Would a single door to garden put you off purchase?

[Firsttimer144]

Hi!

We are currently building an extension at the back of our house. It will create an open plan kitchen and dining room. However, we are losing our patio doors and, with the current plans, the patio doors will be replaced with a single external door.

If we were to put patio doors/bifolds in, we'd have to remove two trees and extend our garden patio at the cost approx £5k.

I think a family home benefits from a large exit to the garden, but DH and FIL don't believe it's worth the additional cost.

Would a single external door to the garden put you off purchasing a home? What would you do in my case?

Um the vast majority of rooms in houses/flats don't have any access to the garden at all, let alone "lovely open space" and somehow manage not to feel claustrophobic!

Really odd comment!

Is the issue the current patio is too small for bifolds?

I would consider french doors instead

It wouldn't put me off, I think bi-fold doors look naff.

Another top tip ... 'fitted for' rather than 'fitted with'. The cost of adding bi-folds later is mainly about installing the steel needed to support the roof where the brickwork once was. If you build it now with a lintel already in place, then retro-fitted a bi-fold door will only cost you the price of the glass door at that time (knocking out bricks is cheap and easy).

@Rosalindisafuckingnightmare this is what it will look like, but the door will be a single door due the space we have.

I'd prefer it. Dislike patio doors for security reasons.
But I think a majority would be put off.

Oh! I'd misunderstood. A single glass door among the windows?

Much less if a big deal, I think.

@Chewbecca it will look similar to this but with a single external door due to the size.

@Digimoor the issue is that there is no patio. It was removed to build the extension. We'd have to build a new one. Maybe this picture might better explain it. Floor to ceiling windows will face the garden, with a side single door.

Why can you not have sliding patio doors?

I have double sliding doors and they are great, we chose them so they didnt get left open by the kids and would swing in the wind.

I think it will be fine. There's plenty of light, a view to the garden, and a way in/out. If saving the £5k is important, I'd not stress too much about it.

I'm not sure, we have a DDog so I wouldn't be happy bringing a muddy wet dog, usually covered in dead leaves into the dining room.

Thank you for all your responses. Just to clarify, the current plan is that there will be floor to ceiling windows pointing out to the garden. There will be a single door facing the existing patio. The problem is there isn't any existing patio in front of the new extension. We would have to build one and remove two trees, which would cost £5k.

This is the closest picture I can find. Imagine the white doors are our kitchen window.

Could you have door's that open inwards? Could you have 3 pane bifolds on the side like in your picture?

Can you not make the two middle windows a French door even if it means stepping onto lawn?

OTOH as you have shown it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, just a bit disappointing that you can't walk straight into the garden. Neighours of ours have their extension as you are planning.

I think it would be a shame not to have those big windows as bifold doors. Even if you don't do the patio immediately, the option is there and it would be lovely to have it open in the summer even if not used as an entrance.
They could open inwards which may help with the tree issue.
A diagram of where the trees etc are would really help us all advise!

For 5k I would definitely do the doors.

I’d prefer a single door but I live in the north where the number of days it would be warm enough to open double doors would be minimal. I don’t really understand why bifold doors are so popular when we don’t have the climate for them. Can you open the roof light? That’s handy when you want to let air in but don’t want the security issue of leaving the doors open.

Oh I see

less of an issue - but it would still annoy me

french doors at least If possible

We have our double doors open to the garden pretty much continuously from April/May to September! It's warm down South 😉

I don't understand why you couldn't put french doors here, is it that the side is only wide enough for a single door?

Dunno how much you are spending but dodging the £5000 seems like spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar. On the other hand, getting rid of two trees would bother me a lot. Is there absolutely no way to reconfigure this?

I would prefer it as you plan.

I don't like this idea of "letting the outside in". That just means buzzy things with stings, birds, potentially squirrels getting into the house.

Inside is inside and outside is outside. A single door is fine. You can open normal windows to let air into the house.

We do have patio windows from our kitchen and our lounge, but rarely have them open.

We bought a house that had a conservatory on the dining room like that and, like your proposed extension, there was a big expanse of glass facing the garden then a single door to the side.

we didn’t think much of it when we bought but frankly it was a PITA. Ultimately it meant we ended up traipsing through the other door in the kitchen rather than using that single. It was a total waste.