As bifolding doors have gained popularity in recent years the various budget options available have also increased.
It is now relatively commonplace to see cheap bifolding doors available in Wickes and other DIY outlets enabling you to have a new bifolding door at a very competitive price.
If you are considering the DIY option on bifolding doors, we offer you some useful information and advice to ensure you make an informed choice.
What’s involved if you decide to install your own bifolding doors?
It is very important to remember that a bifolding door is nothing like a sliding door or a typical entrance or French door.
Complex hardware, clever design and engineering all go to make a quality bifolding door.
However there is one other very important factor to consider. Your typical bifolding door is often taller and definitely wider than virtually all French Doors and most patio doors. Therefore the right installation is absolutely essential on a door that spans such a wide opening. This is where most bifolding doors will fail when the installation has not been exact.
With most standard doors and windows if the installation is not 100% exact it won’t affect the long term performance of the window. With bifolding doors it will. The nature of how bifolding doors slide, swing or fold means that everything has to be precise, accurate and correct in their installation.
Things to consider before installing your own bifolding doors.
We know all too well that a high quality bifolding door is not cheap. It is to be expected that some homeowners may with to save money by fitting their own doors as a DIY project.
Obvious cost savings include not having to have the doors surveyed by a professional surveyor, avoiding paying for fitting charges and looking to save money by buying doors direct from a trade counter or other trade supplier.
The survey is just as important as the installation. Whilst a professional builder will do his very best to create a square and true new opening for your doors, our experience tells us that on a large span such as a five or six metre bifolding door aperture this is not always the case.
A professional surveyor can take into account any tolerances or irregularities in your structural opening and ensure that your new doors are made to accommodate these. Our experience tells us that even a 5mm difference in a structural opening can cause doors not to fit and not work properly.
It is absolutely essential that bifolding doors are fitted and glazed by professional installers that are property trained.
Why you should use a professional bifolding door company.
In our view and especially for bifolding doors the risks of DIY installation without proper training and skills can outweigh any perceived cost savings.
If you are considering fitting your own bifolding doors you may not exercise the skill or accuracy needed to ensure they perform faultlessly into the future.
You will also probably seek to find installation instruction on the internet. If this is the case it is important to know that there are dozens of bifolding door makes on the market. None of these doors are identical in how they are fitted or glazed.
Therefore unless you know what “system” your bifolding door is, any fitting instructions or videos you see online are unlikely to be relevant to the door you have purchased yourselves.
Therefore if you are in the market for new bifolding doors, talk to us and let us help you decide whether the DIY option is right for you.
