Bifolding Sliding Bifold Doors

This post will talk generally about bifolding doors, including the uses of Bifolding doors, the rising popularity of bifolding doors, and a general comparison between the different materials that can be used.

Bifolding doors are a fantastic way to create an opening in your home either from inside to outside or between two internal rooms. The use of bifolding doors over the more traditional Sliding doors allows you to utilise the full opening and not just half or two thirds of it. Bifolding sliding doors can be used in any size opening and the doors can be set to slide with any number of panels to either side of the opening. This allows Bifolding doors to be incredibly versatile and to be used in many ways no matter what the situation.

Bifolding doors are becoming more and more popular in residential properties as people have been concentrating on improving their houses rather than moving to new houses. This has led to a huge boost in the development of quality windows and doors across the market giving a wide variety of brands and styles to choose from.

Bifolding doors, like so many other home improvement products, can be manufactured in many different materials including Aluminium, PVC and Timber. Each of these Materials have their own benefits and drawbacks. Some are cheaper than others but compromise on panel size, durability, the amount of maintenance needed or some other aspect of their quality. The wide variety of materials available in bifolding doors as well as windows means that there is a product suitable for each and every application, and that will fit in or stand out in any décor.

PVCu Bifolding sliding doors are often the cheapest Bifolding sliding doors on the market however this is because of some compromises on quality. A PVCu door can often only handle a panel size of 900mm in width usually meaning more panels in the same size as other systems, the finish on a PVC Bifolding door or window is not as long wearing as some of the other materials and sometimes this finish can be damaged by an impact that wouldn’t mark some of the other materials. PVC frames also expand and contract a fair amount in hot and cold conditions meaning a door that fits in the summer may not fit in the winter and vice versa. This can usually be fixed with a simple adjustment of the doors but might need to be done every summer and every winter.

Timber Bifolding sliding doors can be expensive and heavy due to the solid framework needed to create enough strength in their frame. They offer a limited range of finishes as it is likely to always have a wood finish. In order to keep this finish at its best a timber frame will usually need maintenance in terms of cleaning sanding and re coating to make sure that they stay in their best condition for a long time.

Aluminium bifolding sliding doors are often able to have the best of both worlds in the fact that the strength to weight of Aluminium allows larger panel sizes than other materials. It also means that the doors can have narrower profiles creating better sightlines and being able to handle larger sealed units due to variable size of the frame and or glazing beads. The Finish on an aluminium bifolding doors or window is often powder coated providing an incredibly wide variety of styles, colours and even patterns that can be applied. The coating is also often more hard wearing than on other materials.