Bifold doors are growing in popularity day by day in the UK, but with so many other door options on the market, every homeowner has a big choice to make when choosing new exterior doors for their property. Bifold doors can make a wonderful investment over French doors or traditional sliding, but ultimately you need to figure out whether they’re right for your property and your individual needs.
So, are bifold doors a good idea for your home? Let’s take a looking at the vast range of sliding folding door advantages.
- You Can Blend Your Outdoor and Indoor Space
One of the biggest benefits of exterior bifold doors is that they help to remove the barrier between your garden and your indoor space. When closed, the huge expanse of glass provides you with a wonderful view of the outdoors, and when open, a huge aperture is created to perfectly blend outside and in.
Garden parties, outdoor dining, barbecues, and any other spring and summer activity is enhanced when the barrier between your home and garden is removed.
- Bifold Doors Allow You to Incorporate More Natural Light into Your Home
Opening up a huge aperture with glass doors is a brilliant way to incorporate more natural light into your home. For small, dim spaces, the addition of bifold doors can do wonders for the brightness and general atmosphere of the room.
Plus, if you opt for aluminium bifold doors which tend to have very slim frames, you can minimise the amount of shadow cast by the frames.
- They Take Up Little Space Around the Entrance way
When considering bifold doors or French doors, an important factor to consider is the space around the door. French doors require a large amount of room around them in order for them to be fully opened.
Meanwhile, bifold doors fold back in a concertina effect in order that they only take up a very small amount of space when opened. For compact living areas or small gardens, this is a huge benefit.
- You’ll Have More Flexible Opening Options
With bifold doors, you can opt to open up the whole aperture or just part of it. Plus, you can choose to include an access door which means you can simply open one leaf of the door whenever you need quick, easy access.
Compared to normal sliding doors, in which only half of the aperture opens up, bifold doors provide far more flexibility.
- They Provide Seamless Operation
Modern bifold doors are designed with superior running systems which allow the doors to slide and fold open seamlessly without sticking or requiring lots of force.
High quality bifold doors also often feature child-safe features to prevent little fingers getting trapped between leaves when the doors are folded open. This makes bifold doors a smart option for families with young kids or adults with restricted mobility because they open and close incredibly easily.
- You Can Choose for Them to Open Inside or Out
If you have a particularly small or awkward shaped room, you can choose to have your bi-fold doors open on the outside of your home rather than the inside. This means that they won’t encroach on your indoor space at all while open.
- You Can Include an Access Door for Easy in and Out
When considering pros and cons of bifold doors, many think that they can be tome-consuming to open and close when you only require quick access. However, if you opt to include an access door, you don’t have this problem to worry about.
Access doors are built into the bifold door frame and work just like contemporary doors, with a regular level handle. However, they can also slide and fold when you do want to open up the entire aperture.
- You can create a modern, stylish look
Nothing compares to the sleek and incredibly stylish look of bifold doors. For one, the ability to create a wide aperture with an almost seamless view of the outdoor space is a huge benefit. Secondly, bifold doors simply have a chic, minimal look which is very popular for modern homes.
Installing bifold doors is a great way of modernising older properties, while the contemporary appearance of newer homes is only enhanced by bifold doors.
- You Can Tailor Bifold Doors to Suit Your Personal Style
Aluminium bifold doors offer a huge amount choice when it comes to style, often more than timber or uPVC French or sliding door frames. The aluminium is always finished with a powder coating which improves its durability and provides a sleek, stylish finish.
With hundreds of colours of powder coating to choose from, including wood grain effects for a more traditional look, it’s really easy to customise your bifold doors to suit the style of your property. You could even opt for one colour on the outside of the frame and a different one on the inside to complement your interior décor.
- You Can Enjoy Superior Security
Bifold doors have locking mechanisms spread out across various different points on the sliding track on which they run. That means they can be far more secure than French doors or traditional sliding doors which tend to have just one locking point.
If security is important when you’re considering French vs sliding vs bifold doors, this is an important factor to bear in mind.
- You Can Create Huge Glass Walls
If you have a large expanse of wall facing your outdoor space, you’ll think bifold doors a good idea for creating a huge, impressive glass wall. You could either create a whole new aperture or expand an existing aperture in the wall and install bifold doors to create an epic view of your garden.
Bifold doors tend to offer huge amounts of flexibility in terms of the size of each leaf and the total number of leaves included, making it possible to create vast glass walls which create gorgeous focal points.
- They Create the Illusion of Space
Many people wonder, “are bifold doors worth it for small rooms?” The answer is a resounding yes.
Even in very compact spaces, bifold doors can help to create the illusion of more space because the slim frames and large expanses of glass help to draw the eye beyond the end of the room and into the outdoor area. They can help to make areas look far more spacious than traditional French doors, which tend to have bulkier frames.
- They Can Have Incredibly Slim Frames
If you opt for aluminium bifold doors, you’ll be able to maximise the amount of glass in each leaf of the door. This is because aluminium is an incredibly strong material which is capable of housing even very large and heavy panes of glass within slim frames.
Slimmer frames mean you can enjoy more light streaming into the home, and better sightlines too. Plus, the smaller the frame, the more minimal and modern your doors will look.
- You Can Install Them Inside and Create Flexible Living Space
Are bifold doors a good idea for indoor spaces? Absolutely. They’re a wonderful way to enjoy flexible open plan living space. You can use them to separate off two rooms – a kitchen and a living room, for example – and have the option to open up them up in an instant when needed.
They offer far better soundproofing and insulation than room dividers, and you can always add blinds if you want the option of keeping the spaces completely private.
- They Can Improve Natural Light When Installed Indoors
When installed indoors, bifold doors can help to increase the amount of natural light in spaces which are a little dark.
Let’s say one side of your home receives plenty of sunlight, while the other side tends to be swamped in shadow. By installing bifold doors between these two spaces, the dimmer area will benefit from extra daylight streaming through the glass panes.
- They Make Great Office Spaces
As with installing interior bifold doors in the home, you can achieve versatile, open plan working when they’re installed in office spaces. For businesses which want flexible meeting rooms, boardrooms, or individual offices, bifold doors are a fantastic choice over room dividers due to their ability to soundproof.
- They’re Easy to Maintain
If you choose aluminium bifold doors, you’ll benefit from minimal maintenance. Each leaf comprises of an exterior frame and a single pane of glass which makes it really easy to just wipe them down every now and again to keep them clean.
Are bifold doors a good idea for eco-conscious homeowners? Some might assume that huge glass panels result in lots of lost heat, but providing that you opt for high quality bifold doors you don’t have to worry about this.
The bifold doors offered by us feature cutting edge thermal break technology to minimise heat loss from the door frames themselves, as well as high quality double or triple glazed glass panes for fantastic thermal efficiency.
- High Quality Bifold Doors Will Last for Decades
Aluminium bifold doors prices may be higher than that of French doors or sliding doors, but aluminium is by nature an incredibly robust material, and it can last for up to 45 years. This makes your bifold doors an incredibly worthwhile investment.
- You’ll Add Value to Your Property
High quality bifold doors aren’t particularly cheap, but the value they can add to your home makes them a really worthwhile investment. Many people believe cost to be one of the biggest sliding folding door disadvantages, but in the long term it can benefit your property.
The best bifold doors, such as those provided here are constructed with aluminium frames, and they’re so durable that they last for decades with minimal maintenance, which makes them a better investment than wooden or uPVC French or sliding doors. Plus, because they can rejuvenate and modernise older properties, they can add value to your home.
When comparing French vs sliding vs bifold doors cost, keep in mind that the stylish look and versatility of bifold doors will likely add the most value to your property.