Bifold advice

[IamwhoIsayIam]

I'm looking at a 5 metre stretch of either bi-fold or sliding doors. My preference is for bi-fold but when folded open I need to keep the outdoors space clear for access. An outward folded door would obstruct the space.

Can you get doors to fold so they are inside the house not over the patio? Also with a 5m stretch is there any plus sides to sliding versus bifold as this would solve where the 'folded' doors go?

Yes you can have them so they fold inwards.
A bifold will give you the most open space unless the sliding doors slide into a wall.

We have a 4.5m wide opening and sliding doors with 3 panes. We can have it open two thirds and we have them floor to ceiling just a bit over 2.6m. The height made a huge difference to the view. I was told bifold door can’t be that high due to weight.
We have a nice garden and sliding doors have fewer sight lines and the lines are slimmer too. So it maximise the garden view for us.
Bifold can open the whole width and with one track you can get an almost flush threshold onto the patio. Depends on what your priorities are.

I like the idea of having the whole front open to the garden but @mothergooseinnorthwest as I will have steps down from the doors to garden being flush is pretty irrelevant

Sightlines are important as well - really are pros and cons to both

given your name @mother goose I think we might be in the same region. Did you get a good company for your sliding doors and are you happy with them?

We have had both.

1. Get any company who is quoting to work out how much bulk you will have when folded back.
2. In my experience: Folding: Sight lines and bulk tend to be better with metal than plastic frames. Plus metal tends to be more robust Sliding: can you minimal sight lines, and much less than folding.
3. Apparently sliding are much more in fashion now (who knew?)

@IamwhoIsayIam our builder sorted out the doors in the end and yes we are very pleased. Sorry can’t be more helpful.
Definitely pro and cons to both, we could have gone for two panes to further reduce sight lines but settled for three so we can have the back more open.
You can get a ‘slim profile’ for both I think. But for bifolds even slim profile still means two frames meeting in the middle but sling doors pane frames overlap in the middle so it is ‘single thickness’ if that makes any sense.