Large bifold doors

[Floridatilly]

Does anyone have these? Or know people who have them?
I am looking for honest opinions, the good, the bad and the ugly.
When we did our extension we put two sets of patio doors in. One in the dining area and the other in the living area. We considered bifolds at the time but they were crazy prices and we was concerned about noise getting in because we back into the railway lines.
Prices have reduced and they do triple glazed ones so it’s something we are considering especially now we finally have a nice back garden.
My main concerns are;
sunlight glare on the TV. Is this an issue? My husband loves watching TV so could be a potential non starter.
Does the sun glare cause the room to heat up?
Or are they cold in winter, less insulated etc?
Do they let a lot of noise in?
Do you have any window dressing on them? I can’t visualise curtains or blinds 🤷
If you look online they look amazing but are they practical ?

Before our extension we had a conservatory which looked gorgeous but it was so impractical, freezing in winter even with two large radiators and far too bright in summer, you needed sun glasses on to sit in there lol. So I am wondering if bifolds are similar in that they look amazing but the reality is not up to par.

[novocastrian]

we have bifolds on our sitting room leading out onto decking they make up about 3/4 of the entire wall if that makes sense

good points:-
having then open to make the room seem massive as it extends onto the decking
bright & airy room
great on a summers evening having then open well into the night once the sun has dropped a bit
much less draughty then the sliding doors they replaced
no noise issues although we dont have any real road noise etc

not so good points:-
as the room is west facing gets very hot we have blinds fitted to them
cant have the doors open/blinds up if watching tv on say a summers afternoon as too bright
if its windy when they are open lots of leaves etc can blow into the room
also if its windy ours fold out into the garden and we live on a hill so they need to be wedged open.


I'd say the good points out way the bad ones and they look a milion times better than the dated sliding doors they replaced

[CarolynU]

My daughter has massive bifolds just put in and they are incredible. They cover the whole of the rear of the house and no glare or noise problems at all, but the TV isn’t that close to them.

[catherinesian]

Careful of solar gain - what direction will the doors face and how much shading do you have (trees, etc).

Solar gain can be your friend in winter but in summer you want to make sure it won't get unbearably hot

We are planning bi folds for our new place but there is shading in place to reduce the solar gain.

At our old place (south facing, no shade) the old owners put bi folds in the bedroom which made the room almost uninhabitable in the summer.

[novocastrian]

Blinds like these

NB these arent ours

[Floridatilly]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

Blinds like these

NB these arent ours

See more...

For some reason I have only seen pictures from the outside looking in. Its good to see it from the other side 👍🏻

[Floridatilly]

You can see from these old Christmas photos how close the doors are to our TV. We are not south facing, our patio area is in the shade after 1pm.

Then the other patio:

Wall in between:

[tspill]

When we did our refurb a few years ago we had a 6m gap for doors.
We looked at bi-folds and everyone we spoke to told us to avoid them.
The problem is the basic engineering - there is huge weight that basically hangs out from two tails top and bottom. The physics says that will never work effectively. There was a builder building an estate back to out old house. They simply stopped putting bifolds in as they caused so many problems. Our own builder and window/door company both advised strongly against them.
The second reason is in the UK, they will be closed more than open so you lose a lot of view and light at every join because of the double frame.
We went for a triple track set of sliding doors. Very happy with them.

I believe that you can get bi-folds that spin on the centre axis of each door rather than the sides. These should solve much of the fundamental engineering problem. But there are still only two hinge points in what are very heavy doors.

[novocastrian]

^^

i would say a lot of that is down to correct installation in the first place

we have had ours @3.5 years and had no issues at all

so still worth considering it is great having them fully open.. although as above in the UK thats limited to how often... i wouldnt say say we lose any light compared to the old sliding doors

imo of course

[ClaireNJ]

FT I think if you’re not South facing you’ll be ok
Our garden is West facing & I can’t do without curtains, especially the light on the TV 🤦
We used to have vertical blinds but they weren’t good at keep the light out
The sun is in our garden after lunchtime
I love bi folds, only problem I’d when it’s windy they start to close
We put a chair to stop it for now but Hubbie has mentioned a cable to keep the door from closing
We’ve had them about 3 years I think