Glass specialists serving Storrington

Barn conversions and structural glass on the Downs

Storrington sits at the foot of the South Downs and much of the work we do around it is agricultural buildings turned into houses. Barn conversions throw up a specific set of glass problems that a suburban semi never does.

The big one is the glazed opening where a cart entrance used to be. These are frequently four or five metres wide and full height, which puts them well beyond a single pane and into structural glazing territory: multiple panels, minimal framing, and a steel or glass fin arrangement to carry the load. The specification is driven by wind loading across a large unsupported area rather than by anything to do with appearance, and it needs designing properly rather than scaling up a domestic detail.

The second is rooflights. Converted barns are deep-plan and dark in the middle, and the usual answer is a large flat rooflight or a run of them. Anything overhead has to be laminated so that it stays in place if it breaks, and on a shallow-pitch roof the glass also has to be specified for the snow and maintenance loads. Our rooflight page covers the options.

Planning within the National Park

A good deal of the Storrington area falls inside the South Downs National Park, which is its own planning authority. Rooflights, large glazed openings and anything that changes a roofline are more tightly controlled here than they would be a few miles south, and permitted development rights are restricted on many properties.

We are not planning consultants and we will not pretend otherwise. But we will tell you at survey when we think something is likely to need consent, and we will supply the technical detail your architect or agent needs for the application rather than leaving you to describe the glazing yourself.