Closing a porch for winter in Spain

The useful question is not which system is best, but which one matches your porch, its orientation and how you actually use the property. A front-line apartment in Estepona and a sheltered garden porch in Nueva Andalucía do not need the same thing.

• Glass curtains for panoramic sides you can open completely in summer.
• Guillotine glass where the opening is large or the porch takes the full force of the wind.
• Bioclimatic pergola when the porch has no solid roof and you want adjustable louvres.
• Zip awning for solar control on hot facades, often fitted over glass rather than instead of it.
• Glass windbreak when a single exposed side is the whole problem.

This is the part worth reading twice, because it is where expectations go wrong. A frameless glass curtain is made of tempered glass panels that slide and pivot. Between the panels there is a seal, and along the bottom track there is a working tolerance. That tolerance is not a defect - it is what allows the system to open.

So a glass curtain turns an unusable windy terrace into a room you sit in almost all year. It stops the draught, stops the rain, and holds a surprising amount of the day's solar heat. What it does not do is behave like a window. There is no sealed cavity, no double-glazing acoustics, and on a cold January night you will know you are on an enclosed terrace rather than in the living room.

We set out the real limitations of the system, without the sales gloss, in glass curtain drawbacks on the Costa del Sol. If you are still choosing, frameless glass curtains explained covers how the system actually works.

For overseas owners this is almost always the step that derails the timetable. Enclosing a porch or terrace changes the external appearance of the building, and in a Spanish community of owners - the comunidad de propietarios - that normally requires the agreement of the owners' meeting, not just a word with the administrator.

Two things make this slower than it sounds. First, your community meets when it meets, and that date is not negotiable. Second, if you are not resident, you may need to give someone a proxy to vote on your behalf, which adds another round of correspondence. On top of the community, each town hall on the coast has its own ordinance about what may be enclosed and how.

Our community permission guide for Andalusia explains the process, the majorities involved and what is worth taking to the meeting.

Demand for enclosures on this coast rises the moment the weather turns, and everything is made to measure. There is no warehouse of standard porches. Here is what actually sits between a first phone call and a finished porch.

Only one of those stages is outside anyone's control, and it is the long one. That is the whole argument for starting in September: it gives the permission enough room to happen without costing you the season.

A large share of terraces on this coast belong to homes that are shut up from October to Easter. Leaving an enclosed terrace unused for months has its own rules, and getting them wrong is how people come back in spring to a system that no longer slides.

• Leave the system closed and latched. A loose panel in a Levante gust is the fastest way to break a fitting.
• Clean the tracks and check the drainage holes before you leave. Summer leaves sand and salt compacted in the bottom track; a blocked drain turns ordinary rain into standing water inside.
• Leave no moisture behind - no watered plants, no damp textiles, no floor mopped on the last evening.
• Arrange monthly ventilation with whoever looks after the property, or leave a trickle vent open if the system allows it.
• Cover or remove soft furniture. Closed and unventilated all winter, an enclosed terrace holds its damp.
• If you are on the front line, book the annual hardware check. Salt air does not take the winter off.

What to clean, lubricate and replace by season is set out in glass curtain spare parts and maintenance. We supply parts and service across the whole Costa del Sol, and we manufacture and install ourselves, so the person who surveys the job is the one who answers for the result.

1. Enclosing the sides and leaving the roof for later. If the roof is not watertight, you have simply built a room with a leak in it. The roof goes first.
2. Choosing the system on price without looking at the orientation. The enclosure that performs perfectly in a sheltered courtyard falls short on a front-line penthouse.
3. Forgetting drainage. Frameless glass curtains are not designed to be watertight at the bottom track. If the floor does not drain, whatever comes in stays in.
4. Leaving permission until last. It is the only step you do not control, and it is always the longest.
5. Not servicing the system you already have. A porch enclosed eight years ago with worn brushes lets the wind straight through. A service costs a fraction of a new enclosure.

If you are weighing up the investment, how much do glass curtains cost in Spain sets out what actually drives the figure - measurements, glass thickness, number of panels, motorisation, access and finishes - and why a price per square metre from the internet tells you almost nothing about your own terrace.

When you are ready, book a survey with no obligation through contact. We work in English and Spanish, so nothing gets lost between the survey and the installation.