Aluminium joinery tinting

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georgea

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Topic # 205662 22-Nov-2016 08:53

I'm doing an extension to our 90s house to add a new master bedroom and 2nd lounge, and am trying to decide if we should have tinting in the new aluminium double glazed joinery windows and doors.

I can see advantages to tinting in terms of reducing fading of carpet and furniture, and also from a privacy aspect as the new bedroom with French doors will be very visible from our entertaining area. However, I'm worried about how dark it will make the rooms feel. I'm especially worried about the 2nd lounge, which will have a north-west facing sliding door, but which only will get light from around 1pm to 5pm as its partially obscured due to the shape of the house. Its tempting to have tinting in one room and not the other, but I assume it will look lame as there would be a wall with one set of french doors tinted, and a sliding door not.

Anyway, for those that have tinting, how dark does it make the rooms feel (especially non-north facing rooms)? And how about in winter? Has anyone mixed tinted and non-tinted?

Thanks in advance for any opinions.

mdf

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Reply # 1675362 22-Nov-2016 09:13

We're looking at it for a large front facing window from a privacy perspective. The glass we're looking at isn't that much darker than normal, it's designed to be reflective from whichever side is brighter (i.e. mirrored on the outside during daylight hours).

But it's noticeable enough that SWMBO has vetoed it for the window that has a nice view. We'll be installing summer blinds on that one.

A while back in a different house, we just added the tinting film to a window to make a kid's room cooler in the summer months. You can always peel that off if you don't like the look.

jaymz

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Reply # 1675384 22-Nov-2016 09:57

We got UV tinting put into our east facing doors in our lounge and although it did make it a bit darker, it was not enough to really worry about. We dont need the lights on during the day or anything.

You are best to ask the installer about the different grades of tinting, just like with car tints you can get varying % of darkness while still retaining UV protection.

neb

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Reply # 1675633 22-Nov-2016 20:20

georgea:
Anyway, for those that have tinting, how dark does it make the rooms feel (especially non-north facing rooms)? And how about in winter? Has anyone mixed tinted and non-tinted?

It depends entirely on the tinting, you can have barely-visible but also not terribly effective through to quite obvious commercial-grade that offers a high level of UV/IR cut. I've got standard home-grade in my living room and it's basically invisible, heavy-duty commercial-grade in my office and it's a lot more visible (if you know it's there), but also offers a high level of IR and UV protection.

What you need to do is go to a tinting place and get some sample foils that you can hold over your windows to see what effect it has. I don't think random advice is going to be too helpful since everyone has their own thresholds.

georgea

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Reply # 1675655 22-Nov-2016 20:42

Thanks for the opinions everyone. We would be going for standard grade house tinting if we get it done.

I get what you say about it being subjective, but I guess another way to put the question is to ask if anyone has had it done and regretted doing it in some rooms e.g. non-north facing smaller ones?

Also has anyone had a mix of both, and if so how do they find it looks from the outside with a mix?

The joiner we are using is suggesting we get them all tinted, but I don't believe he is really considering the layout of our new rooms when he says that, probably more just his profit margins.

Once again thanks for the help.

neb

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Reply # 1675690 22-Nov-2016 21:13

georgea:
I get what you say about it being subjective, but I guess another way to put the question is to ask if anyone has had it done and regretted doing it in some rooms e.g. non-north facing smaller ones?

Also has anyone had a mix of both, and if so how do they find it looks from the outside with a mix?

No regrets with mine, I don't even notice it's there, and that's with tinting at the higher end of the home-grade stuff.

From the outside the difference is noticeable because the commercial-grade stuff turns the window into mirror glass while the standard tinting just makes it mostly reflective. However, it's not a big deal, most of the time all the windows just look reflective, it's only with some lighting conditions that you can see that the office windows are more reflective than the others.