Home extensions: opening options when fitting bifold doors

For many people, home extensions are just a way of adding a bedroom or extending their living space; but for those prepared to think beyond bricks and mortar an extension can transform their house into something unique.

A Grand Designs style extension with a large set of bifold doors can help turn an ordinary extension into something extraordinary. Finding the option that’s right for you is important. To really make the most of your extension it’s worth considering how you might want your doors to open in your new space.

Home extensions: opening options when fitting bifold doors

Do my doors all have to open the same way?

There is complete flexibility to design the doors as you wish. You can have all the leaves opening the same way, or you can split it so that some open one way and some the other way. You can choose how many leaves go in each direction.

Do I need an odd or even number of door leafs?

Here again, you have complete flexibility to choose the design that best suits your purposes. Bear in mind that the maximum width of a door leaf is 1,200mm and as a general rule the fewer door leafs, the more pleasing the design as this maximises the amount of glass.

Should my doors open inwards or outwards?

Bifold doors are engineered with flexibility in mind. We can design them to open inwards or outwards, whichever best suits the space in which they will sit.

Most people choose to have doors that open outwards for two reasons: Firstly, if the doors open out, you can be sure that the furniture will not get in the way when opening and closing the doors. Secondly, if it has been raining and the doors are still wet, water won’t drip inside the house once the doors have been peeled back.

Traffic doors

If you want to be able to nip in and out of the garden through your bifold door, you may want to consider a design with a traffic door. This is a design where you can open a single door leaf without releasing the other door leafs. This can be achieved by having an odd number of doors, or if you want an even number of doors, splitting them so an odd number of doors opens in each direction. If you opted for a design with four door leaves, you could have a single traffic door opening one way and then have the other three door leaves opening the other way.

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