Integrated blinds for bifold doors or something else?

[MrsJamin]

We're going to have an extension done in the next 6 months, including 3m wide bifold doors between the garden and kitchen/diner. It is east-facing and we are in a town, so quite overlooked by nearby houses therefore we could do with some blinds to have a bit of privacy and mask the sun in the morning. Has anyone had any integrated blinds in bifold doors or is there another alternative? I am guessing because of the concertina style of opening, you can't have the blind down if it's open? We like Creative Doors bifolds but I've found some electric integrated ones from Origin Global- has anyone used these?

We have them - am pleased with them and you can have them down with doors open if you want. They are manually operated and were quite pricey but I didn't really want curtains/normal blinds. No dusting is a bonus too!

Watching for alternatives with interest as we are getting 3.5 m bifolds fitted, was going to work out £450 per pane additional and we are having 4 panes so couldn't justify the additional cost

Thing that worries me is if they fail ,which they are prone to over time apparently,they are a sealed unit so would mean opening up the pane

I spoke to Creative Doors and they said they looked at doing integrated blinds but that it was a risk about them going wrong and then having to replace the entire door if they were stuck! Not very keen on that idea either. I think we are going to go for curtains or something else we can draw across - only problem is that for a 3m wide bifold door, the curtain would be huge and very bulky when not drawn across! Still need to come up with a decent solution...

Watching with interest. We have 6m sliding glass doors and need blinds too.

This blog from a blind manufacturer has some useful thoughts...

We had 5.5m of bi-folds and couldn't stretch budget-wise to have integrated blinds. We're not overlooked at the moment but we are South-facing and so when the sun is low in the winter we definitely needed some kind of blind. In the end we opted for 3 spring-loaded roller blinds, each one covering 2 of the doors and attached to the wall rather than inset...if that makes sense. It cost us £350 I think in total including fitting and works really well for us. They are pretty much the same colour as the walls and so you don't really notice them when not in use.

sounds like a good idea, how do you find the doors in terms of heat loss in winter? I guess south facing helps for you, unfortunately ours will be N facing

Ours are north facing and are cold to the touch in winter but no draught. The integral blinds don't provide any additional insulation though.

They're ok, I've noticed a small draught but I think it's where the brushes at the bottom have moved along and I keep meaning to sort it out. They retain any heat well and the glass they use is so much better these days I don't think it's a problem. We have underfloor heating which is a good combination I think with the bi-folds.

Great thanks

Have you seen perfect fit blinds? They clip around the end of each pane so can be used with doors open. We've got some pleated blinds on our French doors and they work perfectly!

I tried these but there was a reason they weren't suitable for my bi-folds, I think it was to do with depth of recess of the glass in the frame.

Would these work on aluminium frames? Could you email link? Thanks

I dug out the email about perfect fit blinds for bi-folds, was told the roller ones probably stick out too much (about 50mm) but pleated ones would only protrude about 6mm. I didn't go for this option as I didn't want to see a lot of the blind when not in use. I think also the ones I looked at needed a bracket inserted between the seal and the glass and was worried that this wouldn't be a good idea on so many new panes. My local blind company offered these options though and they were cheaper than national companies.

I quite like the look of the motorized Origin ones. We are having bi-fold doors fitted to rear of our new kitchen and it is NW facing but very sunny in summer. Having seen a few of the integrated blinds I find they remind me of my office so want a softer effect. They only have 5 year guarantee though and for the price I would want a longer one more like 7 or 10 years.

Thankfully, we are not overlooked so there is no rush to do this so we can wait and see the whole finished look before making a decision. I also think that with the Bi-Fold craze there will be more options on the market soon

We have just got perfect fit pleated blinds for our bifold doors. We didn't want curtains as have some lovely wood work round the doors and I didn't want integral blinds (too expensive and another thing to go wrong!). We're really really pleased with them. £340 for 5 glass panels.

Meant to add the drop of our doors is about 215cm and when pushed up it takes up 10cm at the top. The frames are very neat.

Sorry only just read all these messages! Schilke, are your doors wooden? Perfect fit ones look good but as far as I can tell they wouldn't be suitable for wooden doors, just UVPC?

I am having an extension done and having large bifold doors fitted with a height of nearly 2.6 meters. I wanted the magnetic integral blinds but have been told that my doors are too high for them and I need to have it manual - card control or electric. I cant afford the electic . Has anyone had the manual ones with the pull string. Do they look ok? I have seen a video of them and not sure if they will appear unsightly or not.