Those of you who have sliding patio doors (rather than bi-fold)

[skinnyflatwhite]

please help!

Our builder is trying to persuade us against sliding patio doors. He's trying to talk us in to choosing bi-folds instead.

Do you have a high threshold (step over bit) to get out to the patio/garden? Is it annoying? He says if we get bi-fold they will be flush with the kitchen.

I fucking hate mine, and hate the stepover bit. And I hate all the claggy crap in the runner, and cleaning them.

They are wankers.

Bi-folds are lovely, but don't they take up a lot of room when they are folded back? And they are more expensive too. I've got normal patio doors and there isn't a step over.

I had them in my last house. There's a step over of about an inch due to the runners. It wasn't annoying at all and stopped rain getting into the house, so was mega useful. It would have been nice to open them fully though. If I had the choice I'd go for folding doors as you can fold them back fully. Patio doors slide but only open half way, IYSWIM.

It's your house, your builder doesn't have to live there

Normal = doors that open and close, not sliders.

We have them-yes there is a bit to step over but never really been bothered by it. Kids have learned to step over it.
They came with the house-probably would have given it more thought if we'd had to choose.

I hadn't noticed a step over until you asked, so obviously not much of a problem but we have to step down to the patio anyway. if I could afford bifold, I would have gone with then but prefer sliding to French doors because we are limited on space and I like the fact you can have sliding doors slightly open.

We have sliding. There is a tiny threshold to step over. Tiny. But to achieve this we needed to have our builder dig a deep channel out if the patio.

We absolutely had to have a sliding door as there was no space for the folding doors to fold back to.

We were (are) kind of sold on the sliding patio doors because you can have them open just a little bit if you want. With bi-folds it seems you have to have at least one pedestrian access door, so it might be walloping about in the wind, mightn't it?

It's a 4 metre wide opening so we planned having two outside fixed glass doors and then 2 sliding inside. Our builder is very design orientated and thinks we're going to be "ageing" our home if we choose sliding.

Use a door stop?

I didn't like my patio doors so I'm a tad biased

LadyMary - what doors do you have that you don't like?

Bi fold are lovely and id go for them if you can afford it .

Sliding patio doors, the same as these. I hated them.

I hated our old sliding doors with a passion

we have them and have no issue with them at all...

MaryShelley - I like those too.

cakey - what do you have?

Hate our sliding patio doors they look crap. I think they are very dated now.

LadyMary - thanks.

www.germanwindows.co.uk/windows-and-doors/french-doors/

I wanted these, but they are £6K

sorry, we have slidey ones

When I replace mine I shall get French doors too. Bifolds will date.

I have the sliders, that came with the house. It is useful to be able to just open them a little bit, to let the animals in and out on a cold day, and provide an extra release for the stench of burnt food from the kitchen etc.

The step has never been an issue as long as we stay sober, and the crap in the runners only needs clearing out occasionally.

I completely disagree with your builder. I think you will be dating your home if you have bifolds. The posh interior mags are full of sliding doors. I have my eye on the velfac biparting doors. Saw them at a home show, thin frames, lovely. Blew the competition out of the water in my opinion.

I would never buy sliding doors. We currently have some, they are broken and cannot be repaired. When we can afford we will replace with normal doors on hinges. Simple, low tech that can be repaired. Big file look great, am convinced they too would break expensively.