Have decided, at long last, to replace the original wooden framed balcony door unit to our bedroom over looking busy Rat-u-Thit in the heart of Patong as, due to warping and rotting, traffic noise and pedestrian chatter leak through like crazy.

My initial feeling is to go with uPVC sliders with a fixed top panel

Any recommendations from experience on style, suppliers or any tips would be most appreciated.

 

A tip for a photo is to force a flash when it's back-lit like that.

 

Anyway... extra panes of glass will help but my experience is to use "heavy" drapery to block out the noise most effectively.

2 hours ago, prophet01 said:

My initial feeling is to go with uPVC sliders with a fixed top panel

Any recommendations from experience on style, suppliers or any tips would be most appreciated.

 

PVC has the disadvantage of looking plastic (ie cheap) and having quite thick frames. So I would prefer aluminium but it's up to you.

 

For the best sound-proofing result you should have different thicknesses of glass for the two panes that make up the double-glazing (ie 5mm and 7mm) with as large a gap as possible between the two (commonly 6-8mm) and if one pane can be laminated so much the better for both safety and sound reduction (but it's more expensive).

 

With your size of opening you will only be able to open half of the area if you choose a sliding style, so you would have a much smaller area to walk through or for ventilation if you need that. Perhaps a folding style would work better?

 

Good imported double-glazed frames are way overpriced here: about 3 or 4 times what they would cost in Europe. But maybe you could get away with local frames which are much cheaper.

 

 

I have tried to deal with the problem of noise pollution in Thailand over many years!

The best I have come up with is double glazed UPVC swing type doors, don't make the mistake I initially did by using sliding doors, you want to make sure the doors have a good seal all around else its a pointless exercise.

Suppliers - depends where you are located?

Good luck!

Appreciate the responses folks.

Managed to get hold of an established, knowledgeable ex-pat supplier here in Phuket.

See below link for future reference of anyone else with similar requirements. Will probably go with swing doors not sliders.

 

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/961223-balcony-door-double-glazing/