Cotswold semi has energy efficiency transformation

A well-proportioned Cotswold bungalow, situated pretty close to our office! Heavy renovation work has been done to make this more comfortable to live in, and we joined in the fun by providing two of our best-insulating and most durable products: the triple glazed Aluminium-clad Rationel FormaPlus, and thermally-modified Lacuna bifold doors.

On every door, you’ll find a steel pin going into one half of the hinge from the other – the best response to a the question: surely having hinges accessible from outside is bad for security? Well, if an attacker arrives with the equipment to completely remove the hinge from the door, those steel pins will still be in place and hold the door closed.

We sadly don’t see many projects in the “Cement Grey” (RAL 7033) colour used on the main entrance doors, but the few projects where it’s been asked for have all turned out looking fantastic. With a primary focus on a solid, dark green that hint of grey, the colour has a soft and timeless appearance.

Bathroom glass choice is becoming easier. Nowadays, the very simple choice is to go for a satin acid-etched appearance: no patterns to think about, so it’s a very safe choice. As with colours though, we’re all in favour of bold choices! This “Cathedral” pattern is great at distorting the view through, and offers something a little different to a basic satin etch.

To retain a traditional look from a modern window, thin 24mm glazing bars were added on both the traditionally-styled Rationel FormaPlus windows and Lacuna bifold doors. Purely a decorative choice, simply adding these bars helps the property to say within the conservation constraints of its small Cotswold village.

On any bifold door, the two key rules for airtightness are that it should open outwards, and that an even number of leaves should never fold together. Having that odd number of leaves not only helps for airtightness, but also creates a main traffic door that can be used just like a normal entrance door. With Lacuna, there is no option to compromise the Class 4 airtightness achievement of their system, so they do not offer any configurations where an even number of leaves would be sliding together.

On the main entrance door, a Danish letterbox has been included. You can see from the photo, this is only just slim enough to fit within the constraints of the midrail on the door. Rationel designed the door with a Danish letterbox in mind – slightly longer and thinner than a standard UK variant.

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