Bifold or french doors?

jkgray

We have recently submitted plans for a single story rear extension.

The back has 2 sets of 3 module aluminium bifold doors specified. Each set W2350mm x H2100mm. We are also having 4 velux windows (2 sets of 2)

We have been told that we could not have one larger set as the pitch of the extension roof is minimal so there would be a potential problem fitting the size of beam that is required for larger spans.

When we have had people out to quote, one has suggested that over spans this small there is no point having bifolds and you are better off with French doors because:

• each module would be not v wide, so a large part of the bifold span would be taken up by frame.
• when the bifolds are completely folded back about 35cm of the 235cm span would be taken up by the doors themselves
• bifolds are a pain to use as a normal door in and out of the garden
• with an east facing rear elevation you will never have them fully open anyway.
• French doors are half the price of bifolds (though for us the look and usefulness of the doors is a higer priority than price)

Anyone any experience or thoughts?:beer:

sphinxkat

I am looking at a single storey extension to the rear of my house, and am hoping like you to have bifolding doors and velux windows in the roof

My main concern with an extention is the amount of light to the center of the house, as a neighbour has a similar extention to the one i want but finds it to dark as there are no windows just normal patio french doors.

With most bifolding doors you get very little frame in comparrision to french doors...

but hey its just my opinon, it also depends if you are having any windows too

ukmaggie45

jkgray wrote: »

The back has 2 sets of 3 module bifold doors specified. Each set W2350mm x H2100mm. We are also having 4 velux windows (2 sets of 2)

When we have had people out to quote, one has suggested that over spans this small there is no point having bifolds and you are better off with French doors because:

• each module would be not v wide, so a large part of the bifold span would be taken up by frame.
• when the bifolds are completely folded back about 35cm of the 235cm span would be taken up by the doors themselves
• bifolds are a pain to use as a normal door in and out of the garden
• with an east facing rear elevation you will never have them fully open anyway.
• French doors are half the price of bifolds (though for us the look and usefulness of the doors is a higer priority than price)

We have bifold doors in our kitchen/diner. The opening they are installed in is 180cm. We are very pleased with them, and don't find the frames intrusive. We did go for aluminium ones though, as the frames are a little smaller than the UPVC ones and we wanted to maximise light.

We have bigger bifolds in our living room, the opening size is 240cms, so is a similar size to yours. It looks fine to me, and we're very pleased with it.

I think the chap who is quoting doesn't know much about bifolds. They are NOT a pain to use as a normal door - they have one of the doors (the one at the opposite end to the end the doors stack up on) that opens on its own without having to pull the whole caboodle open.

Our rear elevation is North facing, and we often have the kitchen bifold open - we don't heat the kitchen before anyone shouts at me for wasting money! Over the winter we've been sitting by the open door wrapped in blankets to watch the birds! We haven't used the living room bifold over the winter (or only the single door bit of it), but we heat that room so wanted to keep the warmth in.

East facing sounds great to me - you will be able to throw open your bifold doors in summer and sit and eat your breakfast in the morning sunshine.

The only argument that makes any sense to me is that french windows are cheaper. But you say you don't mind about the money too much, more bothered about the look. As were we. And though expensive we really think that the bifolds were one of the best things we did when renovating this house.

Here's a pic of the back of our house to give you some idea of the size of the bifolds we have in place. Kitchen/diner is on the left, living room on the right.


Back of house from lawn by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Any more questions just shout!

Procrastinator333

Is the solution to both problems to have 1 set of bifolds, maybe 3.5m wide and one set of french doors.

That way, you have a set of bifolds that opens up nicely - set some decking behind at the same floor height and you could open the back of the house up beautifully in the summer. And, you also have some french doors for ease of access all year round.