Winter in Egypt, 2024 - We Replace the Balcony Door

When we first moved into our flat here in 2008, it was constructed with doors to the front and rear balconies custom made in the nearby area.  While they looked charming, they were not particularly efficient at keeping out either noise or dust.  I blogged about the replacement of the front balcony door with a newer style sliding door back in 2013.  That's the original on the left below and its replacement on the right.

  

 

Over time, perhaps with the whole building settling a bit as construction crews built the Ring Road out in front of our place, the sliding door became difficult to close properly.  Unless carefully manipulated there was plenty of room for dust to leak in, to say nothing about the cold breezes in January.

 

While some adjusting of the door rollers might have fixed the problem, we realized the difference that improved window technology might bring us while visiting another apartment in our building which had almost total silence from the traffic outside.  We opted to replace the sliding door with a double-paned  hinged model. (sliders just don't do a good job at preventing noise infiltration)

Of course the new door would have to be custom built.  "Standard size" openings are not an Egyptian thing.  That created some apprehension on our part since we would be leaving town for a visit to the south in a week, Ramadan would arrive shortly after that (getting any work done during that month is problematic) and we would then be returning home to the U.S.

Our neighbor knows a reliable window contractor. We were assured by the neighbor that the process would be completed in a very timely fashion. The custom built replacement was manufactured and installed smoothly in five days. 

 

The window contractor arrived with two strong young helpers.  They carried the door panels and frame up the eight flights of stairs to our apartment while the contractor brought the screens up in the elevator.  Our elevator is not tall enough for the doors to fit inside.

 

Total cost of the replacement unit with installation was 16,000 Egyptian Pounds - about $315.

 

 

We retained the old doors out on the balcony for a few days since our friend, Roshdy, knew of a couple of people interested in purchasing them.  We eventually sold them for 1,000 EGP, about $20, to a buyer who also had two helpers to take them down the stairs and tie them across the top of his car.

That brought the total cost of the replacement down to under $300.  Next year, we'll replace the two sliding windows on this side of the building with similar technology and have perfect silence!