I have used them in my house for French doors and bifolds. It was seven years and five years ago with two different brands. A friend recently put them in her house and the technology seems to have improved since I had mine installed. I would recommend looking at where and how the screen closes. My first lot uses little bolts to keep one side closed across the space while the other clips onto that one magnetically. It is a pain bending down and stretching up to secure the bolts and there is a tiny gap at the top through which very small insects stream at night when the inside light is on. The next brand has the leading edge of the screens on a bracket which is also a brake. When you pull them across you twist the brake to stop wherever you want. This is a much better arrangement. My friend's new screens work similarly to this but a bit more efficiently. I'm pretty sure the brand is Phantom. It is probably wise to attach some stickers or thread some coloured wool through the screens because they can be very hard to see. Ours have bounced back no trouble at all when unsuspecting party guests have walked straight into them! The guests were also uninjured but of course were the butt of many jokes for the rest of the evening and subsequent parties!

If the front of the house is west facing in Queensland and you have glass on that side of the house, in summer in the afternoon the sun beats down on this side for hours, heating up the whole house. There is some speculation on double glazing as some think that they do heat up, better than nothing. Once the sun hits the wall you are lost. These image are for north this is worst for west. A more passive means of cooling the house is to install tall enough thick leaves to the base trees on the western side so that they shade that elevation. Problem with that is that in winter, that sun would be nice. So you need trees that drop their leaves early winter and have them back on say September when the sun starts to heat up. Some trees hold onto their leaves till a few weeks before spring, so make sure you do your research and think root barrier up front to protect your footings. Photo below horizontal external shade screens, Another method is to shade the house with screens, i said house not windows. With western sun, it is low when it starts to clear the roof overhangs, so no amount of horizontal shade devices will make any real difference. The screens for western sun in Queensland must be of a vertical nature. So screens that hang OUTSIDE the house to around say 900 mm off the ground would be fantastic. Since the sun travels around the west from more south west in peak summer to west in winter, vertical blades tend to be ideal solution and should pivot, to deal with this moving sun. In the past, Queenslanders used to have these vertical screens on castors and they moved them around to suit the conditions, for some reason we did not learn from the past. This house the screens are not shading the walls at the bottom so they would still heat up. From the plans i see you are building in brick, so western sun and bricks in summer make an ideal oven. Takes bricks 12 hours to cool down depending on the colour. All material heats up in the sun, but bricks take longer to cool, light weight material which is properly insulated is a better choice and against popular opinion, glass is also a good choice, all better if vertically screened. Double brick tends to keep a house cooler and you might as well use the double brick for structure instead of the decorative nature of cavity brick house, but after a while that heats up and takes forever to cool. Studs hold up the roof, not the face bricks. Ever wonder why the house stands up during construction with stud wall and roof? Photo is vertical blades which pivot. A good landscape architect would be worth a look and they will know how to blend your style of house with the garden. North windows in Queensland even with no overhangs, (which is stupid in Queensland) do not get sun into the rooms, but in winter it might crawl in say 2 M which is nice. What are you doing with the roof and concrete tiles heat up nicely and the darker you make them the hotter they get, Colorbond is a good choice with all the hail we tend to get, or keep a stockpile of tiles for when they break. Colour also makes a difference to heat. Make sure you vent the roof space, whirly birds, and vented eaves or gable ends, make sure you fully insulate the roof and also ceiling, and choose a light colour. choose a style of external screens or trees to fit the house. See if that makes a difference to the report which is there to make your life better and we are talking the cost of air con for the life of the house, the reports are there to help save you money, maybe a bit more up front but worth it in the long running cost of a house. Ros

stackers open up wider but glass doors are quite heavy so suggest more narrow panels rather than less wider heavier sliders...if planned in advance the bottom tracks can be recessed into a suitable floor to reduce trip hazards..we have three stacking panels with an extra matched height section with an awning window for ventilation when we don't want to open the door and/or in bad weather..the doors and window are connected into one tall wide section of 4 equal sized panels..Given the ideal situation i would also have window sections across the top for extra height and include electric openers that we have used elsewhere and find are very useful for opening high windows without having to climb up something to reach

Hi Beau , this is my personal preference only. I would have stacker doors and sheer linen curtains. The glass doesn’t need to be double glazed if noise it not a problem, if it is go with double glazed but it won’t block noise completely, it wilI reduce it. I like the diffused light the sheers offer and I like the idea of fully controlling how much light and air I have. Double glazing is a something to consider if there will be pool noise or traffic noise and this is a serious home office. Good luck.