Aluminium Bifolding Doors

4 FAQs About Bifold Doors

For home interiors, one of the most popular renovation projects is bifold door installation, with people increasingly keen to create a seamless transition between their indoor and outdoor spaces.

Folding door mechanisms can actually trace their origins all the way back to ancient Egypt, some 3,000 years or so ago – but the modern iteration was first patented by one Guy Edwin Dixon in the early 1950s, featuring full-height flexible hinges for the first time.

Contemporary interior design schemes feature these doors more often than not these days, but are they right for you and your home? Here are just some of the more frequently asked questions about these products to help you decide if they’d work well for you.

What are the benefits of bifold doors?

There are many associated benefits to having bifold doors installed, everything from increasing the amount of natural light that floods your home to how low maintenance they are, the fact that they don’t take up much space because they concertina up when open, their energy efficiency standards and how secure they are… not to mention how attractive they are when both open and closed.

Which are better, sliding or bifold doors?

We’re often asked whether sliding doors or bifold doors are better, but it will depend on what it is you’re hoping to achieve. If you want doors that open up fully and blur the boundaries between the inside and the out, bifolds would be the best option. It will also depend on how wide your doorway is. If it’s over 5m wide, sliding doors may be better.

Can doors open outwards, or do they always open into the room?

You can decide whether you want your doors to open outwards or into your home. It will depend on how the space is set up and how much room you have to play with, but we can advise you on the best option for your home.

Does the entire door have to open up or can just sections be opened?

You can opt for a single traffic door system so you can nip in and out quickly if you don’t want to open the entire door every time you want to go outside.

Of course, these are just a few questions about these doors – so if you need any further help or advice, get in touch with the Tailored Doors & Windows team today.

Elegance Composite Door

What Is Secured By Design And Why Is It Important For Doors?

Whilst people want a beautiful front door, the priority for many homeowners is safety, and a tailored aluminium door installation allows for both.

The most recent version of the Building Regulations (Approved Document Q, section 1.2) requires front doors to reach a minimum security standard, but the easiest way to know that your door is secure is to choose one with Secured by Design accreditation.

The Secured by Design initiative was launched by the UK Police Service to help people choose security products that help to prevent crime by improving their security credentials.

They focus on a wide number of security systems and whilst they do not undertake any testing themselves, they recommend suitable security standards that ensure that the door is not only secure but also provides fire resistance to stop a burglar from simply burning the door down to get in.

The accreditation consists of a series of security parameters alongside a test designed to mimic an opportunistic burglar and how they would attempt to break in using tools that could be easily bought and concealed on their person.

The most common test is PAS 24:2022 a Product Assessment Specification overseen by the British Standards Institution (BSI), with a simple pass or fail test but there are other systems available which can describe a much wider range of security products.

The most common security standard other than PAS 24 approved by Secured by Design is LPS (Loss Prevention Standard) 1175, with the most recent version of the guidance being Issue 8.2.

Before Issue 8, LPS 1175 featured eight security ratings (SR1-8), of which SR6 was the highest given to a door and lock system.

This has since been replaced by a letter and number combination, the former describing a set of increasingly complex, loud and sophisticated tools, whilst the latter is the time in minutes the door survives a forced entry attempt using these tools.

For the building regulations, the minimum standard was B3 (the old SR2), but some metal doors have higher ratings than this.