Doors between conservatory and dining room

[SarkySpanner]

advice please :)
We have a smallish dining room connected to a smallish conservatory. At the moment there are no doors between these which makes the dining room freezing during the winter.

The gap is quite large (1800) so doors will be large and pricy but I think we have to do this.

Do we get indoor or outdoor doors?
Standard or bifold?
I'd like to avoid runners etc on the floor so they are less intrusive during the summer but perhaps we need these?

Am going round in circles with this

[PigletJohn]

conservatories with a lot of glass are terrible for heat loss, which is why building regulations require you to put external-grade doors between them and the rest of the house, and not to put radiators in them (the conservatoiry is considered to be "outdoors" like a shed)

Most people ignore this until the heating bills come in.

I expect you would be happier with (safety) glass-panelled doors. As you have an 1800mm gap, you will find it hard to get a pair of doors wide enough to fit, although a french-window thing with small side lights might look quite nice. Fold-and-slide doors will be more expensive but, if you have room, can fold back neatly against the wall. Ask around for a good joiner, because his skill will make a big difference to how well they fit and how long it takes.

You can have external-grade bolts and locks fitted at little extra cost, since conservatories are not very burglar-resistant.

Slim wooden frames and doors will look much better than plastic or aluminium.

what about these?

or these?

or this?

Positioning hinged doors carefully and using Parliament Hinges will enable them to fold back against the wall. The joiner will know how to do it.

[SarkySpanner]

Thank you!
That is really really helpful.

I think you are absolutely right that wood will be better.

One more question...
We plan to replace the cheap laminate flooring throughout at some point. We would prefer to get the door done first (for financial reasons) but would it be better to do both jobs at the same time?

[PigletJohn]

if you get a joiner in, and pay him a day rate, he could probably do a nice job of both in a couple of days (and I'd have new skirtings too, preferably fitted after the flooring so it will be tucked underneath them)

it will be annoying to have to trim the new flooring round a new doorframe and there will always be a bit of a gap. But if you have the floor first, be sure to protect it with hardboard or something so it doesn't get scratched or dented while the frame and doors are being humped about.

[SarkySpanner]

Thanks (again) :)

My problem is that I wanted to leave the floor until we redo the kitchen so that we can have the same flooring throughout. But financially we can't do the kitchen for a year or so. But I want to get the conservatory door done asap to stop the heat loss.

Never as simple as I think...

[SarkySpanner]

And one more ...

Am I kidding myself that we could get away with internal doors and so get away without a frame on the floor? I just think it will be really annoying to have this.

[TalkinPeace2]

our conservatory is for plants so has an external door between it and the dining room
but as the next owners of the house will probably put furniture in there it also has a radiator (signed off by building control 3 years ago) and proper insulation.

[PigletJohn]

the doors are quite large and heavy, so will need a frame or a substantiial door liner. If it was me I would get the joiner to look at the job and see if he could take away the sill from the frame, and have it adequately rigid by fixing it just to the walls. You probably can, especially if it is an external brick wall. You will need a thrreshhold and draught excluder though. Alternatively, if you need runners for a fold and slide door, the existing floor can probably be opened up, and the sill sunk below floor level to avoid a step. How easy it is will depend on the direction of joists and floorboards, or the presence of a concrete floor or sill..

[Fizzylemonade]

We had a conservatory at the last house, it was an add on done by the previous owners. It was terribly cold in winter. We put a large rug in it to help with the cold laminate floor (I love laminate floors BTW) and we also had foils fitted into the roof to help with heat loss. like these we had a local company do it.

If you are planning to stay in the property would you not want to replace some of the windows with a wall? My friend had her conservatory roof plasterboarded! That made a huge difference.

Re the doors, ours were the original sliding patio doors which meant there was a raised ridge you had to step over between the dining room and the conservatory. It was awful.

Why don't you buy ready made doors so not custom built and have the current gap narrowed to fit? It would be just framed out, insulated, then plasterboarded and plastered. Worth a thought.

[SarkySpanner]

Thanks all.
Still dithering...