UPVC Patio Doors

UPVC Patio Doors – Features & Designs

If you are thinking of opening up your home to the back garden, then a perfect solution could be to install a set of UPVC Patio doors.

As one of the most popular ways to bring in loads of natural light, make the inside of your room feel bigger and allow for great views and easy access to the garden, UPVC patio doors are the right choice to make, whatever type of family home you live in.

In this article we will be looking at:

• What are the different Patio Door designs & what are the main features of each?
• What are the advantages of using UPVC for an external patio door?
• A general guide to UPVC Patio Doors Prices.

1. Sliding patio doors (inline sliding doors): From 2000mm to 4200mm wide, costing from £700 to £1,500
2. Bifold Patio doors (multi-folding doors): From 2000mm to 4500mm wide, costing from £2600 to £4,500
3. French Patio doors: From 900mm to 2000mm wide costing, from £700 to £950

Those costs are just a rough guide to give you a general idea of the price brackets for each type of patio door design in white uPVC, we go into a lot more detail below.

What are the different Patio Door designs & what are the main features of each?

As highlighted just above, it’s fair to say that the 3 most often installed types of patio doors are sliding, French or Bifold. So, what do they look like, how do they function and how much do they cost?

1 Sliding UPVC Patio Doors

OK, so it’s not going to be a surprise to anyone to be told that the primary function of this design is that they are sliding doors. Mounted within the main door frame on top and bottom guide tracks, these doors bypass each other as they move left or right.

A 2 door configuration will allow both doors to move, or if you prefer, one of the panels can be of the fixed immovable type. With a 3 door install, most choose to have all 3 doors be able to move to the left & to the right.

For a 4 door configuration a lot of owners choose to have just 2 doors opening from the centre only – they slide away from each other towards the side of the frame. This configuration is sometimes referred to as a “Sliding French Door”.

• What’s so good about them?

This design is not complex and is relatively simple to install and you have a clear mostly uninterrupted external view, even more so if you use a slimline frame version.

There are literally hundreds of suppliers, so you can find them with ease. It also helps to have such high levels of competition in order to keep prices lower.

Modern tracking systems allow for super smooth operation and ease of use, so you don’t need to be a body builder to open or close them. These tracks also prevent lifting, so a burglar can’t lever them off the track once they are closed and locked.

Coloured UPVC can be used, so that gives a lot of choice (up to 20 foil colours) in terms of appearance – even to the extent that you could use two colours, one inside, one outside.

Pricing, UPVC sliding patio doors have some of the cheapest patio door designs.

• What’s not so good about them?

Well, the panels are quite large, and although they move quite easily, if the patio door is your only exit to the garden, then it might get a bit tedious to open & close a big door if you go in and out a lot – or have children or pets that are in & out every 5 minutes.

You need to keep the lower tracks very clean. Dirt, grit or stones getting in there can possible derail the door or make it difficult to move. If you let the track fill with dirt, then you could even end up allowing water to cross the threshold when it rains outside.

Because the doors don’t swing or fold completely out of the way, you will lose some of the opening area because the doors are still there, even though they are slid to the side.

Typical Sliding door sizes (Height x Width)

• 2 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm x 1600 to 3000 mm
• 3 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm x 2400 to 4000 mm
• 4 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm x 2900 to 4200 mm

How Much Are UPVC Sliding Patio Door Prices?

Door StyleSize in mm Price Guide White UPVC x 2 panel2200 x 2200£700 to £900Wood effect UPVC x 2 panel2200 x 2200£1,000 to £1,350White UPVC x 3 panel3000 x 2200£1,100 to £1,300White UPVC x 4 panel3500 x 2200£1,200 to £1,500 GET QUOTES HERE

2 UPVC Bifold Patio Doors

Without doubt, Bifold patio doors are something special. The opening function of the doors, which folds them to the sides, leaves a full width 100% clear aperture.

This ultra-wide opening virtually removes the entire wall, allowing an uninterrupted experience of the outside of your home.

Even when closed, modern slim-line steel reinforced frames mean that Bifold doors are not intrusive to your field of vision.

The doors run on super smooth roller bogeys and the leaves fold to the right or left and stack to the outside or the inside of the frame. Outer stacking doors mean that they don’t interfere by taking up any space in the room itself.

A neat feature for installations with several panels is the traffic door. Unlike a sliding patio door design, you can designate a panel to swing, rather than slide. This panel will then operate like a regular door which is extremely useful for entry and exit without having to release the locks on all the other panels.

This can come in handy for kids who are always on the move or for when the weather outside is somewhat inclement.

• What’s so good about them?

Number one is surely the view, to describe it as panoramic does it justice. The ease of opening and closing is surprising – the nylon & stainless steel bogeys take all the hard work out of it.

Bifolds are very secure with each panel able to have individual upper & lower shoot bolts. A recent safety factor introduced are “finger-safe” gaskets. These are rubber strips on the inner edges of the hinge sides of the doors that prevent serious injury from trapped fingers.

This design is great for all size openings, and it is way more practical than a sliding door design for a 2 panel installation, because the doors fold out of the way and don’t obstruct like the fixed frame sliding designs.

As with the other designs you can use coloured or wood-grain uPVC to personalise the appearance. Full length tempered safety glass is standard.

• What’s not so good about them?

There is not much to say on this point, other than the doors are quite complex to install, as there are a lot of things to adjust so that the doors sit “square” and “run true”. You will also find that price brackets for bifold patio doors are higher than both French & Sliding versions.

One potential problem, although unlikely, is that if you have the doors part way open and there are very strong winds around, the doors
could move as result.

Typical Sliding door sizes (Height x Width in Millimeters)’

• 2 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm / 1200 to 1900 mm
• 3 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm /1500 to 2700 mm
• 4 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm / 2400 to 3600 mm
• 5 panel set: 2000 to 2400 mm / 3000 to 4500 mm

How Much Are UPVC Bifold Patio Door Prices?