If you have bifolds in the U.K., how many days per year do you have them open ?

[LovelyYellowLabrador]

And did you think it was worth the money ?

I have bifolds. Only open the one panel. haven’t opened up all three panels for a couple of years. Lots of spiders I would want to evict before I did!

Would have been better with a sliding door. Had some issues with the weight of the door and ended up with a gap at the top and destroyed rubber at the bottom. Also, the flies are so annoying!

The main door is open most of the time if it's not raining (or freezing) as I have a dog who likes to lie outside.. the rest are opened every warm sunny day.. south facing . I love ours.. they just open the house into the garden in such a lovely way. We've had ours about 5 years or so and they were worth it.. I'd want the same if we ever move.

On the insect issue, we have citronella oil in diffusers both sides of the doors, which keeps the house mostly free of flies (though if I’m carving a roast I need to close the doors). We do get some moths, though.

We have flyscreens when the windows are open.

We had an architect draw up plans for a rear extension and she really pushed us to consider a window in addition to bifolds which opens a bit to let fresh air in and cooking smells out - such a good idea and looked amazing in the plans.

I live in the south west and definitely would not want the back of the house open every day - it’s been a relatively chilly spring and summer. But I do run cold and the house faces north!

Mine are 4-door-bifold and honestly, I never open them because I hate flies (but also because they are a bit of a faff).

I wish I had them, I have super wide patio doors and have them open fully open nearly every day in the summer and part opened during the winter.
I have a South facing house and a kitchen diner at the back of the house which has the sliding patio door. It means the house makes great use of our solar panel but can get hot when I’m cooking.
I would also love to not have the small step down to the patio.

WNW facing garden, we have the the doors open halfway basically every day from May to late September and have it open all the way on the days I can be bothered to open them all the way. Before children we used to have them open all the way every day but with three under 5 and crawling babies I find it better to have just 2m open

I looked into them and had the same thought. I opted for central French windows either 2 panels of glass either side.

We got ours in April. And have had them open probably every day since

sliding doors that we open a lot but often only by an inch.
We also have a window as a pp said it's very practical.

Most days between May and October - from 7am to 7pm.

They are the best money I've ever spent in the house!

I think it must depend very much where in the uk you are as to how often they're open. My Dparents have some and they're probably open about twice a year as they're based on the north coast of NI, beautiful scenery, bloody baltic They also have other French doors that they use much more frequently.

We have two sets of 3-door bi folds in the kitchen. Both doors are open on a daily basis and the whole bifolds opened up most weekends weather permitting. We live in London.

The kitchen and patio are level so no edge to trip over and there is a narrow drain that runs along the edge of the bi-fold on the patio side to stop water coming into the kitchen. Best purchase ever. Great with young children as they used to play inside and outside when I was getting food ready etc and I could always see them.

Never. And we are really outdoors-y. We have the single door bit open very nearly every day. But just don’t see any advantage in having the whole thing open.

Also, hate having no window in that room which we can open. It’s door or nothing, and south facing so gets really hot when we’re out and the doors need to be shut.

The single door being open gives us pretty much the same advantages as the whole thing? It’s a nice feature if you’re entertaining or something but otherwise I don’t really get the concept.

We’re in a terrace and none of the four neighbours we can see opens their bifolds either. Mind you none of us specifically installed them, the houses were built like that, so… 🤷‍♀️

I’m hoping someone on this thread will persuade me of the virtues and we’ll discover a whole new level of enjoyment now 😁

We aren’t in the uk, so it’s far warmer. But, we considered and looked at bi folds, then ended up getting double sliding doors instead.
I love them. The bifolds would have been in the way when opened. The double sliding size give a huge opening in the middle when fully open anyway. Plus in deep winter when it’s freezing we can just open sliding a cm or two for fresh air and lock ( so small children don’t escape).

Atm the sliding doors are open all day

Ours are like this and middle two panels slide either side

All the time. DS is an animal and loves the garden rain or shine so I always have at least one portion open.

We host a lot and have a patio heater so have them open then.

I also whiz the door open when we're getting ready in the morning as it's quicker/more effective than opening the windows.

Really, save the depths of winter, I would say daily.

My dd has hers open a lot, but then she’s a very ‘warm’ person.

There’s no threshold on hers - her 2 elder were still tiny when they were installed, so with them toddling in and out, that was important. As for rain - and she’s certainly not in the driest area of the U.K. - IIRC there is a very narrow channel for drainage right outside the doors, to drain it away.

We have more like French doors but under an overhang in the roof. Most days I get them open. Ours lie flat back against the walls so don't take up space outside

I open mine every day, between April-September they are open all day when we are in. In winter just in the morning for my coffee

Most days - even in winter. But the amount we open varies - the total length is 10 mts. and we only have that open a dozen times a year. A couple of metres most days, and probably half the length on warm days.

Insects can be a nuisance, but that's the case elsewhere in the house where we have just normal windows.

We have no blinds, and I love looking into the garden in the dark. Fortunately we are not overlooked.