We have a lot of enquiries for bifold doors. This is an ideal way of being able to close or open up 2 adjoining rooms if the structural opening is too wide for a set of doubles. Usually the opening needs to be between 2.5 metres and 3.5 metres.
An alternative to bifolds would be a set of doubles and side screens (bottom picture) but this doesn’t allow to open up the total width of the opening. It can however be fire rated if this is required.
Some tips to installing are as follows
The hinges are very important as the system requires 2 doors to be hinged together. This will be require 3 or 4 good quality steel hinges depending on the height and width of the doors. The doors that are hinged to the frame should have either good quality parliament hinges or projection hinges which are a lot stronger. As these hinges will be supporting the weight of 2 doors, the frames or jambs should be made out of at least 32mm hardwood and definitely not softwood or MDF.
We would also recommend to make the 2 inside doors slightly smaller by about 10mm on the width so when they are folded back the inside doors don’t bind on the hinges.
The other issue is the handles. If you want the doors to fold flat against the outside doors and the to fold flat against the wall, you may want to consider some kind of recessed handle.
Other ironmongery will include flush bolts on 3 of the doors with a latch or lock on the main opening door.
This bifold configuration cannot be fire rated as there is no test evidence this will hold up for 30 minutes in a fire.
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