Bifold Doors

We often hear customers on the telephone say ‘well one folding sliding door is the same as any another, isn’t it?’ or ‘I would like a folding sliding door’. All folding sliding doors are not the same. This is a bit like going into a car dealership and saying ‘I would like a car’. There are big differences from manufacturer to manufacturer. Materials used, hardware used, strength, longevity, function and warranty.

Most companies offering folding sliding doors are based in high value property areas. They pay high rates for the property they are based at. We are based in regeneration area, our rates are low and discounted as we provide local employment to over 25 of our factory staff that come from the area.

Nearly all of our competitors buy their doors from else where or buy their hardware and profiles at a loaded price through a middle man or supplier. We manufacture our own hardware at our quality assured UKAS & ISO-9001 certified factory.

We buy our aluminium profiles directly from our extruders in Banbury and Guangdong and our timber from the UK's largest importers. We do not buy through an agent or middle man. We do not have expensive sales reps. We have no need to hard sell.

There are many different folding sliding doors on the market and it can be quite confusing as to which one to buy.

Like for Like refers to: specialist engineered folding sliding doors and not "I'll get some upvc, aluminium or timber, make some rectangles and stick some hardware on them" folding sliding doors. Like for Like refers to: 70mm Thermally broken aluminium, 70mm Thermally broken aluminium and timber clad and 65mm to 70mm Laminated hardwood.

Like for Like refers to: an inline folding sliding door that does not have hinges, rollers or track fixed to the face of the system. You can not see the rollers or track when the door is closed. The hinges are not face fixed, they do not have large plastic covers on them to hide the hinge and fixing screws. The system can be inward or outward stacking and still maintain security. The system can be any possible configuration of your choice.

There is not a like for like offer on Upvc as we are the only manufacturer of the inline folding sliding door, of which we have the designright until 2017.

We offer an inline out of site track system, this track system is strong and secure. It is supplied to you flush as standard, however it can incorporate a sill. All our running gear is concealed and is resistant to attack from potential intruders.

You should be very cautious when choosing your door system as the track is a vital part of the security of your door. If an intruder can get access to the track, they have easy access to your home with the simple lift of a crow bar. These systems can only be inward opening. Many of these door systems do not have a water resistant flush track option.

Many companies (specialists) in the folding sliding door industry have their doors manufactured in Europe and ship them to you, hence the delivery waiting period being from 8 to 24 weeks. We manufacture between 200 to 300 door sets per week and have a maximum of 3 weeks delivery waiting period. Once the doors are manufactured and quality checked, they are boxed and racked ready for delivery or collection.

An important point to note is that you need to consider what happens if things go wrong. As with any other product that you purchase, they can break down or get damaged. The question here is, how long do you have to wait for a replacement?

Our replacement policy is that customers requiring replacements are jumped to the front of the manufacturing queue to reduce your waiting time. We do not have to import your replacement parts from another country.

No, there are many companies that buy their doors from manufactures abroad and then sell them to you. These countries include Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Turkey and even China. Some companies buy their doors from more than one country.

We have factories in Bradford UK, Orlando Florida USA, Kelowna Canada. Each factory supplies its own country.

Many systems are fitted with aluminium rod locking with plastic cones on the top. Their reason for this is that if you were to use steel bolts it would wear the aluminium track.

Our tracking is extruded to specification ‘6063:T6’. ‘T6’ indicates the tempered strength of the aluminium, T6 = Very Strong. Many manufactures use ‘T4’ or ‘T5’. ‘T4’ can be bent to create curved tracks.

Our company chairman was once employed by a European folding sliding door company that use this type of locking. Whilst in their employment he was shown a way to unlock a locked door in seconds with the use of basic tools. As more of these doors enter the market there is a chance that this information will get into the wrong hands.

Other systems that have appeared on the market over the last two years use flush shoot bolt locking that is fitted to the face of the door. As a result you have to manually lock each bolt separately. The system looks very well presented, however the running tracks on an outward opening system leave the door vulnerable to intruder attack and entry. These doors are only sold as inward opening.

Security is one of our main concerns when it come to door design.

All our locking has hardened steel hook locks, dead bolts and top and bottom shoot bolts. All our locks are tested secure and have a ‘Sold Secure’ rating. We are a Sold Secure approved installer.

At present The Folding Sliding Door Company is the only company in the UK to submit its system to a UKAS accredited testing station for PAS 24 security endurance testing and passed with flying colours.

During the tests the doors were hammered, rammed, pounded, pulled, pushed, lifted and crow bared by forces that equalled a 20 stone man trying to force entry.

Most systems on the market are weather tight, with high performance rubber seals and brush seals. However, there are some systems that have little or no seals at all. One crude but easy test is to close a folding door onto a sheet of paper and try to pull the paper out. If it pulls out easily there is not a water tight compression on the seals.

Our system has been tested at a UKAS accredited testing station and passed the PAS23 weather test to extreme weather conditions of over 300 pascals.

We use two rubber EPDM seals on each side of each panel and high performance brush seals on the top and bottom of the panel.

The system also includes a tongue and groove feature to (1) prevent water infiltration, (2) keep the system stable with one panel interlocking with another and (3) to prevent attack by an intruder.

As for our competitions doors, we couldn't really say. However, feedback that we have received from installers that have installed different systems, has been that ours is the easiest system they have ever installed.

Most manufactures only offer a 12 month warranty, some a little longer.

We are so confident in our product that all of our doors come with a 25 Year Warranty.

All of our door systems are also supplied with a 10 year Insurance Backed Guarantee by Home Pro Insurance.

As a manufacturer that creates a lot of waste, we feel that is our moral responsibility to recycle all of our waste.

• Our timber waste is chipped and collected by a large extraction unit.
• The chipped waste timber is then extracted to a briquette machine.
• The briquette machine compresses the waste with 8 tonnes of pressure.
• Small briquettes of timber waste are formed that are nearly as hard as a cricket ball.
• These briquettes are the used to fuel heaters to heat the factory.
• All of our aluminium waste is placed in bins that are collected by a recycling agent.