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?

I get what you say about stepping out the side. I'd still put a sliding door or similar on the long end. It'll get awfully stifling on sunny days if ll you've got is a glass cage on that side.

I was initially thinking no, it needs bigger doors, but having seen your pictures I’d say it is fine. We had a similar extension on our last house that only had one door. It had been put in by the people we bought from and the extension was part of the reason we fell in love with it, all the light and space. The single door didn’t put us off at all. Didn’t put the couple that bought from us 10 years later off either.

Not an issue at all now I've seen the picture. PIL's extension is very similar. Has never crossed my mind there ought to be patio doors, the single to the side looks and works fine.

Look at how this lady uses hers. I'd do similar to this. You can still have more than a single door

We have double Crittall doors that go onto a single row of York paving stones and then lawn. No patio. No problem! Lovely. But hot in summer even though we can open both doors to let the breeze in. So do factor that in if you are only having a single door. You need blinds.

But wouldn't let patio or lack of be an issue. We have a door mat. Works fine!

I've got a back door and a patio door, and I haven't opened the patio door for about 10 years

That s pace is probably going to be cold in winter, but possibly more noticeably, its going to get brutally hot in summer (unless it faces north). You need to ask the designer about their overheating calculations.

There should be generous provision for ventilation - ideally, something you can leave open when you are not at home. A vent in the lantern might be best but chances are that could lead to problems with leaks.

It might be an idea to face the door(s), wherever they go, onto a shaded area so they don't draw hot air in. Removing trees will also affect the temperature of the extension. As would artificial grass . Happily it sounds like you have actual grass grass, which is far cooler because it is evaporating water all day.

Ps you can reduce the overheating issue somewhat by having a low wall round the extension and having windows down to thigh/ knee level not the ground, and/or by introducing some shading eg movable external blinds

I don’t understand why you think you have to have a patio by the french doors. They can just open onto lawn (or gravel / bark).

Whoever wanted to buy your house would have to suck up the cost themselves.
If a single door works for you, keep the single door. Let someone else suck up the cost, if they wanted to.
Leave the trees.

I agree.

I think we might need a diagram. And the distance of the trees. Sliding doors even if opening onto a tree wouldn't be so bad?

Could you put in the patio doors but not to the patio, a builder shouldn't charge much to remove two trees offer cash in hand 😉

You can then extend the patio at a later date if you want or have it stepping onto something like a gravelled area

We had a similar extension with French doors at the end opening out to the grass and a single door at the side which opened onto decking.

We very rarely opened the French doors.

I would say a single door at the side is fine.

Thank you all for your advice - it's a real mixed bag!

@Grumpybutfunny after reading all the comments, I think this is what we will do - put in the French/sliding/bifold doors, and build the patio later. It will future proof us in a sense.

@notangelinajolie if we ended up putting in both, I would have to open the patio doors daily just to save face😬but I do worry that we won't end up using them and we would've wasted money and lost two of our trees!

Thank you all again 😊

Why do you have to lose 2 trees to have one extra door?

It wouldn't bother me, I had a house with a single door to the garden several times, and often no door in the kitchen to the garden but single doors to outside in random places too, each extension had one at one house.
Double doors are nice but I detest bifolds.
Single door lets in a lot less insects in the summer.

I wouldn't want to remove trees just for a door, personally. But I am not a fan of huge doorways, in the one house I had them I rarely opened them but lost loads of wall space.

I have had bifolds for 14 years now and I still get a buzz opening them wide and letting the outside in! Flies are no more of a problem than with single door or windows. It has honestly never been problematic.
We're in the south and they are open loads throughout the majority of the year.
I would put bifolds/sliding doors in but not worry about the new patio till later. As you say you are future proofing either for you or buyers.

The tree removal would be to put a patio in front of the new doors. Not the floors themselves. Patio can be done later or not at all

I agree with a pp that you really need to think about all that glass - which direction does your house face and where are you? I would definitely have large doors facing the garden. If you're looking to potentially sell to a family with children who will go in and out of the house, you'll want the open doors.

@Africa2go we are south facing, but luckily we have a massive birch tree that blocks some of the direct light into that space when in full bloom.

Reading some of the comments, we are now considering some additional ventilation options.

Do you have to remove trees? You dont need a huge door but patio/french doors woild be beneficial for bbqs

Know someone who had to install air conditioning in a south facing orangery because it was unusable from about April without. Personally wouldn't have all that glass, and a glass roof. And its not just the heat in the summer - maybe not an issue depending on where you live but we have roof windows in an extension (not a glass roof) and the noise on the glass over the last few evenings / nights with the rain has been horrendous (especially if its your main living space). I think these sorts of structures - all glass with a glass roof - look amazing but essentially they're posh conservatories that are notoriously difficult to keep at a decent temperature (either too hot or too cold) unless you pay for special glass / ventiliation & heating options. Sorry to be negative!

it wouldn’t bother me if I loved a house in every single other way. We have large sliding patio doors at the moment from our kitchen diner jnto the garden and DH is obsessed with keeping them closed as much as possible as he hates even 1 fly getting into the house in summer - I open them wide when he’s not here though 🤣