Internal bifold doors

[BurntSausage]

Apologies for the fascinating topic.

Our new house has two glazed bifold doors - both the size of a standard door frame, one into the dining room and one into the kitchen. They are the loudest bloody things I’ve ever encountered and I can’t work out what makes them so loud. Maybe the glass rattling?

Is this a standard thing with bifolds? They do save a bit of space but otherwise I can’t seen the benefit to keeping them. Does anyone have them that don’t sound like a bomb going off every time they’re closed?

It might be the doors crashing into the frames. You could try foam or rubber draught strip in the rebate.

Or it might be the frames are not firmly fixed and are rattling. I expect they are screwed to the wall, floor and ceiling. There ought to be tiny wedges filling gaps. Modern practice is to use expanding foam to hold doorframe in place, it is very sticky and sets rigid, filling gaps, I always use the pink fire foam grade, just in case. Carpenters who fit doors for a living are much better and quicker at it than DIYers or general builders.

If the glass is rattling, it can be fixed with glazing tape, which is a sticky rubber strip available in various sizes to suit your rebate. It is very good in external doors as it is weatherproof, and very difficult to remove so it hold the glass even if it is broken, for example by someone trying to force entry. Being rubber, it does not rattle. It is usually hidden with wooden strips called glazing bead, to match the door.

Just for clarification, these are not the large UPVC external doors but smaller, standard door type?
If so, what are they made from, are they wood and with single glazed panes?

If wood, do the panes rattle when you tap them?
If so the trim needs to be removed and a seal put in to hold the glass tight (we had this once).

Is it the mechanism making a noise?
Do the doors move smoothly or are there tight spots or something making the door stick?

Can you post photos? Sounds like it might be easy to fix

Thanks everyone. From looking at them there doesn’t seem to be anything holding the glass steady, and if I tap it it rattles - it just looks to be sandwiched in the frame of the door, if that makes sense? I’ll have a look for some seal (I’m picturing the kind of stuff you’d see round the edge of windows?) but also putting something around the frame of the door.

Probably wooden beading. On one side it may be retained by pins (or possibly glue) you can prise it off and use glazing tape. If you are a bodger I suppose you could use clear silicone sealant.

https://www.wickes.co.uk/search?text=Glazing+bead