Compared to sliding doors and French doors, bifold doors make quite a unique patio door proposition, and some of the benefits of bifold doors are not available with any other type of door. If you are not sure whether bifold doors are right for your property project, here are some of the unique benefits of bifold doors and other great features, that make them some of the best for your property renovation project.
The benefits of bifold doors make them ideal for any property
Modern bifold doors are slimmer, better, more reliable and more stylish than ever before. With numerous brands on the market, well-made and fitted, a bifolding door promises a transformed new room or home whilst giving you lots of glass, reduced visible aluminium and a fantastic feeling of space. The styling and sightlines of modern bifold doors have improved significantly, with the latest bifold doors having middle mullions as slim as the grand sliding door models.
The latest Schüco bifold at the premium end of the market is one of the slimmest. Or, at a mid-range price, the Visofold 6000 is a great thin sightline bifold. There are several bifold doors now styled to meet modern tastes. Get in touch for more information on these.
We always recommend viewing all types of doors to understand whether a bifold, sliding of French door is better for your home. Or you can get in touch with us for expert help and advice. However, the benefits of bifold doors don’t just extend to the product itself. Choosing a bifold can also provide additional benefits in terms of styling, functionality and when you have a requirement for other doors around the property, not just a bifold. What follows are these unique features and benefits and what they mean for you.
Only bifold doors open up the entire aperture
One of the unique benefits of bifold doors is that this is the only door type giving you all the available opening to enjoy. Hinged doors don’t all open fully back, and sliding doors always take up half or two-thirds of the opening unless they are only sliding into the wall of a new structure.
So if you want to really open up your home, and connect it to your patio area better, bifolding doors make this possible. An open bifold can make the entire space look and feel larger for smaller properties like terraced homes, where the garden doors are the only garden doors.
French doors and bifold doors in one
Does your opening size allow for four-panel bifolds? Consider having them folded to each side with a set of doors in the middle.
When you don’t need them fully open, you can use the middle doors as everyday French doors without folding all the panels back. You also get to open them fully on warmer days, letting you enjoy the benefits of bifold doors.
Matching single and double doors
Few people know that bifolding doors can be made as single or French doors. Exactly the same profiles, styling, handles and hardware. Everything looks seamless and integrated. Therefore, if you have other doors on your property, whether on the ground floor or above, consider having a bifold as your main patio doors because you cannot match any other door product type, like a sliding door, to a bifold or French door.
Shown here Schüco ASS70 bifold doors with matching double doors, fitted by alühome of Stamford, Lincolnshire.
Bigger and taller residential doors
Using bifolding doors to make French doors also lets you have wider and taller doors than regular aluminium doors. Most residential doors are only possible up to about 1100mm wide and 2200mm high. Bifold door panels can exceed 1200mm wide and many go up to 3000mm high or more.
Therefore, you can have wider and taller doors, fully glazed, more glass, better light and improved views with no side or top panels to take up the larger opening like other types of doors. Shown here, Schüco ASS70 bifold doors made as French doors.
The convenience of a side or back door in a bifold
With most bifolding door designs, you can configure these with an access door, also known as a traffic door. What does this do? A traffic door is an independent hinged panel that opens and closes just like a regular side or back door without you needing to fold or even unlock the remaining panels.
The traffic door is one of the best benefits of bifold doors, giving you the kind of everyday use you might need from your new doors without having to fold the panels back every time. Perfect for general ventilation, going out to the garden to take out the rubbish, let out a pet, hang out the washing or anything else you would use a ground floor door in a house for.
Getting in from the outside
Few sliding doors are available with key access from the outside. Bifolding doors all come with the facility to unlock them from the outside. So if you routinely use your back doors to get into your home for instance, because your car parking is at the back, bifolding doors give you this functionality, combined with the traffic door mentioned.
An integrated window in a bifold panel
Solarlux, Schüco, Reynaers and Sunflex bifolding doors all come with the facility of having an opening tilt in window within one of the panels. You can’t integrate an opening window in a sliding door or a hinged door. Therefore, if you like the idea of window ventilation in a bifold, without the security compromise of opening the doors, the benefits of bifold doors even extend to having an opening window within them.
Protection from trapping your fingers
Large doors should not be operated by children, and the reality is any door poses a risk of getting fingers trapped. Virtually all bifolding doors today have finger-safe gaskets, protecting small hands and fingers should they accidentally get trapped in the doors – an invaluable safety feature for many.
Bifold doors that look like sliding doors
The latest generation of Schüco bifold doors can have panels that go up to 1.5m wide each. As a result, they can look just like sliding doors when closed, giving you fewer visible vertical lines just like a slimline patio door. Even better, you get the fully folded functionality when open, without losing part of your opening like you do with a sliding door.
Crittall-style bifold doors
Undoubtedly, the industrial, Art-Deco or Crittall® style is bang on trend and is arguably here to stay. It is easy to dismiss bifold doors for not taking advantage of this popular style of patio doors in favour of the better-known hinged single or double doors. But you would be wrong. Choose the right product; bifold doors with an industrial look are available and can create outstanding patio doors.
Therefore if you love the industrial style and think you can’t get it with a bifold, you can. Images below show some of the best on the market from Aluco, Alitherm Heritage, Sunflex SF55 and Solarlux Ecoline bifold doors in the steel look.
Get in touch for more information about the benefits of bifold doors
Despite the popularity of sliding patio doors, bifolding doors are still an excellent proposition for any property, whether you need to replace your existing patio doors or are considering which door is best for a new extension or building project. The benefits of bifold doors include more features, better functionality, more product options, and they are ideal for properties large or small.
Get in touch for information about bifolding doors, product or project advice and help with being put in touch with the right products from the proper suppliers near you.
