Folding door for cloakroom

[Frustratingbedtimes]

Hello,
Does anybody have a folding door (not bifold) that they are happy with?
We are moving the doorway on our cloakroom so that it opens into a corridor. I think we'd like to change the normal door into a folding door so that we're less likely to open it into someone that's walking past. However, the folding door that we have on our ensuite is a real pain. It's flimsy and it is hard to close from the inside as we can't add a handle that doesn't interfere with the fold. If we're going to use one on the cloakroom, it needs to close easily from the inside and outside.
Any recommendations or warnings welcome!

We have one for our cloakroom under the stairs. We have no need for a handle on the inside as we never close it when we are actually in there hanging coats up! It actually folds inwards. It is fairly flimsy, but isn't used a great deal so I'm happy with it.

I had a folding plastic door on my spare bedroom originally but it was noisy to shut and often didn't stay shut. We replaced it with an ordinary white paneled one to match the rest or our doors but bought a track so it slid. You obviously need a little bit of internal wall space so it can slide back.
My small bedroom (mainly used as a junk room)was the size of a single bed with 5cm clearance at the end and 40cm on the side and a sliding door was the only option that looked halfway decent.

Have you looked at sliding pocket doors as an alternative?

What about a sliding barn door. Like this:
i.pinimg.com/originals/2d/0b/74/2d0b743c8fc5ef6aaa8ca8636adf960e.jpg

Places such as B&Q stock them.
www.diy.com/departments/4-panel-shaker-oak-veneer-internal-sliding-door-h-2040mm-w-838mm/1957334_BQ.prd

Pocket doors are ok but can be a nightmare to fit as you sometimes have to adapt your stud walls to make space for the door. Folding doors tend to be too flimsy which is not necessarily what you want for a cloakroom/toilet door.

Thank you everyone.
Tenbob, yes I discussed a pocket door with our builder but he explained that the wall has to be slightly thicker to contain the mechanism. We have no room to make the wall thicker (at all).
MsMamaNature, my problem with the sliding barn door is that it'll take up room in the already narrow hallway. I also don't like the look of the exposed mechanism, unless it suits the style of house (but I see your b&q link conceals that quite nicely).
Soontobe60, by cloakroom I meant downstairs toilet, so we definitely need to close our one!

Do you mean a concertina door? This one seems to get good reviews.
www.argos.co.uk/product/7003220

How about a sliding door?

You a could make it a pocket door and conceal everything

Sorry I see you have thought of that. I hadn't RTFT sorry!

It will be like an aircraft loo door! How lovely!

MsMamaNature, I was thinking of something like this.
www.building-supplies-online.co.uk/doors/internal-doors/bi-fold-doors/obfsha-xl-joinery-shaker-4-panel-bi-fold-internal-oak-door.html

No the concertina door doesn't look at all solid.
I'm just sort of hoping that the doors on my link above are more substantial and work better than similar ones at Wickes for example. They are about twice the price, but then of course paying more doesn't guarantee anything!

You said in your OP no bifold doors hence the suggestions of barn or concertina doors. I think BubblesBuddy is having a moment. She sounds delightful! The one in your last post looks much better quality than the concertina door.

What about a door with a vertical split ie www.handymanmagazine.co.nz/diy-split-doors

I'm an interior designer and often spec a downstairs toilet door that opens into the hall. It stops people leaving the toilet door open as it has to stay shut to walk easily thru the hall. Person in hall can see when the door is open and stop or move out of the way. A solid internal door is so much nicer than a bifold door.

Sorry MsMamaNature, I didn't mean to confuse things by saying that. I thought bifold was a bit different, but perhaps it's not.
alc3254, thanks for that suggestion, it's something that I hadn't considered. It might feel a bit like a cupboard door, but it certainly solves the problems that I described.
Thanks ChocolateHelps, yes I certainly think a normal would be nicer, but it does require people to open it slowly and carefully, which is tricky with small kids.

We've fitted a few bifold doors like yours. I think of them as "old fashioned" bi-folds - what bi-folds used to be before the giant ones that replace patio doors came in.

My experience is as you say, you don't tend to get as good a seal round the edges and down the middle as you do with a proper door. I do think this is intrinsic to the design. Maybe a more expensive one would be better, but the extra money might be better spent on a good door lining and an excellent fitter. Ideally you want a door lining it can butt up to like a conventional door does, rather than just hanging next to it. But whether you can do that with bi-folds I'm not sure. And so don't think bi-folds are much different to barn doors etc in giving good privacy for sound proofing. Both tend to be a bit less secure round the edges than a conventional door.

I think a small handle on the inside is ok - you don't need much metal to give you purchase and they don't tend to open so far that the outer edges of the 2 panels meet.

I think the problem of children running past is time bounded and will go away. If you want the door to give good privacy then maybe this is the price. Left field suggestions:

• just a narrower conventional door. It protrudes less into the corridor.
• do you need all the other doors in the hall? In your average 3 bed semi, there is often a door past the loo-under-the-stairs to the kitchen. It's fairly common to block this off and access the kitchen via the dining room, or even have no dining room door either and access dining area and kitchen from lounge. People tend to do it to get more useable wall space in the kitchen, but it would have a side effect of eliminating traffic past the loo-under-the-stairs. Of course this may have no relevance to your house at all and it's a total sledgehammer solution, but while you're remodelling I'll just chuck it in there.

Another slightly different idea: how about a door with glazed panels (frosted or ribbed glass for privacy obviously)? That way people can sort of see out to tell if someone is going past, or an adult walking down the hall cn tell if someone is in ther and might spring out at any moment. Also lets some daylight in

We had one. It was so flimsy and looked rubbish. We replaced it with a sliding door. That promptly broke. We are now doorless.

I would just get a normal door. Unless you have small children who play in the hall or family members who spend lots of time in the downstairs loo, the likelihood or hitting a child with an opening loo door isn't enough to warrant a flimsy / not very private option.

Thank you.
Yes CinnamonToaster, I hadn't actually considered the soundproofing of the door and I would agree.
Unfortunately the doorway that we are moving is already a narrow one (61cm) so I don't think it can get any smaller.
No, we can only get to the kitchen from the hall (and the doorway has no door). But we at least wouldn't have door-clashing problems.
Minipie, I'm not too keen on the frosted glass idea though I understand what you mean.
OK, thanks to everyone, I think I have finally decided that I should just stick with the conventional door.

Bifold door is awful. You won't bang someone and it will stop the loo door being left open. Just use a normal door and open into the corridor

Pocket doors don’t need thicker stud work. You can get as thin as 100mm finished thickness. Check out Their single pocket kit is very good.

(Eclisse, was the brand to check out)

Our cloakroom (it's a coat cupboard, the loo is separate) has a split door because you have to be able to get past it.

I have a six panel folding pine door into my en-suite. Very solid, easy to fit and you can paint or stain it any colour.