Replacing living room window with French doors or bi fold doors.

tom1ie

Hi all
Apologies if this is in the wrong part of construction and planning. I’m looking to replace my living room window with French doors or bi fold doors. Can anyone recommend a builder that they have used or window/door company that will do this and would anyone have an idea of price?
I don’t have the measurments to hand but I’ll edit this post with them later.
Thanks

Calahonda52

Is ope wider/higher/ will it require steel beam?

tom1ie

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Is ope wider/higher/ will it require steel beam?

Well the window I have in place is actually quite wide so if I’m getting French doors they’ll fit in the opening, possibly with clear glass fixed side lights also.
If I go down the route of bifold doors that open almost the full width of the room we’ll then the lintel won’t be wide enough and an rsj will be needed.
Just wondering about the cost of both really and if anyone can recommend a builder/ glazing company they used.
Height of opening will stay the same.

Calahonda52

rsj route will add about 1,000 euro to the gig for the engineers sign off alone, which you need to get done at the time of the work so as you can sell on if needed.
Cant help with rest

tom1ie

Calahonda52 wrote: »

rsj route will add about 1,000 euro to the gig for the engineers sign off alone, which you need to get done at the time of the work so as you can sell on if needed.
Cant help with rest

Jesus Christ! €1000 for an engineer to confirm that a piece of steel has been installed above an opening! That’s daylight robbery.

Calahonda52

tom1ie wrote: »

Jesus Christ! €1000 for an engineer to confirm that a piece of steel has been installed above an opening! That’s daylight robbery.

Thank you for that helpful comment.
I am an engineer, trying to be helpful here: case closed, another one for my ignore list.

tom1ie

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Thank you for that helpful comment.
I am an engineer, trying to be helpful here: case closed, another one for my ignore list.

Thanks for trying to help I appreciate it.
Just presenting my opinion that’s all. Try not to take it to heart

Gumbo

tom1ie wrote: »

Jesus Christ! €1000 for an engineer to confirm that a piece of steel has been installed above an opening! That’s daylight robbery.

You want somebody to come in, inspect the opening, do the calcs, issue the sizing, inspect once it’s installed and then issue a certificate and put their PI insurance onto the job.

One you take out VAT, travel, income tax and overheads it’s quite reasonable figure to pay.

tom1ie

kceire wrote: »

You want somebody to come in, inspect the opening, do the calcs, issue the sizing, inspect once it’s installed and then issue a certificate and put their PI insurance onto the job.

One you take out VAT, travel, income tax and overheads it’s quite reasonable figure to pay.

Ok. I can see I’ve upset the engineers union here.
I had an idea installing an rsj would be a lot dearer. Now that I’ve seen how much dearer I realize that’s out of my budget.
I will now see if anyone can recommend a good builder or glazing company that can install French doors in the existing size opening under the existing lintel, thus saving myself €1000 in engineer costs.

BryanF

Some posts removed for being inappropriate nonsense. Any more of this will result in forum bans.

recommendations on specific companies by PM

Thanks

antiskeptic

kceire wrote: »

You want somebody to come in, inspect the opening, do the calcs, issue the sizing, inspect once it’s installed and then issue a certificate and put their PI insurance onto the job.

One you take out VAT, travel, income tax and overheads it’s quite reasonable figure to pay.

Lets suppose calculation for a pretty simple job is a matter of minutes. And a 3/4 hours travel each way x 2 visits.

You're hardly adding significant risk to your PI on a job your speccing and inspecting. A days work all in, is being generous.

€813 ex vat. X 230 work days a year (about what someone employed by another works) = €187k a year.

Now I know 'self-employed' rightfully means charging for the fact that you're not 100% earning 230 days a year. And there's more to running your own biz than being employed by another. Nevertheless, that rate strikes me as generous - when a card carrying mechanical engineering manager in industry would be doing quite well to earn €80k with little chance of a 40 hour week.

Gumbo

antiskeptic wrote: »

Lets suppose calculation for a pretty simple job is a matter of minutes. And a 3/4 hours travel each way x 2 visits.

You're hardly adding significant risk to your PI on a job your speccing and inspecting. A days work all in, is being generous.

€813 ex vat. X 230 work days a year (about what someone employed by another works) = €187k a year.

Now I know 'self-employed' rightfully means charging for the fact that you're not 100% earning 230 days a year. And there's more to running your own biz than being employed by another. Nevertheless, that rate strikes me as generous - when a card carrying mechanical engineering manager in industry would be doing quite well to earn €80k with little chance of a 40 hour week.

Get 3 quotes and compare.

antiskeptic

kceire wrote: »

Get 3 quotes and compare.

Indeed. Get someone local to you for obvious reasons. I'd a chap spec/certify a somewhat more complicated situation. €600. But his travel time was about 10 minutes

beautifulfreak

My friend wanted the same, she had to go with french doors, got a guy who was way cheaper than others by far, she had to wait a few weeks for him to be able to fit them, get them made up I suppose..do you want his details?

tom1ie

beautifulfreak wrote: »

My friend wanted the same, she had to go with french doors, got a guy who was way cheaper than others by far, she had to wait a few weeks for him to be able to fit them, get them made up I suppose..do you want his details?

Yeah that’d be great thanks! I take it she was happy with the job......

beautifulfreak

tom1ie wrote: »

Yeah that’d be great thanks! I take it she was happy with the job......

She was extremely happy, he did a great job, she reckoned she'd be cleaning up after him but he plastered and left no mess. He's not in dub but she is, so he travels I guess.