A great deal of the commercial space here is the ground floor of what was built as a house, converted at some point into a shop, a showroom or an office. Those conversions have a particular set of problems, because a residential frontage was never designed to be opened up.
Opening up a frontage that was built solid
A house front has small windows and a lot of wall, and a shop wants the opposite.\n\nEnlarging an opening in an existing building is structural work, not glazing, and it needs a lintel sized properly before any glass is ordered.\n\nSo we are clear about where our work starts: we glaze the opening once it exists and is stable. Where somebody has already widened an opening without support, we will say so rather than glazing into it, because the glass is what shows the movement first.
A frontage set back from the road
Converted houses usually sit behind a setback that was a garden, so the shopfront is further from the road than a purpose-built unit's.\n\nThat makes the shop less visible and the frontage less effective.\n\nGlass helps by making the interior visible from further away, which means the glazing wants to be as clear and as large as the opening allows, and the interior wants to be well lit. Where a frontage is set well back, interior lighting does more than anything about the glass.
Keeping the upper floor a home
In most of these buildings somebody still lives above the converted ground floor, and the two uses have to coexist.\n\nSo the shop's entrance, its signage and particularly its noise all affect a household directly above.\n\nWe set doors to close quietly rather than firmly where there is a home above, and we plan drilling around whoever is upstairs. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a conversion that works and one that causes an argument every week.
How the job works
- Tell us about the jobSend a few photos, rough sizes and what you need. Use WhatsApp or the form. For a repair, a short video of the door moving helps a lot.
- We call you back in about 2 minutesWe confirm what you need and a time to visit. Where we can, we give you a rough price on the call.
- We come and measureWe measure the opening and check the walls, floor and ceiling around it. Anything made to size is made to these measurements, so they must be right.
- You get a written priceIt lists each item, with GST as its own line. If anything about the job changes, we tell you before we go ahead.
- We fit itYou approve the price and pay the advance. Our own team fits the work, checks that every door and window opens and closes properly, and clears up. Most jobs are done in 3 to 4 days.
