bi-folding doors and drafts

leveller2911

Smiley_Dan wrote: »

A lot of what you say is right Nick, but the sad truth is that bi folds just do not hold their air tightness over the long term. Best to go for french doors.

Upvc Bi folds often drop and need constant adjustment every year or so and timber ones suffer from expansion and shrinking during the seasons. When they expand they need easing and then when the Summer comes they shrink and the weather strips barely seal the doors. As Nick says there are modern weather strips such as the Aquamac 21,60 etc but that doesn't prevent the problems associated with the doors shrinking/expanding. If someone has a set of 5 bi fold leaves and each one expands by 3 mm then you need to ease (plane off) 15mm in total to get them working again and then re machine them to fit the weather seals.

They can be made from Accoya which doesn't expand/contract with the seasons but its far too expensive.

Bi folds look nice and work fine for a while but imo people need to realise that they may well need replacing a few years down the line.