Bi fold doors-any recommendations?

[ArcticRoll]

We are having kitchen renovated and planning to have bi-fold doors running along the back-know it's going to be very pricey so just wandered if anyone has a company they recommend?

We have doors from id systems.

The doors themselves are great, but I know the builder who fitted them was cursing sunflex the German company that made and supplied them as they arrived late and gave him lots of grief over delivery.

We had ours fitted 8 years ago ( and then more put in 6 years ago) so the delivery might be better now.

I don't have them, I have however admired the ones in Wickes.

We had some fitted a few months ago - the builder recommended Wickes, engineered oak. They are lovely and we are very pleased with them. I ordered them online and had them deliverd here to save transporting them about too much. DH had to take some time off to be here when they were delivered but the delivery service was good.

Thanks for all replies- will look into recommendations.

Not sure whether to go for oak or coated aluminium .

Personally I would go for Oak or UPVC, the last thing I would go for is aluminium.

I hate upvc with a vengeance but was interested to hear why you don't like coated aluminium Sophie.

I think aluminium is very 1970's and ugly personally.

We have brown coated aluminium. The frames are thinner than oak so let more light it.

We have lots of oak everywhere else so might have been too woody.

Also depends if you want custom fit or standard - the Wickes ones seem a standard size, ours are just the whole back wall.

Jicky was thinking of dark grey coated aluminium bespoke doors -what company did you use?

We just got some dark grey aluminium ones put in last month. They look really good. I originally wanted the wooden ones but have heard they run into problems after a while so went for the aluminium. I'm glad we did ay they let ina lot more light because of the narrower frame. We used a company called 1st folding sliding doors based in perivale west London.
www.1stslidingfoldingdoors.co.uk/index.html

They gave a good price and the installation service was excellent, very friendly people. Obviously we have not had them long so cannot vouch for wear etc but they look great

Thanks justascond.

We have grey coated aluminium. They have narrower frames than wood. I wouldn't recommend the make though as the installation was badly done. Aluminium allows much narrower frames than wood. I don't like upvc. Aluminium ones come in a variety of colours, powder coated and never need painting.

Thanks fallenangel-what was the brand so I know what to avoid?

Please help should I go for smart or easifold bifold doors? Need to order ASAP cos late decision and builders nearly finished.

We got ours from Vufold, I think they are the cheapest of the cheap but they seem to be fine so far. Ours are only six feet wide though so they are not putting too much strain on the frame. Probably ok if you are not looking for the Rolls Royce of doors IYSWIM.

Sliding doors are great, we use them all the time.

sorry, old thread?!, cannot help with your query 69redshoes sorry.

We got ours from DoubleGlazingOnTheWeb
i love them and as Fossil said we use ours all the time.

I actually work for a glazing company and we use IQ sliding folding doors. www.iqglassuk.com/p/h/Products/Bi_Fold_Doors/277/
They are not the cheapest but in terms of performance and longevity they are the best.

In regards to the queries about Aluminium, the reason they are popular now adays is that it is a hard wearing durable material that is easy to clean, it is also relativly light for moving installations such as sliding folding (bi-fold) doors. You could have a look at going for a composite system if you like which is aluminium externally and then wood internally so you get the durabilty against the elements externally but then internally you can have the warmer finish of wood.

thanks for the great advice so far on best companies to use, hugely helpful - we'd like to install bi-foldng doors as part of a kitchen renovation, from your experience should this be the first job we do?

if you install them first, make sure that you keep them firmly closed when you later have workmen in the house.

We have 5 metres of aluminium ones and they are beautiful. Our builder locked them and told us to hide the key until all of the workmen were out of the house otherwise they use them for convenience of access and knacker the margins by constantly dragging things over them.

We are in the north. Ours were fitted by BAS and cost about 6k

Foldingslidingdoorcompany - huge set of 5 doors in wood, arrived on time and they replaced a handle (which we cack-handedly broke) with no fuss for free - cost £@4K. (Builders installed them as part of a conversion) Very happy with doors

Thank you Rachel

Has anyone used the faux German bi-fold door company Kloebber?
Would you recommend their service?
Would you recommend their after-sales service?
If you bought their coated aluminium bi-fold doors would you recommend this product?
I have been following this thread for several months. There are no other generic customer reviews as far as my googling powers have ascertained so I appreciate all the contributions to date - thank you!