Bifolds or sliding doors?

[Moonrise1362]

This has probably already been done to death, but we're in the middle of a big renovation and the time has come to choose - sliding doors, or bifold doors?

The width of the opening is 4800mm, and it opens onto big wide steps that lead down to the patio (we're on a slope). We've got a view onto a woodland valley. The doors will be aluminium.

The options the contractor has put forward are:
• 6-panel bifolds (can open up fully, but of course the concertina-d doors will take up space, and when closed there will be more mullions breaking up the view)
• 4-panel sliding doors (two tracks, the middle two doors slide open but you cannot open it up fully, and when closed the glass sections will be wider due to fewer mullions)

What would you go for and why? And can anyone share any photos of what you have? I'd love to see!

We are currently doing an extension and have ordered 2 panel sliders for 5m opening - one fixed and one opening so we can make the most of putting furniture either side of the fixed panel. They're not the thinnest frame as that was double the budget but with only one frame in the middle the view to our garden is still going to be amazing as they won't be open everyday. We thought about what was more important - opening the whole width or the view, and the view won.

Definitely by folds. Two more mullions Isn’t enough of a difference to forego opening them fully.

Weird comment. They are not a fashion colour. They are an option for people
who want to open their house totally rather than lose 50% of the space to a sliding door. I hate sliding doors. I find them so limiting.

Sliders! For all the reasons mentioned, but please try and get a three panel if you can. I can't begin to quote the psychology but there's something about a natural synergy with three, or our brains working in thirds. That sounds jumbo jumbo but hopefully someone will come along and explain.

Crucially in this case, if you have four, your centre point will be mid frame rather than if you have three, your centre point will be your view, beautifully and symmetrically framed.

Sliders to maximise the view and go to 3 if possible, it'll be worth it.

I absolutely love my bifolds. They're open frequently throughout the year and the joy I get from whole space being open to the garden hasn't diminished in the 14 years since they were installed.

Bifolds if you’re planning to use the outdoor space as another room, ie a patio or decking area, sliders if you want a view.

We code bifolds as didn’t have a great view and wanted to open the house up in the summer. If we’d had a view we’d have gone for sliders.

This.

I'd also throw young children into the mix - memories of a friend running into patio doors (aka sliders) when we were young and the nose bleed afterwards.

Personally we wanted to open up the whole space and still love the bifolds. Ours is a similar size and we have 4 panels - I wouldn't have 6, that really will be too much frame.

Would agree that you need to do your research about quality makes / slim frames etc.

We also have a 5m opening with 3 panels. Brilliant view with little frames blocking view. Def don't go for a 4 panel as no need.

We started plans with bifolds and builder advised us to change. Good advice. They tend to have more maintenance issues longer term and you need space for the "stack". But big issue is all the frames. We had the experience of seeing what it could have been as the neighbour copied our extension and plans from the online portal, didn't know we changed and out in bifolds. When we saw the finished product our builder had definitely given us good advice. Also the bifolds needed much lighter glass due to weight

We had bifolds, never bothered opening them up fully ( similar size to yours with 4 panes) . Generally opened up half way at most during the summer. They were a bit of a nusisance.

Sliders. We have opening about same as yours and have 3 pane sliders.
We decided to have sliders over bifolds for several reasons.

1. We have a dog! Sliders I can leave open a few inches and he can wander in and out whereas bifolds would have to open full door which may catch in the wind. Also having the door wide open isn't great when it's not middle of summer!

1. They look neater. When bifolds are fully open you don't get the full opening as at one end you have an ugly stack of doors which also requires space to create that stack. With sliders having 2/3 of the space open is plenty and you still have the clean look overall.

1. Similar to what pp said about Avacado bathrooms. Bifolds are a bit "last season" and this , plus the above to reasons, make them an unappealing option.

Has bifolds fitted this week, wanted sliding doors but more expensive, also wanted internal blinds and they were a lot more expensive so in the end we couldn't justify the cost. 4m opening and a difference of £3.5k

I had this very same decision to make and went for Bifolds in the end. They will be (not installed yet) used mutilple times a day (access to garden office and wfh) so having the one panel that could open as a traffic door was important and the ultimate decider. Didn’t fancy heaving open and closed sliders each time - no matter how light they say they are every one I tried in the various showrooms needed a good shove with an engaged core before it became “effortless”. Also the having an uninterrupted view wasn’t a big factor to me - let’s face it I am looking at my own city center back garden not a beautiful coastal or rolling countryside view. And anything was going to be a vast improvement on the pokey window with bars in that was there before!

It's worth shopping around. When we initially looked at sliders we thought we couldn't afford them as what we looked at were double price of sliders. However builder spoke to his window supplier who did them for £1k more than the bifolds they were going to originally supply. We decided that as it was a big factor in the renovation, it was worth finding the extra money to have them. I'm very glad I did!

We have bifolds and also a bifold window in our kitchen - we love them both. In spring and summer it’s fantastic to have the space completely open to the garden. I do think that sliders can look a bit nicer, and will probably give you a better view when closed - so it depends what’s more important to you really. But the option to have that full opening really works for us and feels so sociable when we have friends over and kids dashing in and out. How they’re going to function for you is more important than whether they’re a trend or not.

Sliders seem much more popular as less obtrusive sight lines

try to get them floor to ceiling in height if possible rather than the standard 2.1m

How they’re going to function for you is more important than whether they’re a trend or not.
Exactly @SchittOnIt

For the practicalities, for sliders would need more floor space (only a little more but still a consideration) to have the tracks in the floor. The fewer panels you have, the larger the space that won't open (so if you have 3 panels, you'll always have a 3rd of the space which won't open - so will a 4m run, you'll have 1.33m that will be blocked off). If you have 4 panel bi-folds, the stack (at least for us) is about 0.6m I think from memory. I don't think one is better than the other, it really comes down to how you're going to use the space.

Sliding doors. The space is quite tight and didn't want to use up floor or outside space with bifolds.

North West - days we want it all opened up are v limited.

Better sight lines of garden.

Also - dog - we can leave the sliders open a bit.

Bifolds- absolutely love ours. South facing garden so ours are open April to September. In the cooler mornings I sit on an arm chair inside with the doors open, still warm and cosy while drinking my morning coffee but enjoying the feeling of being outside whilst watching the birds. Nothing between me and nature.

We have a 4.8m opening with 3 pane sliders. One fixed pane and 2 moveable so we get a 66% opening. We were between bi-folds and sliders and this felt like a good compromise!

Also NW and we had our doors open every day between April and Sept last year, bar probably 2 or 3. I think it depends on the direction of the garden / how you live (we do spend quite a bit of time in the garden).

You actually use more floor space with sliders as you need more track, but agree you need space outside for the doors to stack with bifolds.

We went for bifold as we wanted the full opening. They're beautiful full floor to ceiling and look pretty spectacular. Three very large doors across. They're triple glazed and very easy to open / close.

I'm sure sliding would have been similar but we wanted it to be as open as possible.

We have 4 panel sliders. I wanted over three so the middle two slide either way and we get a nice large central opening.

I love them. There’s still a large 2m+ opening when fully back so it feels open, and with toddler the last few summers we have been able to open just a little and lock closed so he couldn’t escape when I didn’t want him to.

In winter we use a lot on the open a fraction option as there’s no other windows in that room, and a whole panel open in bifold would be freezing