Glazing options

One of the things that we (and by "we" we mean Adam) have been after since first looking at building a house, is double glazing. Double glazing serves 3 purposes. Firstly, it keeps the heat in in the cold, reducing energy usage for heating and thus saves baby animals and the planet in general. Second, it can reduce heat getting in reducing the need somewhat for cooling apparatus to be run. Lastly, it serves to reduce noise from outside. Whilst not an issue due to traffic where we are, there is the possibility of noise from neighbours.

The response to our requests for double glazing has been odd. Especially for someone who was born and raised in England. There, double glazing is the norm, and we can double glaze anything as far as I am aware. Here in Australia, people look at you a bit funny if you say you want it as standard through the house. Then after the accede to your wishes, they tell you that the glaziers can't do the stacker or sliding doors as this would make them too heavy... Either Australia is significantly behind the rest of the world in glazing technology or the average Australian is very weak... we will assume the first reason.

With our Metricon build progressing through planning we decided to address the issue once more and requested a quote to double glaze the whole house. This came to a cost of approximately $5000. However, again, the stacker doors cannot be done. What is most frustrating is that these doors are the largest expanse of glass in the build and are on the North and West aspects of the property. Cynthia, (our Metricon contact) is double checking to see if there are any alternative glazing options, and if not will try to make them feel suitably ashamed of the limited options...