Bifolds dilemma/ escalating costs! Post Reply

[poppet27]

Hello fellow SW Londoners

Please tell me others felt the pain and stress of escalating costs in their building work. It's keeping me awake at night because we simply have a finite budget. Our builder keeps finding problems (which I believe him on) which are starting to make me regret buying this bloody do-er upper Shows you cannot trust KFH estate agents. Anyway.

The latest thing is our plans for kitchen bifold doors. What do you think the minimum width is before they start to look daft?

We can have a space of 2100mm which will be 3 skinny panes (but too much aluminium?). Or we can pay our builder £1500 extra to excavate the floor and add concrete to support wider steel. These steels would then allow for an opening of 2600mm. We can save the money but have a chunky nib either side.

What do we do? Do it properly and just not go on holiday for 2 years, or save the dosh where we can?

Below is our neighbour's full width (pricey) doors. The cheaper option would lose the equivalent of half a pane width, both sides.

[Purple_sage]

Instead of bifolding doors, how about installing Crittal style doors instead? That way you can fit in 2 fairly wide panes instead of 3 slim panes?
Some examples in this Houzz link
https://www.houzz.co.uk/ideabooks/31171 ... -the-frame

[papinian]

Three narrow bifold doors in the smaller space will not work.

If you cannot stretch to the cost of matching what your neighbour has done then look at an alternative.

Personally, I think bifolds are somewhat overrated and will be out of fashion in another decade (i.e. the 2010s version of artex ceilings). Often in French houses I see two pairs of French windows separated by a narrow piece of wall. I quite like how that looks.

[Goldhawk]

What about having two large panes and then one central door instead?

I agree that Bifolds are going out of fashion but I'm not a fan of Crittal unless you have a really big space

[firsttimerSW11]

Don't do it, three skinny panels will look a bit strange. Would you consider two sliding doors? We have had both in 2 different houses and much prefer sliding.
Incidentally, crittal is hugely expensive so if you don't have a finite budget I'd say it's around 1.5 times the cost of aluminium.

[Hyde Ranger]

If you're wanting to rein in costs (and I feel your pain), you might want to forget bi-folds. Your neighbour's kitchen looks similar to ours - do you live in the Hyde Farm area? When we were extending our kitchen years ago bifold doors were very new and too expensive for us. We have a similar-width opening to yours - about 2500 mm - and we have a fixed glass panel either side of a set of french doors: our builder got them from Magnet trade counter. They are lovely, and people always comment on how light the kitchen is. Because you are buying the panels and the doors as separate units, the builders can build the frame to suit the size available. It also looks very suitable on a modernised, but still Victorian, terrace.

[Franklens]

We had the same dilemma a few years back. We decided to go for large, plain French doors with special hinges so they open right back onto themselves. This means that when it is summer and you have them pinned back the back of the house is open wide. We love it and it was a lot cheaper than bifolds. Can send you a pic if you want as it is a bit tricky to explain. We went with the company cedar doors. Decided on wood as cheaper but they can do aluminium too if thats the looks you want.

[CedarBifold]

HI

We are Cedar Bifold Doors and based off Garratt Lane in Earlsfield. We would be more than happy to help go over what you can have etc.

Please do give us a call on 0208 944 5523 or email us at sales@cedarbifoldcompany.com

Dan

[haggis68]

You probably have already shopped around but we used 1st sliding folding doors a few years ago and were significantly cheaper than anyone else and really good result!

[LP73]

Looking at the space that you have it will be too squashed, your neighbours looked squashed.
I would suggest looking at alternatives.
Bifold doors are not going out of fashion and why many top architects plan them in.
Crittal are nice but you need a huge space for them to work.