5.5 m opening i an extension: 5 bifold panels or 6?

[pasok1000]

I am not sure whether to have 6 bifold panels with around 90 cm each panel or 5 panels, 1 metre each.

6 bifold combination oudl be 3+3 panels (opening in opposite direction)

5 bifold combination - I am not sure if 2+3 or 1+4

thank you for sharing your experience
Thank you

I would have gone for 1+4 and was in the same position as you with similar opening when the builder suggested I rethink and have 3 large sliders. Great suggestion and fav view. Glad we did now

Our opening is smaller than yours but we opted for sliding doors and love them. Love that there are fewer parts interrupting the view when the doors are closed and still plenty to open when you do want it open. We were advised to think carefully about the doors through all seasons and how much we really might have them fully open.

We went for 7 and 1 service door in our opening - I wish we'd gone for 8 - the service door doesn't work - it has to be hooked on the wall to keep it open or it swings about - the lock fixing has an air gap between 7 and 1 in the winter and doesn't feel secure - I hate it and we cannot get it fixed because our supplier went out of business and Origin the manufacturers refuse to help us - and no other installer will touch another firms screw up. So I'd say if we went for 8 folding panels, we'd have had fewer problems - one moving part would have been easier to adjust - as it is we have no choice but to replace the entire unit - and most definitely not with Origin!

We got sliders too. You can have much bigger doors without shit loads of steels. You will have almost as much frame as glass.

Ours are 1.2 wide for each panel. Get more glass and less frame to look at. They haven't been installed yet, so cant take a pic.

We went for sliders. Less frame, more glass, more useable floor space. Also in north west so we wouldn’t have had bi folds completely open terribly often…

Five much better than six.

I’d definitely go 5 or fewer if you can (our bifold doors are 3 panels of 1.2m of glass). Looks better to have more glass and less steel I think.

We have two sliding doors ie 4 panels. Each one is 1.4m. I love them as when open we have a lovely 2.8m opening in the middle, and no dotes sticking out. Can also just open 1cm+ for air and re lock ( handy to stop child escaping)

I think sliders are more modern now. They aren't anything like the old ones from the 70s. Mine slide open with one finger and a very smooth lift and slide mechanism.

We have a 5 m opening with two sliders. Each slider can move so you can have them in any location.

Because we have two sliders we only have one vertical obscuring the view.

If we had gone for bifolds we would have 4 verticals obscuring the view. Like the photo someone showed above.

I would rather have less verticals.

On a practical note, you don't really want to have the glass wider than 2.5 m.

My friend has a 6 m opening and needs 3 panes so two verticals. She says that our 5 m with one vertical looks wider than her 6 m with two verticals. Optical allusion but worth bearing in mind.

3 sliders. Bifolds are starting to look quite dated and all the frames really unnecessary.

If you live in the UK then the doors will be shut for most of the year so what they look like closed is really important.

I would have 1m+ panels.

I have bifolds, love the look of sliders and we seriously considered them but for us, the whole point was to open up the wall completely and do the whole outside/inside thing. The sliders posted above are gorgeous but you'd always have 1 massive panel there / in the way. The ability to open them completely was our priority so the compromise was more frame. You can get bifolds with slim frames now so maybe worth a look.