Bi-fold with traffic door vs separate back door?

YellowCarBlueCar

We're at the planning stage of a house renovation and extension, which will extend the kitchen 3m into the back garden.  The back wall of the kitchen is just under 4m wide and currently has a picture window 2.35m wide, and a back door 90cm wide, so there is a section of wall approximately 30cm wide between the door and window.

When we move the wall back with the extension, we're replacing the window with full height glass, and are favouring bi-fold so that we can open the whole width, and our initial thoughts were to put in a 2.39m bi-fold( about the size of the current window), and a separate back door with the small wall section between them.  Our surveyors initial plan has come back with a bi-fold of approx 3.6m with a traffic door (didn't really know there was such a thing as a traffic door!).

My first thoughts are that while the bi-fold would be used regularly for perhaps a third of the year, and generally just opened and closed a couple of times a day, while the back/traffic door would be the main access to the back garden and would be used several times a day and consequently subject to a lot of additional wear & tear.  I'm also concerned that there would be more of a threshold to a traffic door in comparison to a normal door?

Anyone with a traffic door who can tell me whether I'm worrying unnecessarily?
Thanks!

TELLIT01

My concerns about a 'traffic door' being an integral prt of the bifold unit are the same as the OP's.  I would prefer a separate door.

EssexExile

There's almost no threshold on our bi-folds, we don't have a traffic door but I don't think that makes any difference.

Rdwill

I know this is not answering your question, but

Why are you going for a bifold door? 

We've chosen a sliding door for a similar 3.8 meter opening. 3 sheets of glass on a triple track, aluminium frame.

You get much more glass with a sliding door, particularly aluminium. There's a lot less to go wrong and the traffic goes through with a simple slide and then close. I already have a two pane sliding door in the living room and it works really well.

Admittedly as you have three sections then the max you can open to is circa two thirds of the width. But for all the time that it will be open, I think I would prefer the better view when it is shut and the simplicity / ease of use. 

Doozergirl

As above, if you're worried about wear and tear, then choose a sliding door over bifolding ones. 

There's also a lot of additional expense in having a separate back door, and it won't look as good.  A traffic door in bifolds is probably the least troublesome element.  It just works like a normal door, you will need to have an odd number of panels, is all - that might be counterintuitive as well when considering the full opening size  and the ideal size of bifolding panels - the natural number of panels for 3.6m is probably 4 at 90cm each.  5 smaller ones will cost more and have less glass, more dividing sight lines.  

We have a 5m opening with 2 sliding doors.  I open the sliding door to go in and out to the back.  There is zero point in another back door, apart from the fact that it would look odd.  Two huge panels of glass has a lot of visual impact and doesn't break the view.    

We started doing the big openings with bifolding doors in about 2007. No one has ever asked for a separate back door in the same wall.  

YellowCarBlueCar

Thanks all, I guess it was mostly just a bit of a surprise, as I'd just assumed we'd have a separate door, and I'd not really even heard of a traffic door.  Unfortunately we haven't got a fantastic view, just our own back garden and garage, so the main objective is opening up to the garden, and letting in light.   From that perspective frames in way isn't a biggie for us.
Thanks for the tip about odd numbers of panels.  Is there any real disadvantage to a 3+1 configuration where the door is the +1?

EssexExile

YellowCarBlueCar said:

 Is there any real disadvantage to a 3+1 configuration where the door is the +1?

I don't think you can do that. You need either an even number of panels, or an even number of panels plus a door. Both ends of the bifold part need to be on the track, not waving about in the room or over the patio.

Doozergirl

EssexExile said:

YellowCarBlueCar said:

 Is there any real disadvantage to a 3+1 configuration where the door is the +1?

I don't think you can do that. You need either an even number of panels, or an even number of panels plus a door. Both ends of the bifold part need to be on the track, not waving about in the room or over the patio.

An uneven number of panels is how you end up with a door that opens normally. They don't all have to be attached to track, only with an even number of doors.  

Doozergirl

YellowCarBlueCar said:

Thanks all, I guess it was mostly just a bit of a surprise, as I'd just assumed we'd have a separate door, and I'd not really even heard of a traffic door.  Unfortunately we haven't got a fantastic view, just our own back garden and garage, so the main objective is opening up to the garden, and letting in light.   From that perspective frames in way isn't a biggie for us.
Thanks for the tip about odd numbers of panels.  Is there any real disadvantage to a 3+1 configuration where the door is the +1?

You're missing the point.  Not only does it look bad (and let in less light), it's more expensive. What exactly is the benefit?  

Your worries about wear and tear on the traffic door are misfounded.  If you are concerned about that, get sliders, bot change the number of panels.  

YellowCarBlueCar

Thanks - I do get your point, and agree that a traffic door is the way to go - I was just an 'uninformed consumer' when it comes to bi-folds, so didn't know that this was even an option...

So having concluded we don't want a separate door, and agree that four panels would be a natural number for a 3600cm width, then I think we have 3 choices:
-We go with 5 panels to get the odd number needed for a 'normal' bi-fold with traffic.  But get a narrower door than we'd like.
-We go for a 3 + 1 like https://www.expressdoorsdirect.co.uk/patio-doors/bifold-patio-doors/climadoor-grey-aluminium-bi-folding-patio-doors/3600mm-grey-aluminium-bifold-doors-3-left-1-right  Just picked this example as it has a few pictures showing the configuration.
-We go with a slider (not 'not listening', just taking a while to adjust my ideas!).

For the 3+1, as the rail-mounted 3-panel bi-fold part and the hinged opener need to meet & latch nicely, I'm asking is this a further source of problems over a 5 panel, where there is only one (articulated) part?

Thanks...

michaels

Our separate single door in our bifolds is used a lot more and can be a pain to get the locking mechanism to fully engage.

However if we were doing it again the main annoyance of the bifolds (plus traffic) is that we don't have an opening window, The (single) door is much larger and gets caught by the wind when many times we just want to crack open a window.