Does anyone regret bifolds?

[NameyMcNameName]

I’m looking at my extension plan and wondering if anyone has ever regretted their bifolds? I will have a patio and hopefully veranda so bifolds will be lovely in the summer, but what about winter? What if you just want to open them a little?

I do. It’s like a greenhouse in our kitchen/diner now and we’re always blinded by the sun. I can’t find blinds cheaper than £2500 and I don’t want blinds anyway. We rarely open them fully because we get birds in the kitchen. They really were a waste of money.

I dont have them but everyone I know that has them opens them up a few times a year. Otherwise they just use the single door opening.

Also, as soon as you do open them, every insect in a 3 miles radius will be in your house.

We have them. We have a ‘service’ door which is standard door width so we use that on a daily basis- don’t have to open the bifold bits.

Not regretted, but I do think bifolds have had their day. Our last house had them, it was nice for a few weeks of the summer to have them open but the reality is it was freezing in the winter and much of the summer had them closed with the blinds down to try and keep the house cool!

I prefer a set of French doors and a window or window seat. you also don't lose a whole wall of usable space, and you don't have to account for space for the folds to go once they concertina... basically one corner of the kitchen we couldn't use.

I love mine, have at least one ot two open most days, got them with blinds inside the glass, they are a little cold in winter, so this year I will have some curtains put up.but other than that, no regrets at all.

We have ours open a lot - it does cause an insect problem
If we got them again I would have built in blinds and some means of securing them in the open position - ours will move if it's windy

No! We got corner bifold doors so we can open up our snug into a really amazing space that means you can be inside but outside, amazing for bbq / get togethers
We got fitted blinds and they were a coat but nothing like £2.5k as above. We have 6 panels by the way

Interesting, I already vetoed lanterns because of trapped insects…don’t want to attract them even more! we will have a glass wall with French doors on one end leading into the extension, so French doors to match this on the garden end would be more symmetrical.

And I LOVE the idea of a window seat! Going to Pinterest now!

I love them. Ours have built in blinds, and we have a door so don't have to open the expanse, but as soon as it's a nice day they're open here.

Love ours. Someone said they have theirs open a few weeks a year, I would say ours are open 5 months of the year. It’s early May now and ours have been open most days in the last weeks.

If it’s cooler, just open one door, or two.

I'm house buying at the moment and actively discounted any house with bi-folds. I'd much prefer french doors due to all the reasons mentioned but mostly the potential of living in a furnace.

I've also discounted them when house viewing. Can't stand the idea of flies getting in.

Make sure you get solar glass not normal glass so it keeps the house from becoming too hot!

Or you could just change the doors to a different type when you buy?

Disliked the ones we installed in our old house, made the kitchen boiling when the sun shone, got birds and insects in the house when they were open and made me feel like I was being watched of an evening with the lights on. Curtains/blinds would have cost us a fortune and looked odd in that particular room. Have actively avoided in current house and gone with french doors and large windows as per PP.

I'm guessing it would cost a lot of money to do that! Don't they come in full floor to ceiling frame that you'd have to rip out and make good, build a wall in etc.

Don't regret ours at all, except when cleaning them 🤣. We have them open a lot when it's warm, we haven't had any issues with birds and don't get any more insects than when we have a window open. My biggest regret is we have a step down from them to the patio, I wish it was all on the same level.

Much as I love my bifold doors, in hindsight I would have preferred sliding doors. We have 3 big panels, 2 sliders would be perfect, plus you can open a slider incrementally whereas the bifold is a bit all or nothing (we usually only open one, as others have said, the full width is rarely fully opened).
We are north facing so being overheated isn’t a problem. I would love some curtains for winter but DH isn’t keen.

I think they’re wonderful. They bring the garden in, which I find very relaxing.

We have these instead FGC Frameless | Frameless Doors & Windows and they are fab - much more versatile than bifolds.

So ugly and clunky. Who wants to look at that much Uvpc framing. I’d go for something like this instead: www.instagram.com/p/DHylvXpK6PB/?igsh=M2lxemJrZHZ0OW9q

I prefer sliding doors.

We have sliding doors which I prefer to bifolds as less frame and you can see the garden better. Can’t open fully but can 2/3 which is plenty for 99% of British summer. And as a pp said you can open just a little or however much you want.

If I didn’t have sliders I’d go for French doors, although you do have to keep the opening space clear for those, and we have a small garden.

I was planning bifold doors for our extension. Changed my mind when we stayed a a villa in Kefalonia that has wonderful sliding doors but they had built in insect screens in the frames. Am now trying to source something similar in the UK. No success to date so if anyone has seen them feel free to send me the details!

I know we would have regretted them. We have 2 big sets of sliding patio doors instead, and it gives us the maximum amount of glass when they're closed. And it gives us some wall space between them for somewhere to put a piece of art and the dogs water bowl!