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Uckfield, Maresfield, Buxted, Heathfield and the villages between

Aluminium sliding doors in Uckfield, for the back of the house you actually use

Most Uckfield homes were built after the war, and most of them are outside a conservation area. So the question is rarely permission. It is which door suits the opening, the garden and the way you live, and whether the wall needs widening first.

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Three-pane anthracite aluminium sliding door, one panel open, across a single-storey brick rear extension on a detached house, with two chairs on the patio and planted borders

A town that grew after 1945

Uckfield had about three and a half thousand people in 1931. By 2021 it had over fifteen thousand. Almost all of that growth is in the estates that spread out from the old High Street: Manor Park, West Park, Rocks Park, Harlands Farm, Hempstead Fields, Ringles Cross and, more recently, Ridgewood Farm to the south.

That means a lot of houses with a patio door from the 1970s, 80s or 90s that is now hard to slide, misted between the panes and cold to sit near. It also means a lot of single-storey kitchen extensions where the owners want one wide sheet of glass onto the garden.

What this site helps with

  • Choosing between a slider, French doors and a bifold for the opening you have.
  • Knowing when a 2.4 metre opening can become 3.6 metres, and what that involves.
  • Seeing what whole door jobs typically cost, before anyone visits.
  • Checking the few places nearby where planning does change the answer.

Doors first, then the rest

01Aluminium sliding doorsTwo or three panes, slim frames, one panel for daily use. 02French and patio doorsFor narrower openings and smaller back rooms. 03Aluminium windowsTo match the new doors, or the whole house at once. 04Front doorsComposite and aluminium, with or without side lights.

Why a slider rather than a bifold?

At the same size, an aluminium slider and an aluminium bifold cost about the same and take the same time to fit. The difference is how they behave once they are in.

  • A slider has fewer hinges and rollers, so there is less to wear and less to adjust as the house settles.
  • Its frames are slimmer, so you see more garden on the eleven months of the year when the doors are shut.
  • Nothing folds back into the room or onto the patio, so the table and the barbecue can stay where they are.
  • You open one panel to let the dog out. With a bifold you usually start by unfolding a pair.

Bifolds are still on offer and still the right answer for some gardens. How to decide between them.

A typical Uckfield extension job

Three-pane black aluminium sliding door in a rendered single-storey extension on a brick detached house, with a man carrying two mugs out to the patio

Illustrative example of a typical job

Three-pane aluminium sliding door across a rear extension, Uckfield

The house: A 2000s detached house on one of the newer Uckfield estates, with a single-storey kitchen extension and a 3.6 metre opening to the garden.

The spec: A three-pane aluminium slider, about 3600 by 2100 mm, with the two outer panels sliding behind a fixed centre pane, black frames, low threshold.

Typically £8,850 to £15,700, supplied and fitted, including VAT.

This is the job most people on the newer estates ask about. A four-pane bifold for the same opening is priced on the same basis, so choose on how you use it.

See all the example jobs

Where planning does matter

Uckfield's conservation area is small: about nine hectares around the High Street and Church Street, designated in 1968 and holding Copping Hall, Hooke Hall and the Church of the Holy Cross among its listed buildings. Framfield, Maresfield, Fletching with Splaynes Green, and Old Heathfield with Cade Street also have conservation areas. If your house is listed, or is a flat, ask before you change anything.

Planning and building regulations around Uckfield

Who comes to see you

Your enquiry goes to a FENSA-registered installer that covers Uckfield and the surrounding parishes. It measures the opening, checks the wall above it, and gives you a written quote in its own name. More on how that works.

Villages covered

Maresfield Buxted Framfield Fletching Isfield Nutley Heathfield Halland

Call 01825 701460