Published on Apr 29, 2014 Most people get confused while choosing the perfect bi-fold doors for their project and the confusion mostly arises between top hung and bottom rolling bi-fold doors. If you are too perplexed to find the most suitable bi-fold type for your project then, this article will help you choose the better. Be the first to like thisTop Hung Bi-Fold or Bottom Rolling Bi-Fold Most people get confused while choosing the perfect bi-fold doors for their project and the confusion mostly arises between top hung and bottom rolling bi-fold doors. If you are too perplexed to find the most suitable bi-fold type for your project then, this article will help you choose the better. To give you a more clear understanding, let us have a look on both the types of bi-fold doors in detail. Top Hung Bi-Fold Door In top hung doors, the entire weight is concentrated in the heads, which needs the correct type of support (Lintel or Catnic). The support from which the bi-fold doors hung should be strong enough to
support the weight of the construction above the Lintel and the additional weight of the doors. of the double- glazed front doors, the weight of the doors is typically 40-50kg per leaf. even more in triple glazed doors. Therefore, you need to ensure that the builder has specified the correct support for your top hung bi-fold doors London. to make sure that your aperture head support is strong enough and up to the mark, which actually is not an easy task. contact a reputed builder and installer to ensure safety and However, the good thing is that captive rollers are used to suspend these top hung doors and there are no chances of them Bottom Rolling Bi-Fold Doors The bottom rolling systems offer you more design space as there is no need of strong and often restricted upper beam to support the entire weight. These doors are based on simple yet sophisticated technology where the bottom of the door carries majority of the weight.
However, these doors need to have proper design features. Otherwise, the doors can become unstable on opening which might not be safe. But with supporting Lintels or Catnics at the head of the opening, these doors give you the most beautiful and stress free experience. Majority of the weight is transferred to the bottom-rolling track with very little weight on the supporting beam. This makes the bi-fold doors more flexible and reliable. Moreover, there is much less chance of the door panels dropping. fold doors are a cost effective means of enjoying the benefits of folding doors. Bi-fold doors are becoming a popular choice of every homeowner because of the contemporary featuresHowever, as far as the confusion is concerned, the above information about both top hung and bottom rolling bi-fold doors will help you to make a more informed and better Installing bi-fold doors help you save space and can be used as room dividers. They are equally good no
matter whether they are open, half-open or closed. The best thing about these doors is that, once installed, these doors rarely need to be adjusted. You can get these doors installed by some reputed companies who also provide replacement double-glazed door services.Why Choose Bifold Doors for your project? The most popular quality these bifold doors have is that they open up your house allowing fantastic views of your garden and letting in large expanses of light. On average bifold doors can provide your opening with around 90% glass, imagine an opening 3 metres wide, you could have up to 2.7 meters of that as glass. There are no other common types of domestic door that can offer this quality. These types of doors are more commonly used for openings which are over 2.5 meters as over this size options like French doors or Sliding patio Doors become an unlikely option for your opening. (If you are looking for Sliding Doors or French Doors and you think bifold doors may not be the option for you then our sister company G&N Windows can help you with both of these).
What’s the best material? Bifold doors have undertaken quite the facelift over the past few years; they have gone from non-thermally broken doors used throughout Europe for shop fronts to being the UK’s must have home improvement. The thermally broken Aluminium bifold doors we supply from Schuco and Origin have been extremely popular with our customers with around 97% of the bifold doors we have sold over the past 5 years being Aluminium. Below are a few points to take into consideration… (Don’t let us sway you too much!) UPVC has a history of expanding at a much greater rate than that of Aluminium, This is more likely to happen during the hotter months, and ironically this is likely to be when you would use your doors the most! Timber is also a product which has a tendency to change shape over time as it is a natural product which is prone to being affected by the weather and needing upkeep over time. There is a larger panel size available with Aluminium doors than UPVC with it being possible to manufacture an Aluminium pane up to 1.2m wide (Sometimes wider) and UPVC only being 0.9m wide, this would mean your UPVC door would have more panes and in turn more frame to obstruct your view, our Timber products are also limited to a 850mm sash width
Something else to take into consideration is the strength of UPVC against Aluminium. As UPVC is the weaker product and only lined internally with Aluminium it does have the tendency to sag and warp over time with the weight of the doors. Whereas Aluminium doors are designed to take the weight of the doors while keeping their shape. Additionally you can have your Aluminium bifold doors in 100’s of colours, finishes and wood grain effects! Why the big difference in cost? Unlike products such as French Doors or Sliding doors each of our bifold doors are bespoke made to suit the needs of your opening and as well as meeting the needs of your design. The benefits the doors bring to your home far out way the cost. This unrivalled product is a great addition to your home. Doors with only 2 openers or which slide alongside each other on a track are able to operate adequately with standard low costing hardware such as hinges and rollers. Our bifold doors operate on a precision engineered system allowing smooth operation for the duration of its life, extremely efficient weather sealing while keeping the door low maintenance.
We guarantee the smooth running of your doors along with a 10 year guarantee on parts and labour*. *Glass guaranteed for 5 years. There are a lot of factors which will affect the U-Value of your bifold door such as: Size, Number of panes, opening configuration and whether to opens inwards or outwards. If desired it is also possible to increase the U-Value of your door with different glass specifications. But we can assure that all of our bifold doors exceed current building regulations and all come with severe weather rating certification. Top Hung or Bottom Hung Bifold doors? All of the Doors that we supply at Herts Bifold Doors are bottom hung. We have seen competitors come across countless problems where customers have not had the correct structural calculations made to support the doors, in some cases we have even seen builders have to redo brickwork to be able to incorporate a lintel or steel as support. This meant that when we found what we feel are the best manufacturers we saw it as a massive bonus that they are all bottom hung.
Top hung doors can also suffer from the top track enlarging over time, allowing the door to move out of line and affect the opening and closing operation. With our bottom hung doors we have had no issues with supporting lintels or calculations relating to the support of the doors as there is very little downward weight on the supporting beam, majority of the weight has been transferred to the bottom rolling track and throughout the brickwork below. This means that bottom hung bifold doors rarely need to be adjusted as there is much less of a chance of the doors dropping. What are the possible threshold options? The main desire for our customers is that they are able to create a seamless transition from inside to outside without having to step over a chunky frame. Your possible threshold options largely depend on your plans for the flooring outside of your bifold door. Although we offer a flush threshold we do not however recommend this, largely as it does not meet current building regulations and with the current weather we are having quite honestly it is likely to leak like a siv!