Juliet balcony (steel) bolt onto upvc french door frame (plastic) in loft?

A Juliet balcony is there only to stop you walking out, so the frame will only have to support the weight of the balcony, this will probably be hollow steel tubing and not very heavy at all.
Having said that I have never seen one fitted to a frame, always fitted to the wall either side, even a tiled wall.

 

I would find a different balcony seller as the guy is an idiot.

You are trusting your life, friends and family to bolting into something you don't know the structural strength of or how strongly it has been fixed to the opening. Your balcony seller doesn't even understand the basic problems of connecting steel bolts and the potential of an aluminium frame together - the aluminium will corrode in contact with the steel and guess what happens then.

The balcony needs to be fixed to the structure of the building preferably directly by cutting a hole in the wall tiles.

 

They can be big enough to step onto but UPVC doors aren't designed to take any sort of loading like that.

 

Hi GP.

By Juliet Balc do you mean a safety balcony like Phil has shown above, or do you mean an actual step-out-on-to-and-hope-not-to-die type?

If the former, then yes you can attach it to your PVC door frame.

How do I know this? 'Cos it's wot I've done. How do I know it's ok, tho'? 'Cos it's wot a near neighb did on his new build and that's where I got the idea from.

So, it had better be ok...

My neighb has had his new house passed by BCO, but I haven't had them out yet - even tho' the loft conversion was finished around 5 years back... I'm pants like that.

My neighb's balcony was simply a tempered/laminated glass sheet, 17mm thick or summat, and was secured to the PVC French door frame using 4 round S/S mounting blocks - no actual steel frame on the glass at all. The builder did fit a thin stainless steel braided cable running across the top between the two top fixings "just in case the BCO is a pedant", tho' he claimed that the glass panel conformed totally as it was.

I played safe and had a steel frame made up with a glass panel inside, so it has a top rail as well as sides and bottom one. Both mine and neighb's French doors are 2.4m wide with a fixed window either side, so the frame was made to land on the frame sections either side of the two opening doors. Stainless steel bolts, washers and domed nuts courtesy of our hosts, and jobbie jobbed.

What I am not sure about, tho', is whether the balcony itself needs to meet particular standards. Obviously the glass does - it's kitemarked and all that stuff - but the steel frame I had made up hasn't been through any specific tests. It's strong, tho'...

I recall drilling through an aluminium box section inside the PVC. There is no question that the door frame is in itself strong enough to hold up a safety balcony.

But I wouldn't have a step-out type mounted on it...

 

I wouldn't fit any type of balcony to upvc frame.

 

It should be fixed to the structure not the frame. you are only talking about making it a bit wider and while you have the scaffold in place it is very easy.

The last thing you want is two largish people leaning on the handrail and it could be disastrous.

 

This could be the OPs house.

 

- even tho' the loft conversion was finished around 5 years back... I'm pants like that.

Due for an unannounced visit then!

 

At least you used stainless steel bolts. I would never ever fit a glass balcony screen even though it may be kitemarked or not. I had a shower screen shatter in front of me before and it was one of those moments where I thought a guardian angel saved me because there was glass embedded all around but nothing on me ! I would hate to see what would happen if a child collided with on a ride on car or similar

 

On my house two months ago I had to refit the bedroom UPVC windows that were put in 6 years ago. I could actually flex the frame. The muppets that fitted them for me, had used some type of tapcon with a painted finish - not only had they rusted through but were too short! If I had fixed any sort of rail to it and leant on it I would have been out an in the street!

 

Cool - in which case, bolt away

 

It really depends on how well the doors are fixed. The fitters usually use four 6 inch "screw bolts" each side. I built a little porch at the front of my house last year. The outer door opens outwards and is of composite construction and is solid as a rock. I also had a UPVC door fitted inside to replace the old wooden front door. This was fastened to the inner leaf of brickwork with the usual screws but at a angle. As the brick work was not square there is quite a bit of filler at one side which will be covered by plaster. Whilst this is OK as an interior door I would not want to hang a Juliet balcony from it if it was outside upstairs. Otherwise Juliet might be falling for Romeo all over again.

 

The fact that its tiled around the frame would suggest that there is a wooden frame around the uvpc one, if this is the case and the uvpc frame has been fixed at 4 points per side, it should be as strong as it can be.

 

or brick and battens ?

 

Possible, but the OP did say it was a loft dormer, so my money on a timber frame, clad in tiles.

 

I had assumed that was well, but you never know. Either way don't understand why there is a reluctance to fix into the stonework or timber structure - unless of course the salesman only has a standard width / type of balcony he punts to customers

 

There is a lot of guess work going on?

 

I don't know much about it,but fixing anything to a plastic door frame scares me !!!!