Alfresco living is much in demand for entertaining. The trend towards building homes with an abundance of natural light and a seamless connection between interior and exterior spaces is growing. Open up your house with sliding doors, French doors or bi-fold doors.
What are the advantages of each and which one should you choose? Let’s look at bi-fold doors today:
Imagine an opening of up to 10 metres wide or up to 2.8 metres high, and removing the barrier between indoors and outdoors to create one large entertainment area where friends can mingle with a glass of wine and nibbles, have a chat and enjoy themselves. Your home could be turned into the perfect summer destination. Or if it is access to the BBQ area, trampoline or veggie patch - what better way than to have bi-fold doors that fold away to reveal a wide opening leading into the great outdoors.
The principle of a folding door is not new at all. On the outskirts of Pompeii a triple folding door was found in the ‘Villa of the Mysteries’, which was built in the 1st century AD during the Roman era. While the building was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the villa with many frescoes and the bi-fold door were very well preserved. Already the Romans knew about the perfect solution for indoor-outdoor living.
While for a sliding door, even a stacker slider, there is always a fixed part which the other slider/s slide alongside; a bi-fold door opens the whole area for more light and more room. But what about during the colder times of the year or bad weather? Double or triple glazed Paarhammer bi-fold doors achieve outstanding energy efficiencies through their unique airtight framing design that incorporates rubber seals and eliminates draft.
Like most of our products, bi-fold doors usually open to the inside. A big advantage with this is that the first or everyday door can tilt for ventilation just like on a tilt & turn window. The doors are parked inside your home, either on one or both sides, depending on the configuration. There is a variety of possibilities available. With outside opening bi-fold doors, the leaves are parked on the outside of the building, being more exposed to weathering and the practical tilt option for fresh air is not possible.
Multi-point metal-to-metal locking on each door leaf provides security and all doors are operated by turning a handle on every second door. There are no shoot-bolts, so no gymnastics, i.e. bending down or reaching up high, are necessary to open or close the bi-fold doors. As these locks are spaced at no more than 800mm, and there are seals around every door, drafts are totally eliminated, noise dramatically reduced and energy saved.
The Paarhammer bi-fold door featured here has a recessed threshold, which allows step-free access and a clean look. To keep out bugs, retractable flyscreens are available to order from a number of supply companies.
Get inspired with bi-fold doors for the Australian summer lifestyle of indoor/ outdoor living.
Watch the video Indoor-Outdoor Living with Paarhammer Bi-fold Doors.
