Full-width rear opening

One opening across the whole back of the house, not a wall with a door in it.

Project type

Planning route

Borough

Rear extension

Permitted development

Uxbridge

The decision that mattered

A mid-terrace in Uxbridge, a few minutes from our own address. The brief was the one we hear most often: open plan living, dining and kitchen, with a real connection to the garden rather than a view of it.

The connection is a structural decision, not a glazing one

Most rear extensions end in a wall containing a set of doors. What makes this one work is that the rear is a single opening spanning the entire width of the property, in crittall-style doors.

That is a structural choice made long before anyone chooses a door. Spanning the full width without an intermediate support means the beam over that opening is doing considerably more work, which affects its size, how it is supported at each end, and how it is concealed within the ceiling. It is the difference between a room that opens onto the garden and a room that looks at it — and it is decided by the structural engineer, not the glazing supplier.

Worth knowing if you are planning the same thing

If full-width glazing matters to you, say so at the survey. It changes the structural design, and adding it after the steel has been specified means specifying the steel again.

Also consider where the doors go when they are open. Bi-folds stack to one side and that stack has to live somewhere; sliding doors leave a fixed panel; crittall-style doors on hinges need swing space. All three look identical in a brochure photograph taken with them closed.

Start with a survey, not a guess

If your house is a similar shape, most of the same decisions will apply. We will come and look, and tell you what the building allows before anyone spends anything.

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