Glazed balcony.

Balcony in a city apartment, as usual, practically operated living space. Dust, snow, urban filth, garbage and other "waste products" that will inevitably find themselves on the balcony, making it not very pleasant to stay. Here's the question: how do these "square meters" easier to use? And one way out: glazing a balcony. Ways to do this a lot, but how to choose the best? It is first necessary to understand exactly what you want to get eventually. Balcony in a city apartment, as usual, almost no exploitable living space. Dust, snow, urban filth, garbage and other "waste products" that will inevitably find themselves on the balcony, making it not very pleasant to stay. Here's the question: how do these "square meters" easier to use? And one way out: glazing a balcony. Ways to do this a lot, but how to choose the best? It is first necessary to understand exactly what you want to get eventually. 1. Protection from the balcony of rain and dust. This condition is achieved with any version of glazing. 2. Heat. It is known that the main cause of heat loss is its wind-drift. Therefore, to achieve the desired result simply get rid of drafts. 3. Ease of use. Then again, you have a wide range of options. You can set up on the balcony of his exclusive window units, or to save, to put "trolley stop from New painted iron. Our task - to outline all the pros and cons of many options that are now available to consumers. Plastic oknaNesomnennym advantage of plastic windows is sealed and the highest thermal insulation properties. But is it so important in our case? After all, in order to save heat, you have to have. And on the balcony of the heat appears only due to leakage from the heated zone. So that the insulation is not so important. A required tightness is achieved at the cost of space, because the swing doors fairly "devour" him. In addition, we must bear in mind that insulation of the balcony as a whole is not only insulated skylights, but that is no less important, insulation fences and walls of the balcony. Achieve a high level of isolation, of course, possible, but it is technically difficult and carries a lot of financial and nerve costs. To get "more room" from the balcony are suitable, of course, only windows, but for their proper installation, you must comply with certain conditions. Indeed, the very structure of these windows provides for certain restrictions in their application. The windows are designed for "a quarter", which allows full use of their insulating properties. When installing window units in our environment is necessary to artificially create something similar to a standard design window opening. Due to the fact that there are no standard items for this does not exist, this task falls squarely on installers, establishing glazing. Then there is the question of waterproofing on the outside. Reflux is attached to the plate, of course, solves this problem, but this reflux must have a configuration slightly different from the standard, and has low thermal conductivity, which virtually eliminates the use of aluminum castings. Another problem which confronts us - a vapor barrier inside the balcony. The main difficulty here may be considered "excessive" tightness frames. With virtually no natural ventilation is extremely difficult to get rid of water vapor, which are unavoidably present in a warm room. And in an unheated area of ??a pair of these reach the dew point even at low diurnal temperature variations. As a consequence of condensation in the most awkward places. And after excess moisture frequent occurrence of mold and mildew. If you do not put a goal to turn your balcony into a warm living room, then the number of options to make it habitable simply increases. Apart from the fact that the requirements for a vapor barrier balcony, partially isolated from the living quarters, much lower for a similar glass (considered plastic system) can be used not only standard PVC windows, but sliding design. Although they are as heavy as the other windows, which significantly limits their application. Because fencing is not on every balcony is capable of withstanding the design, which weighs more than one hundred kilograms. Cold osteklenieGermetichnost it, of course, somewhat lower than that of plastic windows, but for our purposes is quite sufficient. With very little wind demolition of heat we have a much lighter construction, as well as the majority of sliding, which provides a clear saving of space. This kind of glazing on the market in several ways. The most popular include a system of "visit", developed by German firm Reynolds and produced in Spain. Glazing of the profile has a sufficiently high integrity needed to keep the heat, but at the same time, it has a "natural ventilation", which is necessary to prevent fogging of windows. In addition, a large number of additional elements of such a profile allows osteklyat balconies and loggias of almost any configuration. Practice shows that such windows if there is even minimal insulation remaining elements of the balcony allows you to save on the balcony above-zero temperature. Of course, this temperature depends on many factors: the prevailing wind