Balcony question

misterfish · 21 Sep 2012

At the rear of our house we have a green oak balcony about 1.6 metres x 6.3 metres. The flooring is oak planking with gaps between the boards to allow drainage. The shading provided by the balcony helps keep the kitchen/dining room shaded in the bright days of summer.

As the structure is green oak and open to the elements it moves with changes in humidity, just as expected.

We were wondering about the possibility of having some sort of glazed structure under the balcony to allow us to have a sofa or couple of comfy chairs that would let us sit and watch the garden.

So has anybody any suggestions - ideally we would be looking at some sort of solid roof that would be almost flat and just below the balcony deck. Also decent sliding doors. The headroom from the patio slabs to the underside of the rafters is a bit over 240cm,

We dropped into a local conservatory showroom yesterday and were given ball park figure of £58K for a structural glass structure and £47K for an aluminium framed structure - they had no immediate ideas for the roof!. Anyway we said thanks and left and wondered why such apparently ludicrous prices. Their stuff seemed well made, but...

Anyway, here's a picture of the back of the house to give an indication of waht we are asking about.

Misterfish

Eric The Viking · 21 Sep 2012

It looks a bit non-trivial, unless you're happy to modify the external appearance a bit. That said, it's an eye-watering couple of quotes!

I'm assuming the balcony is slatted or otherwise not waterproof. If you put a shallow faux arch under each oak span, you could hide a sloping, insulated roof just below the balcony, with a gutter/gully at the front edge. Bring the step out across the space to make a floor (step downwards outdoors from the line of posts or have an extra step there). I'd fit oak frames to the oak posts as it would look in keeping, and French doors rather than sliding as there isn't room, unless you're replacing the whole lot.

Even if you would replace it all, the balcony looks nice and in keeping with the rest of the house. Isn't there a green oak framer on the forum down your way? It would be much nicer to do it in oak again, and at those prices probably cheaper!

zb1 · 22 Sep 2012

It would be difficult to incorporate anything into the existing oak frame. I have seen one or two where there is a free standing glass box underneath, god knows how you keep the roof of it clean though. I have the feeling that what ever you do it's going to cost a bit. You'd be better off finding a specialist glass firm in my experience conservatory companies are just sales and fitters, someone else does all the manufacture.

Zach

devonwoody · 22 Sep 2012

A conservatory would be around 20K plus the cost of the height making it extra.

If the building trade does not recover in the next 18 months they must start quoting lower prices, thats my opinion.

misterfish · 22 Sep 2012

zb1":ctx7nxt2 said:
It would be difficult to incorporate anything into the existing oak frame. I have seen one or two where there is a free standing glass box underneath, god knows how you keep the roof of it clean though. I have the feeling that what ever you do it's going to cost a bit. You'd be better off finding a specialist glass firm in my experience conservatory companies are just sales and fitters, someone else does all the manufacture.

Zach

Thanks Zach. That's what we thought. The £58K figure was for just that sort of thing. I'll try finding a local glass specialist as it is unfortunate that the local well established company recently has to cease trading.

Misterfish