patrick.net

After the Chinese drywall problems I would not be looking to buy defective doors from China.

I hear chinese asbestos is the best

What the hell are you remodeling that sliding alum doors cost 2000 a lin ft, a boeing aircraft assembly plant.

close enough, I was silly enough to buy a church. I'm looking at creating a wall of glass, 12ft tall super insulated triple pane argon doors, won't be cheap. But I was hoping for the price equivalent of three Hyundais not six. Also my grand plans include building an extravagant conservatory out of curtain wall assemblies. Which would only be financially feasible if I source them overseas.

Is this for personal consumption or are you starting a cult? I lived in the portland area for several years so curiosity overwhelms, what will your wall of glass face, will you have a view of hood or the river?

Why do you even want a wall of glass? It going to make the whole building impossible or otherwise financially not feasible to heat or air condition.

Not starting a cult, I bought a small church in close in southeast, and am converting it to a house. The view will be the city skyline, the west hills, sunlight and sunsets.

As far as energy efficiency goes, thats why the damn doors are going to cost so much. Thermally broken, gas filled, triple glazed doors, are efficient as a decently insulated wall, but are not cheap. As for the solarium/conservatory that will not be a conditioned space.

pics of project
http://churchofskinny.tumblr.com/

ice cube and the Eames's providing inspiration for my conservatory addition
http://gizmodo.com/5866250/design-nerd-ice-cube-tours-an-eames-house

Nice project. Lots of great detail stuff to salvage. Looks like a lot of fun. I really miss doug fir being everywhere like it is in Portland.

Those 12 ft high babies are going to weigh a lot. A real lot. Pretty tricky to get the framing and hardware that will hold up. Getting this right should be a real consideration from both a function and safety perspective.

Everyone has their own vision but if it were me I would just put in a wall double glazed french doors with big transoms personally. You would get 95% of the glass area, 95% of the heat retention at 10% of the cost. Even with huge amounts of windows 80% of the heat loss is through the ceiling anyway. Plus Portland never gets very cold. How many years will it take for the reduced heating costs to make up the difference between the cost of double vs triple pane?

What are you going to do about heat gain with a west facing wall of glass during the summer months. Even with low-e argon triple panes it could get really, really hot in the late afternoon.

Good luck, we all know what you are going to be doing the next couple of years. Post some finished pictures.

What are you going to do with your Chinese doors when you get them and they are defective?

Bob2356, thanks for the advice, french doors with a transom is possibility as I'm not stuck on solid glass panes. I'm thinking of evoking the eames case study house in both the doors and the conservatory. As far as the heat gain is concerned, I've been playing around with the idea of an exterior sliding panel of blinds, to give me a Bladerunner type of effect.

zzyzzx, yeah there is risk at ordering doors from china, but it's not as if they don't make these kind of things, 3/4 of dubai is prefabbed somewhere in the pearl river delta. It's a bit of a high stakes game which Is why i've been trying to solicit information from anyone who has done something similar. I also am a merchant marine by trade so at least the freight forwarding side of the transaction im somewhat familiar with, as is china.

unstoppable says

As far as the heat gain is concerned, I've been playing around with the idea of an exterior sliding panel of blinds, to give me a Bladerunner type of effect.

That would be pretty cool. I just used a grape arbor, very boring and low tech.