If there’s one thing guaranteed to cause arguments, it’s renovations.
Aside from the disruption of having tradies traipse through your home, the confusion over whether certain facts were actually communicated, and the sharp sense of unease watching the bank balance shrink, the biggest bone of contention has to be the vast array of choices.
We’ve gotten through bathroom taps, the toilet, the hand basin and what to cover the floor with. But the showstopper this week was something seemingly innocuous – the door.
The statement “I’ve ordered the door”, was met with stony silence. On one side of the fence is the argument for a bog-standard single-pane glass entry door that lets in plenty of light and garden views, but also heat and cold.
On the other is the desire for, at the very least, double-glazing, preferably with a low-emissivity (low-e) coating on one face to make the set-up more efficient.
Both sides of the fence are happy with a timber frame, which although requires more maintenance, suits the style of the house and is more energy efficient than standard aluminium.
The main sticking point is the price difference of the two different glazing options (several hundred dollars at most suppliers), and the fact that, as most companies don’t offer double-glazing as standard, it will throw the wait-time for the door out past Christmas.
For all the talk of building more energy-efficient homes, it seems most suppliers are still playing catch up. Few have off-the-shelf double-glazed doors, and those that do, stock them in limited sizes.
One company I contacted this week said they used to do a double-glazed unit, but found the double-glazing didn’t fit their doors so now they only offer single glazed.
Argh!!
While the argument is not yet settled on the domestic front, and the door deposit has not actually been paid, there has been plenty of reading of the Window Energy Rating Scheme (WERS) website, in particular the climate zone map and the window comparison tool on the Efficient Glazing site. NOTE: this is for Australia; USA uses Energy Star check out their website at: http://www.energystar.gov
Read more at: http://smh.domain.com.au/green/blogs/talking-property/doors-windows-the-weak-points-20121211-2b6s4.html
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Green Real Estate Appraiser 