Both sliding and folding patio doors enhance the face value of your house in quality and looks, and both have their pros and cons. Sliding doors tend to offer better views of our outdoor areas and are more thermally efficient, but folding patio doors offer a greater ease of access. Let’s see the five main points of difference between the two so that you can have a clear understanding of which one you should be opting for.
Aesthetics
The big advantage of sliding patio doors over folding patio doors is that it has fewer panels and large expanses of glass, thereby allowing for natural light to enter and brighten your home. Folding patio doors may be pushed back to widen the entrance. When closed, there’s a considerably more visible vertical frame than what can be achieved with sliding patio doors.
Simply put, sliding patio doors have a higher glass to frame ratio. There is very little to obstruct views of your garden or fields behind. Sliding patio doors can be a good choice in case you wish your priority to be a lot of natural light or wider and all round views of your garden outside.
Thresholds
When it comes to sliding patio doors, there is often a frame you’d need to step over in order to go from indoors to outdoors. Folding patio doors can be installed with a flush threshold that would open to your patio or garden. There are several reasons why people opt for bifold or folding doors over sliding ones, and a low or flush threshold is certainly on top.
This type of threshold allows for easy wheelchair access, thereby making it convenient both for old and young members of the family. Moreover, there’s no fear of accidentally tripping over owing to a raised threshold.
Cost
The cost of both the types of doors in the United States are roughly the same (unless the circumstances are unique). If they get very wide, sliding patio doors in a few panes get quite expensive owing to the fact that large single units of glass are very costly.
The best way to compare the prices of both these types of doors is to visit the official website of Infinity Windows, and check for yourself. They’ll allow you to measure up your home extension and provide written quotes.
Choice and Ease of Use
Both sliding and folding patio doors are light and can be easy to use, thanks to innovative technologies and modern materials. Both of these are available in a variety of materials such as wood, UPVC, and aluminum. Aluminum folding patio doors are an extremely popular choice among homeowners as their frames are stronger than UPVC.
Energy Rating
From the point of thermal capacity, glass is the strong point of any door and aluminum frames are the weak points. As a result, sliding patio doors tend to be more thermally efficient compared to folding or bifold patio doors as they have less frame.
Moreover, leading brands point out on their websites that the profile of a sliding door is thicker than a bifold one, and wins thermally here too. However, architects often mention a “u value,” which measures how effective the materials of these doors are as an insulator. Both sliding and folding patio doors can be tailored to fit the ideal “u value” rating.
Final Words
Both sliding and folding or bifold patio doors have their own advantages, but then that’s very much down to personal preference. Bifold doors fold back completely and therefore offer increased and improved access from the indoors to the outdoors.
What’s more, they also come with a lead door which can be easily opened and closed like a regular single door. However, sliding doors must always be slid to open, and they need to have a frame-like threshold, which increases the chances of tripping over, but they’re more thermally efficient. So, the choice always comes down to the person choosing the ideal door for their home.
