info@csidewindows.com
(978) 354-5544French Patio Doors for a Balcony Unit in Georgetown, MA
The balcony was too narrow for a door that swings out, and the building's exterior color was not the owner's to choose. Both of those were settled before anyone talked about style.
Project managed by
Alex D., Seaside - 5.0 Google (29 reviews)
- Marvin & Andersen Certified
- Licensed & Insured
- Serving the North Shore since 2014
Most patio door projects start with a catalog. This one started with two constraints that ruled out almost everything in it. The unit is upstairs, the balcony outside it is narrow enough that you can touch both railings, and the door color had to match a building the owner shares with her neighbors.
The challenge
Two things decided before anyone picked a door
An outswing door needs the balcony to give it room, and a pair of leaves swinging out eats close to thirty inches of a space that did not have thirty inches to give. There is a code side to it too. Massachusetts lets the surface outside sit as much as eight and a quarter inches below the threshold, but only if the door does not swing over it, and the moment it does you are back to an inch and a half, which on a balcony deck you cannot raise is usually not a number you can hit. Color was the second constraint and it was not negotiable either, because in a Massachusetts condominium the exterior of the building is generally common area and the association's documents decide what the outside of your door looks like, not you.
How Seaside solved it
Inswing French doors in the building's green
We specified a hinged inswing pair, which keeps the balcony clear and keeps the threshold detail legal, and ordered the exterior in the building's green as a factory finish rather than painting it on site, because a brush coat on a door that faces weather all day is a two year solution at best. The old opening met stucco above and brick below, two materials that shed water differently, so the sill was flashed to handle both before the door went anywhere near it.
The work
A closer look at the project
The result
A balcony you can actually stand on
The owner got back a door that opens fully without clearing furniture off the balcony first, and a piece of outdoor space that is now big enough for two chairs and a table instead of one chair pushed against the wall.
The quieter win is that nobody has to have a conversation with the association about it. The color is the building's color, it came that way from the factory, and it will still be that color in ten years. On a shared building that is worth more than it sounds.
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