The covered area behind our kitchen has a roof, two short walls and no windows across the back. Terrace style, you can see it.
Calling it a terrace makes it sound more finished than it is. Most days it is simply the bit between the house and the garden where shoes, watering cans and folded chairs get dumped. But, it’s a space we should use.
It is completely open to the elements though.
Rain comes in sideways. Leaves gather against the kitchen door. Wind whistles around and finds every possible little hole at the back of the house.
We’d already seen how much difference small leaks could make during our first blower-door test. This isn’t a leak, it’s a vast area basically channelling cold air into every nook and cranny it can find.
For years we accepted that the area was only useful when the weather behaved. Lately we have started wondering whether some form of glass enclosure could make it usable for more than a few weeks each summer. And obviously make it an addition to what is actually quite a small terraced house. So what to do?
Why ordinary windows did not feel right
Windows were the obvious starting point.
A row of fixed windows would stop the wind and rain. Add a door and the back area would become something approaching a small conservatory as such.
That was also the problem.
The opening faces the garden. On a warm day, we want it open. Not partly open through a window or limited to the width of a door. Properly open.
Sliding patio doors looked better on paper but one panel always has to sit behind another. Even with the doors open, a large section of glass would remain across the garden view. Not ideal, but better than the current set up.
Bifold doors clear more of the opening. They also need a substantial frame and leave a stack of folded panels at one end. We stood outside with a tape measure and tried to imagine where our new concertina would go.
One end would interfere with the low wall. The other would sit rather close to the kitchen door.
Nothing quite fitted. Perfectly. So we ummed and ahhed for ages. Forgot about it.
The glass panels we saw in Spain
The alternative came from a restaurant terrace we sat on during a holiday in Spain.
When we arrived, the terrace appeared to be open. There were tables under a kind of foldable roof but nothing obvious between us and the view.
The wind picked up later in the evening, pretty breezy and it went a little chilly. A member of staff pulled a series of glass panels across the exposed side, one at a time. Each panel moved along a track and folded into position at the end.
There were no thick upright frames between them. Once closed, the panels formed a clear screen against the wind. When open, they stacked into a surprisingly small space. We looked at each other and nodded. One of those same moment expressions, you know the sort.
We assumed it was a specialist restaurant system. Back home, I found the same type of enclosure while reading about the same glass curtains in Javea. They were being used on private terraces, balconies and covered outdoor spaces, not just restaurants. Who would have thought?
Eureka??
It would not become another room
It wouldn’t be a conservatory, more of an add on.
There would still be a difference between this and a properly insulated extension. The existing roof is not insulated. The low walls are ordinary brick. The floor is an external slab that slopes towards the garden.
Glass curtains might keep out wind and driven rain but they would not make the area behave like the kitchen.
But that’s fine.
We want somewhere to leave boots without finding them wet the next morning. Somewhere to sit when it is bright but windy. Somewhere that doesn’t swirl with leaves every time the weather changes.
Calling it an outdoor room or something like that is probably pushing things. A less exposed outdoor space is about right.
The roof may decide it for us
Before getting excited about glass, I looked more carefully at what would hold it up.
The front edge of the roof is supported by timber. From the garden it looks straight. A long spirit level suggests something else.
There’s a small drop towards one end. I measured it twice because the first result seemed too large, then got a slightly different answer the second time. Made me go off the idea a bit.
A moving glass curtain system needs a straight track and proper support. Attaching it to timber that has already moved may be possible, but it’s not something I want to decide on a whim. It’s not a cheap solution this.
The floor creates another problem. It slopes away from the house so rainwater can escape. Sensible now, but potentially awkward if a bottom track needs to run across it.
There is also the question of where the folded panels would sit. The stack looked small in Spain. Small is not the same as invisible, especially beside a narrow kitchen door.
Our list is currently shorter than before, but more useful:
- Check whether the roof beam is suitable.
- Measure the opening properly rather than three times badly.
- Find out how the lower track handles an uneven floor.
- Decide which end could accommodate the folded panels.
- Ask how the system deals with rainwater, grit and leaves.
- Be clear that we want a sheltered terrace, not an extension.
That last point matters. We are not trying to build another room. We just want to stop rain blowing across a covered area that ought to be more useful than it is.
Nothing is ordered. Before we go any further, somebody more qualified than me needs to look at the roof beam and tell us whether it can take the track or needs strengthening.
It rained again last night. The chairs were wet this morning, despite being under a roof.
Hence the article. Thoughts?
