How difficult would this be?

shellyb73

Hi all,

We had double doors between sitting room and dining room which we had blocked up using stud partition wall .
Hindsight as they say is a wonderful thing!
I would love to have the light coming back through the house again and want to see how difficult it would be to use glass blocks, not for the entire wall as we have a sofa on the wall now but just half the opening that was originally there.

What exactly would have to be done..

Thanks for any advice

Martron

basically you would just cut a hole where you want the glass blocks and fits the blocks.

now in practice you will have to reinforc the lower half of the wall to support the glass blocks( which aint light) so you will proably have to pull down the wall anyway.

reinforc the lower half with bigger members or more members. if you did it carefully you could use the timber you take from the hole to do this ( depending on the hole size. you will also want to close of the gap around the glass blocks creating essentially a window frame. but the main thing would be to reinforce what ever the glass blocks are sitting on.

if you put up the original partition this should not be any bother to you.

Martron

oh and i assumed because it was a doorway that was filled upi that tere is no services in the wall. but always check of course before you pull anything down

mossie110

http://www.polarlight.ie/?gclid=CMDW1rr26J8CFVpb4wodJx9TGg
new blocks lightweight give you a quote for size of panel you need.

cnocbui

You could also look at twin wall polycarbonate sheeting.

You might like to look at some of the products Here:

http://www.rockwellsheet.com/case_studies_interiorandother.asp

They deliver to Ireland and are great to deal with.

shellyb73

Thank you guys for the replies, some interesting inks there, will check them out and let ya know how I get on,
Thanks again :)

shellyb73

I tried to contact Polarlight by filling out their online request form TWICE and nobody contacted me so I telephoned the number from the website but it is a different company!!!!! Left my name and number as apparently there is someone there who takes calls for them, all very strange so will give them a miss.
I have contacted the rockewell company so hopefully they will ship to ROI, just waiting on a reply, thanks again , hopefully this crowd will deliver..

shellyb73

And the update on Rockwell is that " polyu " their supplier has gone into administration with no other supplier available so thats that, obviously not meant to do this job!!!:rolleyes:

cnocbui

Rockwell do ship to Ireland though, I had them send me some Twin wall polycarbonate sheeting. Speaking of which, I know you were thinking of glass blocks, but I think you could also use this material to let light through. Here are a couple pics of the 10mm thick twin wall sheeting I got:









You will note it has wavy ribs separating the outer skins. If you don't like that effect, the more usual form the material comes in is with straight separation ribs. The straight walled stuff can be got from Wikes and B&Q. There is a whole range and variety of specialist hardware for mounting and securing the sheets together if your opening is really wide.

I have a sun room off the kitchen in out house. There are solid double doors we close when the weather gets cold so we don't waste heat trying to heat the unheatable. I have been considering replacing the doors with PC sheeting to let the light through in winter. Few other projects to complete first, though.

BROWNE51

Glass blocks weigh 2.4 kgs each,so you just need to reinforce your studwork in the lower/supporting half of the proposed opening.To cut down on the weight you could use a diy system(pvc components and silicone)..alot lighter than the traditional rods & mortar system and very easily installed.