Folding sliding patio doors

ali818

Thanks Bootalishus, it's interesting to hear from someone who's seen them and tried them. Is it the 6 foot wide set that you have? I am slightly concerned that they might not be wide enough to give the open feeling (i.e. may end up more wood frame than glass!), especially after Vans Boy said:

"We thought about them...They look superb, when open, but not so clever closed - actually would make some rooms darker"

Cheers,
Ali

bootalishus

hi
we have the 8ft ones. I would not say they were dark at all - light wood and much more appealing then plastic double glazed french doors.

Everyone who comes in loves them and thinks they cost at least twice what they were.

vicky

ps. if you live any where near north kent you are welcome to come and see themin situ.

Adds

Hi i actually work for a folding sliding door company called Valdi. www,valdi.com so please do you own home work and dont just take my word for it. But as i love this site i thought id do my bit.

I agree with everyone who wants to find the cheapest product, we all do but i would say that here is one case of you get what you pay for. We regularly go out to customers all over the UK to replace cheap folding sliding or bifold doors. My advice is to look mainly at the hinges used as these are the main bit that makes your doors work perfectly or not at all. Also the chaeper constructions or UPVC tend to drop and warp in time.
From a cost saving point aswell in the long run the cheap ones will cost you money not only on replacing them and repairing them but also with cheap glass that has bad energy effeciency. There are lots of companies out there to choose from but from my experience only a hand full getting it right.... good luck

noxon

Over the past three months we've looked at loads of timber and Timber/Al folding sliding doors starting with online and in catalogues then seeing them for real life in shops/exhibitions. Eventually we chose timber Sunflex doors to be supplied and fitted by id systems. They were by no means the cheapest at 1.5x - 2x the price of wickes/magnet trade for the same width, but we thought long and hard and decided that it was worth it as we plan to live here for a long time and liked them a lot more...

Ours are on order right now so can't tell you what they're like installed- yet!

The main things that sold us on these doors
- slim sightlines, some others were very chunky which isn't necessarily bad but wasn't what we wanted
- the edges of the panels are designed to fit into each other as well as having gaskets rather than just relying on two flat faces plus gasket for weather sealing
- the locking mechanisms: we saw some really expensive doors that had the same cheap (but simple) "flip" locks at top and bottom as the wickes and magnet doors

Found out just as we were about to order that an acquaintance had been through the same process over the summer and had also ended up choosing id systems for a set of 4m wide timber folding sliding doors. She'd also been to see two sets they'd previously installed in peoples houses.

Errata

I talked to my builder about these when he was building my conservatory. I didn't need or want them, but I was interested in them. His view was that the guarantee should be checked very carefully as some suppliers guarantees are extremely short.

lynnbym

i had these fitted two years ago by magnet we got solid oak for durability although they were expensive . after a few weeks the finish started to blister and water ingress made the doors black in patches also one of the hanging hinges undid itself every time the door was opened. i got them replaced by magnet ..the same thing happened again ...i had them replaced by the manufacturer... i am at this time waiting to have them removed replaced with something else and have been since october last year.

gwk15

Im not sure if your still looking but i had doors installed by a company in London called SKG London. Very good quality doors, manufactured in Germany and was really pleased with the service that SKG gave me.

Have to admit i was a little nervous as i have heard a few horror stories about sliding doors. The doors we purchased were more expensive but my doors were quite large and decided on quality and hopefully that means less to go wrong. So far so good.

UKbuilder_2

I recently had a set of folding doors installed for my new conservatory and would recommend a company called IDSystems. They are not the cheapest out there but when it comes to the quality of the doors and the customer service I was very impressed. The doors glide along effortlessly and as I have 2 children the finger safe gaskets were great to have.

PammyTee

Does anyone have any experience with UPVC sliding patio doors?...In Southwest Scotland? Just looking to replace some old ones, and really no idea what is good value and what is not!! Thanks

Joinerbloke

I Found an amazing seller in Ebay of quality budget folding doorsets. they are exactly the same as the fully finished wellington branded doors but come unfinished so you can choose colour to paint / stain them. They come with top of the range hardware too. Most sets are hundreds of pounds less than retailers as you're buying off the manufacturer, they've also got really good feedback. We've had a couple of sets and they're amazing value!!! they are called prestigedirectdoors in ebay and one of their item numbers is 261139036425. Pop that number in ebay and you'll find them no problem!