I am hoping to buy an apartment in Barcelona. It’s an atico with a small terrace. The door that leads from the living room onto the terrace is tiny and I’d like to widen it to create a patio door.
Am I allowed to do this without permission?
Thanks in advance!
This topic was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by barcelonabound.
Every situation is different, but you need permission from the building’s comunidad and probably from the city as well. It is my understanding if you do this without permission from the comunidad, you risk getting a denuncia from one of your neighbors.
We did this in our flat in Barcelona and we had to put a support beam in as well. Ours is a ‘sobreatico’ and we have no common walls with other flats but we still had to do this.
All said, it wasn’t that difficult for us to do this. We worked with a architect who circulated the plans to the communidad. They had 2 weeks or so to respond and nobody complained so we moved forward.
It the larger door made a huge difference and I would not hesitate to do it again.
As it was part of a very expensive remodel, I don’t know how much it cost. But the factors that affect the price are if you do need to add a support beam and how much you pay for the new door. Also, if things will fit in your elevator or if people need to carry things up multiple flights of stairs and/or a crane is needed.
My recommendation is to not go cheap on the door – ours is a sliding, double glass pane door with noise and heat reduction and UV ray filter. If your door faces the sun, you probably need the heat reduction and UV protection. Our door is 168cm wide by 200cm tall and it had to be carried up 10 flights of stairs!
Don’t forget to add in a screen (mosquitera) if you think you are going to leave the door open a lot.
If you PM me I can provide you with the name of the glass door company we used – someone who is outside of Barcelona but I recommend, and another one I know of (but never used) in Barcelona. I won’t recommend the architect we used.
I suggest you speak with an architect. They typical approach is anything that affects structure will require a permit (probably an Obra Menor). Because you are increasing an opening on the exterior wall (which are typically load bearing in Barcelona) this will affect the structure of the building which can be risky if it is not assessed properly. The second thing is if the opening is not supported properly, any sag will affect the new doors operation and it might jam or not function properly. So there are these concerns along with what was mentioned by Gary with the comunidad. Let me know if you need the name of an architect, i know a few who I can recommend. Good luck!
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