Bi-fold doors...?

[Gyro]

Hello all.

has anyone taken out a load-bearing external wall, and installed bi-fold doors in its place? Thinking of doing this in the kitchen, I know I'd need to pay for a structural engineer (got a degree in this but never actually worked as one so it annoys me a little bit!), the cost of the RSJ, and a builder (obviously) in addition to the cost of the door and installation.

Would be great to hear any tips from anyone, and of course, an idea of cost! Looking at 3 - 4 m long opening to fill with bi-folds.

Cheers.
G

[dghdgh]

Hi you would most likely only have to comply with building regs and if your drawings and calculations are acceptable the building inspector should accept these. I must confess mine are not over a full weight load bearing single storey wall but with a sloped roof and I used off the shelf double skin rsh's over 3.6mt and 2 mt spans. My biggest problem was the window company would not order the doors until the aptitude was finished, hence we had plastic sheeting over the gap for 4 weeks, glad no one decided to visit during the night.

[dghdgh]

These are the people I used for my lintels Condell Ltd. Quite good value and good service.

[Whippy53]

I took out my old French windows and opened up the wall to take big sliders. Big lintel, acrojacks, plastic sheeting and a few nightmares and all was fine.

[am-a7]

We did this - builder said it would prob be fine but we went whole hog with lintel etc and 5 yrs on all ok no cracks etc doors still open close perfect. Had a structural engineer give it all a once over