Bifolds 4 panes

[Baxdream]

Hi

Has anyone got bifolds with 4 panes. How user friendly do you find it? Particularly if you have a dog!

We had bifolds at our old house (5 panes). I never loved them. This time it's our only door so I'm likely to go for sliders but I'm worried im making an error by dismissing bifolds.
It's just over 4m wide

We have a 4 pane bi-fold. One door opens out to the left so can be opened on it’s own and the others all stack up on the right. You can just open up one of those on the right so half are open.

I like the flexibility and the fact that the whole lot opens up. No dog though.

We have aluminium ones as UPVC were too heavy.

Can you just have the one door open, does it have a hoot or a magnet?

Thanks, yes ours were aluminium at our old house

We have bi folds and two dogs. We generally keep the door open and just open the whole lot now and again. I do love them though.

We have 4 panes, similar width. The right hand pane is a standalone door, the other 3 panes fold back to the left. You can also have just the right 2 panes open, there’s a magnet to hold the doors

Here you go

I love your couch!

Sliders.

Thanks so much! So how is the single door kept open? Does that have a magnet too?

@welshweasel I love your wall colour! What paint is it?

We've got upvc 4-panes, similar width. But all open the same way, so either have left two open, with others locked, or all four folded fully back - quite heavy though, but love having all four fully open.

@Baxdream we have a magnetic door stop which holds it open.

@TheotherMissHoolie its Little greene Dorchester pink mid

Yes you can have just the one door open, it doesn’t have anything to hold it, we got a U shaped planter that you slide round it to hold it. The first door that opens the other way has a magnet to hold it open against the other two doors.

This.. love mine they look amazing... easy access for the dog

The loose door is the bit that's not selling it to me. Particularly with it needing to be 4 panes.
I know the positive of having them all open but that's rare (I know from experience at the old house).
The thought of having a dog sized gap in sliding doors is far more useful. I just need to decide if they're worth the extra cost!

4.5m 4 pane here. I'll number them 4,3,2,1.

Pane 2 works like a normal door. It's constantly being opened and closed with the kids running in and out. There's a magnetic stop to hold it open if we need it. Also used often.

Pane 1 can be opened on its own but it needs Pane 2 to open a smidge. Almost never used this configuration.

To open up the whole space, panes 4, 3 and 2 fold onto each other and look a lot like @welshweasel picture! Used a few times in the summer.

I love them. The only problem is the flies in the summer. Not sure about doggy use. Don't have one.

Our four pane bifolds were three panes one side and a single the other. We used the single as a door or folded the three panes back with the single opened to make a big opening.

The functioned as a single door which was easy to open or as a big fold back window.

We had extension built. Plans had bi folds and builder suggested a rethink. Reasons

Sliders:
better view
Less maintenance potential
Thicker glass as can cope with more weight
No stack back of doors

It worked for us as we had the opening. If the opening is restricted and you need the full width then bi folds may be a winner

A neighbour who built similar extension did bi folds. The asked to see ours and said he deeply regretted it

All a personal choice though. Whatever don't get internal blinds as they are notorious for failing and is very expensive out of warranty to fix as means new glass

We have a dog and a cat who ‘forgets’ he has a cat flap round the corner. Sliding doors. It’s enough opening space for us, live in north west and so a lot of the year they are closed. It also means I can put big planters with bamboo and flowers by the non opening slider. More planting room basically….

and we didn’t really have stacking room for bifolds….wanted the floor space instead.

@BarrelOfOtters this has been one of my thoughts. It gives an extra space in the house!
We're SE so relatively sunny but it's still the UK!

We have four pane bifolds (1+3) OP and they stack outwards, so no intrusion on inside space.

Either way, be sure the access door opens on the end you want it. A number of suppliers I spoke to could only do the access door on the right hand side, which would have meant walking around the kitchen table to open this. Seems like small thing, but I knew it would get annoying!

4 lane bifolds with 1 as a door that we do prop open. We have the doors open all the time and love them. We can close the door pane and then just pull the bifolds back so only 1 is open and is held by the magnet, if that makes sense. So door pane closed, pane 2 pulled open but pane 3 and 4 still closed.

After laying out the room I have decided to go for 5 pane bifolds

We had 4 pane bifolding doors, which we found worked extremely well with our dog. We could have just the one door open as an when needed, and it would generally stay open, unless it was particularly windy in which case we would pop a plant pot etc in front to hold it open.

It will work out that the traffic door is nearest the snug. He always knocks on the door anyway so we'll hear him. Otherwise we'll leave it open. Our garden is south facing and is a slight slope so it's protected from wind unless it's bad.
Now I've measured the space I've realised that 4 doors would end up with a huge door