So when we see the Sunsquare prices that will be a moment for thought.

click here for the price quote for the curved 1000×1500

In addition to six Velux windows on gabled roofs (Front Lobby and Breakfast rooms) there are three roof lanterns on the flat roof of the plan. Two of 1000×600 size on the family room flat roof and a larger 1800×1000 size unit on the hidden flat roof over the dining room.

The first thing that occurred to us at the Show was that the traditional pyramid designs look a bit fussy in the 1000×600 size end of the spectrum.  Also another neighbour has switched to large Velux offerings for his son’s build project – motorised open, blinds, sensors etc and he said surprisingly there was not much cost difference.

With this in mind, we have asked for quotes from ID Systems, (better known for bifold doors) and have also visited a pure-play specialist in this area, Sunsquare  www.sunsquare.co.uk

Quotes should be coming from both Sunsquare and ID Systems for us to get a feel for what the issues are.

Essentially, over the family room and dining room, flat glass, opening panels ought to be feasible.

These are the standard non-opening offerings you would expect.

And these above are the two motored opening panels – one in the traditional pyramid structure, and one in the flat glass offering.  It seems to us that the view out, if ever you should look, is more pleasant through the flat glass offering.

We asked both ID and Sunscreen about rain proof coatings … they both said they could do it, but both suggested squirting with rainex instead.

We think the large lantern over the dining room is never in sun, and that most likely the only ones to consider motorised curtains would be those two over the family room.

We have looked at the Velux offerings – which should be carefully examined too, but the first thing that strikes you is that they are only stock sizes – custom build is not available.

click here for the sunscreen brochure

However, Velux needs checking out.