If you’re one of the many people that have already had a bifolding door installed in the home, you’ll appreciate the benefits that these doors bring.
If you’re currently considering new doors, we would like to offer you some tips and advice on what you should consider. Importantly we also give some useful insights about bifolding doors and where frameless glass doors can offer advantages.
The benefits of folding doors.
Thanks to its concertina design a bifolding door is one of those fantastic products that can instantly transform from a glass wall to an open space with none of the bulk associated with French doors.
By having a new frameless bifolding door fitted you’ll instantly bring the outside in whether the doors are open or closed. In the summer months with the doors open, your outside space instantly becomes an extra room in the home.
Your new bifolding doors will be closed most of the year. But even when closed, you’ll have lots of natural light thanks to bifolding doors being possible wider and taller than standard swing doors.
So overall a bifolding door can add a real wow factor to the home. There are a great many door systems available including our own unique frameless doors. So how do you go about finding the right doors for you?
Quality is standard with many bifolding door systems.
It’s important to know that modern bifolding door products might all vary, but generally they all meet or exceed the established industry standards for weather performance, security and thermal efficiency. Some obviously perform better than others but it’s rare to find substandard products on the market. What you’ll need to look at are the various aesthetic, performance and other features of bifolding doors and hopefully come to an informed choice.
Most of the doors you’ll see are well engineered, light in operation and offer good levels of security.
Create a feeling of space with bifolding doors.
Even if you live in a smaller home a bifolding door can give an illusion of more space. Obviously our own frameless glass doors have substantially less framing than fully framed aluminium bifolds and enhance this feeling of space and light still further.
Even if you only have a small garden, patio area or terrace, you’ll find a bifolding door draws the eye much further than a conventional door making your home feel larger and with a more airy feel.
Aluminium is the best material for bifolding doors.
In doing your research, you’ll find aluminium bifolding doors are available in pvcu, aluminium and wood. You’ll sometimes see a combination of aluminium and wood as well called hybrid systems.
These modern systems are great and well worth looking at. However, once you’ve seen the quality fully framed aluminium doors, pay us a visit and have a look at our frameless doors. You’ll instantly notice the much larger glass area, the cleaner lines when the doors are closed and how they differ from conventional bifolds.
Consider the colour of your bifolding doors.
Grey is a very popular colour with bifolding doors as are varying shades of the grey, black, white and over 150 other colours to choose from.
The colour you choose will really depend upon your own property and whether you want your doors to stand out or blend into the property. Perhaps you already have PVCu or aluminium windows installed in the popular white colour. Some homes will work better with matching colour doors, others look great with a bolder colour.
There is substantial colour choice with bifolding doors in aluminium which far exceeds whats available in PVCu as an example.
Consider corner folding doors.
If you’re presently designing a new extension for the home, talk to us about having a corner folding door arrangement. This is where you have two sets of doors that meet on the corner and when opened, this corner section is removable. There are structural considerations involved with this but nothing too complicated that a good engineer or builder could not advise you on.
Generally a cantilevered steel section and a well built extension can enable you to have corner folding doors. These in the open position create a stunning feature and open aspect in the home and are well worth considering.
How much space will open folding doors require?
When planning your bifolding doors it’s important to look at the space they’ll take up in the open position. Folding doors are available in options that all fold to one side or split in the middle to fold both sides. Your local bifolding door provider should be able to give you the right advice on this depending upon your requirements, how many folding panels you’ll need and your home in general.
It is when folding doors are opened back that our own frameless doors come into their own. With our doors being so slim and thin they take up a marginal amount of space when folded back. Each of our panels is only 45mm thick which is less than half of other systems. This means that on a typical 4 leaf door less than 200mm space is required when the doors are stacked. Conventional doors can take up up to 500mm depending on the system.
We urge you to compare our doors with the full framed variety and this important detail will become apparent.
This detail can present an issue with other bifolds. For example a five or six pane aluminium door can take up a substantial amount of space when open and can even block your view. So your options are to either have less leaves or a smaller door. With our frameless glass doors there isn’t this restriction on space taken up by open doors.
Consider the British Weather.
The popularity of the bifolding door in the UK has very much taken everyone by surprise given the British weather. You would think that these doors would only be popular in warmer climates, yet bifolding door sales continue to grow year on year.
It’s important to consider that your doors will be shut most of the year. When comparing other systems have a look at the visible metal where the doors meet. The more door panels you have the more visible aluminium or PVCu you’ll see.
If you really care about how big the view is from your doors you may find sliding patio doors better. With sliding patio doors these are possible with very large panes of glass and won’t give you that vertical sight line of frame when the doors are shut.
But if you really want the best of both worlds our frameless glass doors offer the solution. With no vertical members at all the provide a far better outlook than conventional doors. Better still our doors can be made wider per panel than the leading full framed aluminium versions.
Contact your local bifolding door experts.
At FGC, we have many years experience in the specialist manufacture and installation of folding doors. Unlike many other installers, we make all our own products that we’ve installed in many different types of homes. In all of these we have provided a real wow factor for our customers and can help you achieve the very best from your home or new extension. Contact us today for a free consultation and no obligation quotation.
