Sliding aluminium doors (or bifold doors)

[namechangedtoday15]

I had thought we were having bifold doors, went to see the factory / showroom today. And I saw sliding doors that were lovely and now I'm undecided now. We have to have one of them - we have a 4m hole in the part built extension.

Does anyone have experience of sliding doors (and wish they'd gone for bifold) or vice versa?

If we have bifolds, there will be 4 doors (each 1m), so 3 "in between" frames blocking the view (and the frame is quite bulky) but they will open more or less fully (save for say 0.5m where they'd be stacked at the side).

The sliding doors would be 3 doors (so about 1.3m each) so only 2 slimline frames obscuring the view but all 3 windows slide into 1 section, so "fully" open means 2.6m is open, 1.3m would still be kind of closed off.

We have 3 children, 1 of which can trip over fresh air. I have visions of him going straight into the patio doors.

There no material difference in price. Any views?

We've just had this exact dilemma and after much deliberation have ordered sliding doors today eek. We've gone for lift and slide doors which literally glide and we have 5m. We've done for a 3 track system so that each door can move and be locked in position. Our deciding factors were

1. The space needed to fold back bifolds - pretty much a clear run the whole way along which for us wastes a lot of patio space.

1. In this climate the doors will be shut most of the time. With sliders you get a much nicer view and still a really nice opening.

1. When we looked at bifolds our kids were a nightmare swinging the doors about - maybe they are just naughty.

Also just bear in mind with a 4 M opening you'll need 4 doors so unless you have one opening one way as a traffic door and the other 3 the other way you'll have to open up the whole set which would be annoying.

We've chosen raynaers doors which are really lovely and quite good value for money (relatively speaking).

I prefer sliders for all the reasons Imperialleather2 listed.

It is much easier with sliding doors to have them just a little bit open - no chance of any doors slamming shut in the wind.

Thank you. That's really interesting, we will have a traffic door and 3 others in a 4 door bi fold, so we won't have to open it all up. I understand what you mean about them being shut most of the year! Oooh, decisions decisions!

I think bi-folds will date your extension. I'm sure I read on here that they have fallen out of fashion.

Also do you want 1 going one way and 3 going the other? For me that defeats the point of bifolds.

I also think bifolds are slightly more dated but if you love them so what.

No the purpose (for us) was to be able to open up the gap more or less completely. We have a 60ft garden, the doors (whichever we decide) are going on a kitchen / diner / living room so it will be where we spend all of our time / entertain etc. The point (as we saw it) was to kind of extend the living space into the garden in an ideal world.

The way they fold back, because we have quite a big garden doesn't really impact on our decision, we'll still have a good sized patio and garden.

For me therefore, I do think that sliders are the new thing, more in favour than bi folds and agree that they provide a much nicer aesthetic impression when they're closed. Its a choice therefore for me I think of whether the inability to open them up fully is too much of a compromise.

I've had both - bifold installed in previous house and now had sliders installed. The dating thing is odd really. Bifold doors were in fashion and now it's sliders, in 10 years time it might be something else, so go with what you like best.

I think it's surprising how little you notice the frames on bifolds - I never really felt they intruded. And we had 6 doors (3 going each way). Our current architect tried to persuade us to have totally frameless sliders but we decided it wasn't worth the money. We have a much longer span now, so sliders were more sensible, but one thing I dislike is how wide the track is - as obviously each door needs its own track, rather than all using the same one. The tracks then fill up with grit as there is nothing in them, until you open the door.

In your case I think I would have bifold. Missing 1/3 of the opening seems a shame. Our bifolds were idsystems and the sliders are Fineline.

What are sliders-are they different to patio doors??

We have a 4m space and chose sliders. We have 2 windows ( I wanted 3 but DH didn't) (he won for a change) I really like how I can open them just a little bit and lock them. We also chose triple glazing and have been very impressed with that. Kloeber supplied ours.

Yes sliders are kind of modern patio doors. Thank you for your feedback everyone. I'm going to go to another showroom tomorrow.

let me know which supplier you recommend - starting to look for showrooms now!