direction, thermal conductivity walls, leakage through the window units, etc. Plastic coating applied to the aluminum construction, highly resistant to natural and anthropogenic factors. Polished glass 5 mm thick, mounted in rubber gaskets did not leak, and provide high structural strength. Automatic latches make this a completely reliable protection glazing balconies. Sliding doors are moved on rollers, making opening even more (up to 2,25 m 2) leaf matter that does not require physical strength. Experience in operating structures of this type showed that at the moment the system of "visit" is one of the most successful in terms of price and quality. Recent years the profile of who make such glazing is available in Moscow and in Samara, and Krasnoyarsk, although somewhat limited range of additional elements reduces the opportunities and makes installation of complex glazing. Coating quality at such a profile is somewhat lower than in Spanish. On the market are presented and the system "frameless" glazing, which are manufactured in Finland. These designs are beautiful and easy to operate. With all these advantages, they are quite expensive, and they can be safely attributed to the elite. Similar to the "frameless" and Swedish "two-plane" frame. In addition to the parallel shift, they are able to rotate around the inner corner of the frame. This makes it possible to open the passage is almost completely glass. The main feature of such systems, glazing can be called very high demands on the parallel installation of planes, that is, the ceiling and balcony railings. Our building, unfortunately, rarely meets these requirements, which complicates the installation of glass and therefore increases the cost of the work. Other pole of the scale of quality can be called wooden frames, which are still sometimes used for glazing balconies. Their main drawback can be called that in a metropolis external painting of windows must be done at least twice a year. If you do not, then the wood is covered with microcracks. After three or four years, these cracks grow, the windows leak and lose acquire slovenly appearance. Somewhat better than the so-called "trolley stop, which are made of black metal and welded together and painted on site. Their main disadvantage is that in a year - two such designs are covered by streaks of rust. In addition, hinged doors, which are equipped with these constructs are not always tightly closed. Especially need to allocate a balcony, located on the upper floors of buildings. By virtue of design features, they sometimes become easily accessible with a technical floor or roof. To prevent the infiltration of outsiders, one way out: glass balcony. For this purpose, any suitable version of the glazing, it is important only to open doors were securely locked. Recent stories often have the upper plate, which makes it necessary to erect a roof over a balcony. Practice shows that the abundance of materials provided by the market rationally use corrugated galvanized sheet for reflective floors and translucent polycarbonate for roofing. The main problem for such designs is the tightness of the roof to wall junction. Our experience has shown that the most successful solution to this problem can be flat "mask", which is fixed with screws and sealed with silicone sealant. Sheathing balkonaBalkon, glazed varying design requires additional insulation and moisture from temperature fluctuations. General rule, how to do it, no. You can sheathe the balcony as the plastic panels and wooden paneling. It all depends on taste. But in this case has its limitations. If you no longer taste paneling, it should be borne in mind that wood in service has a tendency to crack under the influence of the sun. Therefore, when plating is necessary to try to avoid increasing the length of the bunks. This also applies to sex. Under the impact of stringent conditions (day temperature drop in the balcony can be up to 30 degrees) batten length of more than 3 feet can not just "dry up", but it can "lead", meaning it will twist around its longitudinal axis. But such changes are in the best case lead to the fact that the floors will squeak. If you decide to sheathe the balcony with plastic, then the choice of material in the first place you should pay attention to the temperature range in which it can operate. Most decorative plastic panels are designed for use indoors, hence, their behavior at subzero temperatures is unpredictable. It is also not very suitable for this purpose, the panel width of 200-250 mm. Such panels are usually very small, "entry", ie when the temperature drops below zero in such panels may be torn strip of plastic, for which the panel is attached to the crate. From experience we know that the most suitable for covering balconies are plain plastic panel width 96 mm. Colored panels are usually made of a brittle plastic. Thermal insulation sheathing can be done using different materials. But the most efficient insulation can be called penofolom or PE foam. These materials, if they are not exposed to direct sunlight, have a durable and practically do not lose time its insulating properties. According to the magazine "Construction Season"