Bifold or sliding doors – which is best?

Are you looking for a new patio door in your home and can’t decide between bifold or sliding doors? Both add style, light and space to your house, and a bifold or a sliding design comes offers lots of benefits. To help you decide which one is best for your needs, we have put together this helpful guide so that you can make an informed decision.

Helping you decide between bifold or sliding doors

First, it is worth explaining the similar benefits you get with a bifolding or sliding design. With the benefits of modern aluminium, both doors provide slim styling, high quality locking systems for excellent security and thermally insulated profiles, helping you lower your energy bills. And both bifold or sliding doors give you a fantastic choice of colours and finishes that are all easy to keep clean.

One of the most desirable features of a patio door is getting a lower-set threshold or track, creating a reduced step as you go out to your patio area. And here, both of these door types come with a low threshold option. Sliding doors usually come with the same track, which we will help you set lower. However, choose a Reynaers bifold or a Schüco model, and both of these come with up to four different track designs.

Bifold and sliding doors both offer amazing patio door solutions thanks to their slimline frames, easy slide or fold action and sleek design. Deciding between them ultimately depends on your house style and what you want to achieve aesthetically.

Where a bifold door is best

Bifold doors can make a smaller house feel larger and more so where your new bifold is the only main garden door. An excellent example is terraced houses, or if you’re building an extension and your house doesn’t have any side doors, for example, going out to a side path.

A fully open bifold door can make a room feel better connected to the outside space because all the panels fold fully back, revealing the entire door opening. By comparison, sliding doors always need somewhere to park along the opening. As a result, you only get a maximum of half or two-thirds opening when choosing a sliding door.

If we were to explain the biggest benefit of a bifold it is convenience. The traffic door is one of the best options to design into your bifold. A traffic door enables easy entry and exit without having to fold all the panels back every time. It is a fantastic option for ventilation, taking out the washing, letting out a pet. And even better, a traffic door lets you enter your home through your bifolds because they have external key access – something you can not always have with a sliding door. Therefore if you use your patio doors a lot, bifolds are probably best.

Where a sliding door is better than a bifold

A sliding door has the advantage of coming with the biggest possible glass sizes and the least amount of visible aluminium. This is probably the main reason to decide on this door type when choosing bifold or sliding doors.

If having the most amount of glass area, the best possible view out through the larger panes of glass and creating more of a ‘glass wall’ then we recommend any of our slimline or classically styled sliding doors.

Compared with a bifold, operating a sliding door is not harder; it is just different. There are no hinged panels, and the doors slide across their track. You won’t get the benefit of the full opening like a bifold, but you will get a more minimalist-looking patio door if that is your preference.

Security and energy efficiency when choosing bifold or sliding doors

When choosing bifolding or sliding doors, you can rest assured that both door types come with the best security and weather performance. Each door is fitted with multi-point locks, high-security cylinders, and built-in protection features, helping to secure your home. You’ll also find many products tested to the latest security requirements and standards.

Additionally, they have advanced seals, gaskets and rebates, which are designed to keep your room sealed, creating an optimal barrier from the outside elements. Furthermore, energy efficiency is of paramount importance when it comes to bifold and sliding doors. All our doors have insulated aluminium frames, combined with our high-specification safety glass, helping give you low U-Values and excellent door energy ratings, helping you reduce your heating bills.

Quality-made bifold or sliding doors made, fitted and guaranteed by Aluminium Doors and Windows Ltd.

Any of our superb bifold or sliding doors designs promise you a beautiful new patio door from our leading British and European brands and systems. Offering you the latest advancements in design and engineering, as well as ensured security, weather performance and energy efficiency – our impressive range of bifold and sliding patio doors will add an instant touch of contemporary style to your home. Contact us today for a free quotation and to discuss your property project with us.