Help! Sliders or bifolds?

[Extrapepperoni]

We've got two openings to the garden where we need to decide on whether we're going to go with bifolds or sliders - in the attached, it's the two marked openings from the living (the dining room glass is a fixed pane window).

My thinking so far:

Bifold: pro here is the ability to open up completely - and when we get the patio done, we could do meals outdoors in good weather and it would be handy to simply walk a few steps and turn to be outside as opposed to going around a door (seating would be where architect has shown the BBQ)

Sliders: big pro here is sightlines as standing in the galley of the kitchen I could have an uninterrupted view of the garden instead of bifold panes.

Help!!

Sliders for me, assuming you’re in the uk you will spend much more time looking out of your windows than having them fully open! We had bifolds and now we’re having sliders with minimal sight lines.

Sliders here too.

Had bifold- hated them. Go for sliders (or if it was me I'd do crittal style steel doors).

We got sliders a few years back, love them! As pp said, you spend far more time looking through them. Ours aren't' anchored' at the side so you can slide them either way.

Sliders definitely!

We have bifolds with one opening door. We use that most of the time. I think it’s called a lead door.

Sliders. But I (irrationally) hate bifolds. I think they look really ugly

Is it possible to get french doors that size?
That would be my preference as I don't like sliders or bi-folds.

We'll be getting sliders when we do our kitchen this year. Less frame than bifolds, and I just think they look nicer. Less clunky!

Had the same dilemma - love sliders but they were more expensive than bi folds .. ended up with Schuco bi folds and I love them

Thanks everyone. Leaning towards sliders given weather and sightlines. The reason we went for fixed pane glass in the dining area with banquette was for views into the garden so it feels like sliders are the way to go!

... re slamming of doors, we have traffic door and when you open it it attaches itself to the second bi fold - hard to explain but it doesn't smash

Also another swaying factor is our garden is south facing and gets v v hot so the ability to open it right up will be lovely - you can't go wrong with either but if I had a bigger house with a big opening then I'd go sliders.

My opening is 4 metres so not worth it for sliders.

I've got a south facing lounge with a 2.7m opening. I was torn between sliders and bifolds and am so glad I chose bifolds. Being retired, I can make the most of the good weather and have them fully open at least part of nearly every day for 6 to 9 months.

It also enables me to reduce the solar gain when it is very hot.

The leading door of our bifold has a strong magnet which holds it in place when it’s open. Bifolds aren’t popular on MN but we love ours and fully open them up frequently from May-Sep.

Love my bi folds, we have then open loads and it makes the space feel huge.

I think it would be a real shame with that design not to be able to open up the walls completely with bi folds. You can get bifolds with slim frames. If you have sliders, you are stuck with half/third of the opening being closed if you see what i mean (where the sliders stack). I dont think the sight lines are massively different with either, just depends on how you envisage using the space.

We have bifolds, and are quite outdoorsy - had them open (mostly fully) every day from April - end Sept last year. We have tweens/teens though playing in garden, lots of outdoor socialising so makes sense for us for it to be completely open.

I'd go for bifolds so you could have nothing in the corner (but I'm biased as that's what we have)
www.duration.co.uk/corner-bifold-door.asp
But for goodness sake don't have the large lip/change in floor heights in and out if you can manage it.

That looks dreamy @didireallysaythat but sadly we definitely have a steel post in the corner. It's the dang size of the opening that makes me think sliders mean we're missing out on the openness of the room. It's going to mean a compromise either way, just going to have to go look at some / see what width bifold panes we can get without breaking the bank...

@Extrapepperoni - too bad! Our corner was two brick walls so we replaced them with two bits of steel instead - guess it depends on how much weight there is above

@didireallysaythat I've sent the company an enquiry about structural requirements and cost
It's a flat roof extension so nothing above! I'd love to know how much it was if you don't mind?

I had exactly the same dilemma when we did our extension & went with sliders in the end although we had originally planned to have bifold.
Reason was the garden faces East and although we had a huge patio it isn’t a sun trap and I realized most of the time we would be looking out rather than having them open.
Also our patio is two steps down (we are on the side of a hill). I think if it had been flat and we could have walked straight out that might have swayed my opinion.
But I am delighted with the sliders (I regret not paying the thousands it would have cost to raise the patio now I have a baby though!!)

@Extrapepperoni I'm not I've got a breakdown of figured - it was part of an extension for us. The architect and structural engineer did the calcs but I remember the steel man saying it wasn't too big a deal. However as we were having walks down and needed a steel or two it wasn't too disruptive.

To be clear we didn't use the company in the link I sent you - it was the first picture Google found when I was looking for a picture for you.

Thanks! Will see what comes of it. The other half would probably loose the plot if I broached it right now, he's still wrapping his head around the budget

I’m having this dilemma! Wanted bifolds to open up the back of the house completely but when I went to showroom even the slim profiles are so ugly for the view!

Sliders the only half way irritated me.

So I’ve gone for 1 fixed huge panoramic window, and 2 sets of French doors because realistically they are the only things that can give the view and the full opening.