Bi fold Doors
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Helping you choose the right bi fold door
Looking at our range of bi fold doors above you're probably wondering which bi-folds are best for you and your home. This might not be an easy decision, but you're in the right place with a bi fold door range that's full of choice. So which door material is best?
Which material? Aluminium Bi fold Doors, Timber or Composite?
A good place to start when considering which bi-fold door is always the material that you want your folding patio doors to be made from. The material you choose for your bi-folds is the first decision to make - it's going to impact greatly on the look and feel of your home, so it pays to get it right.
When choosing a material, there are quite a few considerations to take into account, such as the maintenance, the strength and longevity of a particular material, and also your own personal preferences regarding the finish of your bi fold doors.
Aluminium Bi fold Doors?
Aluminium is the most popular material for bi-fold doors, mainly due to its strength, slim sightlines and low maintenance. Another great benefit of aluminium bi fold doors is that there are over 300 colours to choose from, allowing these bifolding doors to really become part of the overall design of your new living space.
Aluminium windows and doors have come a long way in the last 20 years. Due to various technical advancements, aluminium windows and doors are now extremely efficient, as is the glass used to glaze the doors.
The strength of aluminium allows the frames to be thinner, the benefit being that you will have a larger surface of glass, giving you a clearer view into the garden, and allowing even more light into the room.
Timber Bi fold Doors?
Timber is wonderful for giving a more natural finish, and timber bi fold doors will sit happily in a traditional or modern setting. Being a natural product, it doesn't have the stability of other materials, however it can be greatly improved.
The best timber bi-folds are made from "engineered" timber. This means that the timber being used, has been cut into several lengths and then glued back together with the grains going in opposite ways. This gives the timber great strength and stability. This is obviously quite labour intensive, and therefore is more expensive than non-engineered timber, but it does give a far superior product.
One thing that is worth bearing in mind is the high maintenance involved with timber doors. Even hardwood bi-folds will need recoating regularly.
How about UPVC Bi fold Doors?
Being the material that most of the UK's windows are made from, it is only natural to think that UPVC bi-fold doors would be the way to go, but we don't sell UPVC bifolding doors and there's a reason.
As your research continues, you will notice that a lot of the specialist bi-fold door companies don't offer UPVC as an option, including us at Bristol Bi-fold. UPVC is a fantastic material to make windows from, but it lacks the strength required to make a decent bi-fold door.
Windows have a relatively narrow span meaning the structure can remain strong, when it comes to new UPVC French doors, doors can drop and scrape; when you start to add 3,4 or 5 bi-fold panels together, you'll start seeing further problems.
Usability can also be impaired at any time of the year due to weather conditions causing UPVC to expand. This results in bi fold doors that are difficult to open and close, and doors that are difficult to roll around on tracks. This can particularly cause problems in the summer when you will be wanting to make the most of your new doors.
Bi fold Door Frequently Asked Questions
Don't forget that we have lots of questions that people have asked us in the past and we've answered them all over in the Bi fold Doors FAQs section.