Today, many of us consider our gardens as extensions of our homes. We equip them with outdoor seating areas and kitchens, and during the summer months spend more time outside than we do indoors. But when winter comes around, we’d still like to be able to maintain that all-important barrier between the interior and exterior of our homes, and thereby ensure that we maintain the maximum possible energy efficiency.
The external folding sliding doors you’ll find in this section of the site allow for exactly that. They’re sizeable enough to create a fantastic impression of space, breaking down the barriers between your home and your garden and are a fantastic alternative to traditional patio doors. When you’d like to open up your home, you’ll be able to do so – thanks either to the folding sliding mechanism.
Folding doors of the sort you see here work by attaching panels together via hinges, in a concertina. When you’d like to open the door, you can simply fold the entire arrangement to one side and step through. Folding doors are much like sliding doors, in that the door is tethered to a track via a series of rolling carriages, helping it to slide smoothly across a single plain of motion. Consequently, you’ll be able to easily manoeuvre the door out of the way – and you’ll be open up the entirety of the doorway, rather than just half of it, as you might with a traditional sliding door.
Our folding, sliding doors come in several different configurations. Your choice will depend on whether you’d like a few larger panels, or many smaller ones. Moreover, you’ll need to decide where you’d like your doors to open from – some might prefer their doors to all be attached to one side, while others might prefer them to open from the center.
The doors you see here come in a variety of different materials and finishes, including hardwoods, softwoods, and aluminium. Each comes with a finish that’s been chosen carefully to bring out the best qualities of the underlying wood – or, if you’d prefer, you might opt for a more classic white look.
Of course, doors as large as the ones you see offer the potential for thermal inefficiency. After all, a four-meter stretch of glass won’t repel the heat as effectively as a brick wall. That’s where double-glazing technology comes in – by trapping a layer of inert gas, like argon, between sheets of glass, we can achieve excellent efficiency while maintaining that invaluable sense of openness that we all crave. Many of the doors you see here offer u-values as low as 1.3w/m2k, ensuring that your home is kept as warm as it possibly can be – and that you don’t break the bank paying for heating bills.
Investing in a door of this size is a big decision for many households. If you’re at all uncertain about the products you see here, then be sure to get in touch with us – we’ll be happy to clear up any confusion, and offer our advice about which folding sliding patio door would make the best match for your house.
