Glazing the balcony is a difficult and laborious matter. The balcony in the apartment, from the point of view of maintaining heat, which, taking into account the climatic conditions of Russia, is very important, is an additional protection, a kind of “buffer” between the room and the street. And its function is to help keep warm in the apartment in the cold season. However, in order for him to really protect the room from frosts, it is necessary to glaze the balcony, having previously taken care of its insulation and waterproofing.
Consider the most popular types of glazing that exist today: light aluminum glazing, insulated glazing with plastic windows and wooden glazing. Each of them has, of course, their advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s start with aluminum glazing. It is called light because it has a small weight – about 15 kg per square meter of glazing (for comparison – metal -plastic windows have all about 40 kg per square meter). Their second and last advantage is a relatively low price. Aluminum has very high heat production, which, of course, can be effectively used for many purposes, but not for the manufacture of frames. In the cold season, such frames will be wet from the inside, and in winter they will simply freeze. Needless to say, high -quality insulation of the balcony is absolutely incompatible with aluminum glazing.
The second type is glazing balconies with plastic windows. Frames for such glazing are made of polyvinyl chloride and have thermal conductivity about 20 times lower than aluminum, which allows you to insulate and waterproof the balcony well. If the main criterion for choosing the type of glazing is its strength and quality insulation of the balcony – plastic windows will be the perfect option for our northern latitudes. Yes, we can now say that in Europe in many countries, wooden frames occupy the first place in popularity, which is certainly natural and beautiful … But, friends, Europeans would quickly change their attitude to this beauty if the frames in their windows were under their windows Moroz -40 OS (which, by the way, does not happen in Europe) cracked or swelled and stop closed due to humidity.
Of course, a tree, as a material for glazing, also has its advantages – it is strong and has low heat transfer. However, wooden frames, no matter how qualitatively they are made, require constant updating and leaving. This means that once a year or two you will have to tear off the old paint and paint them again or update the varnish coating. Otherwise, the tree will subject the destructive influence of moisture, sun and parasites, the habitat of which it is, and will become unusable.
