Bi-fold doors are the ones that concertina back against the wall and open up almost the whole rear of a room. They look superb when they are running properly and they are miserable when they are not, and the difference between those two states is almost always down to how they were fitted and how they have been kept. We work on them across Wishaw and Lanarkshire, both repairs and new installations.
We are a two person family run business. Bi-folds are the most mechanically involved door in a normal house, so they are the one where it matters most that the person who quotes the job is the person who fits it. For everything else we do on doors, see our doors in Wishaw page.
How a bi-fold actually works
A bi-fold is a run of leaves hinged to each other in pairs, hanging from or standing on a track, with rollers or carriages that let the whole set slide along and fold flat. One leaf, usually at one end, is set up as a traffic door so you can walk through without opening the lot. When the doors are closed a multipoint mechanism locks the traffic door into the frame and shootbolts secure the rest.
They come in uPVC, aluminium and timber. Aluminium is the most common on the wider openings because the frames can be slimmer for the same strength, which is the whole point when you are paying for glass. uPVC bi-folds are cheaper and perfectly serviceable on shorter runs, though the sightlines are chunkier. If it is a single leaf you are after rather than a run, our uPVC front and back doors and composite doors pages cover those.
The thing to understand is that a bi-fold has more moving parts than any other door in the house, and every one of those parts depends on the track being dead level and dead straight. Everything that goes wrong with bi-folds traces back to that, one way or another.
Bi-fold or patio or French
People often ask us to price all three, so it is worth being clear about what each one is for.
Bi-folds are the answer when you want the opening genuinely open. Fold them back and you have close to the full width clear, which nothing else gives you. The cost is that when they are shut you are looking through more frame than you would with a sliding door, because every leaf has its own stiles.
Sliding patio doors give you the cleanest view when closed and they need no space at all to operate, because nothing swings or folds outward. What they cannot do is give you the whole opening, since one panel always sits behind another. If the view matters more than the opening, sliders win.
French doors are the simplest and cheapest of the three, two leaves that swing, and they suit an opening that is wide but not enormous. They also need clear space to swing into. Repairs for both patio and French doors are covered on our patio, French and sliding door repairs page, with a specific piece on French doors that will not close.
There is one more consideration people forget. Bi-folds need somewhere to go when they are folded. If there is a radiator, a run of units or a corner right at the end of the opening, the stack has to fold the other way or the doors will foul it. Working that out before anything is ordered is part of the job.
Bi-fold door repairs
The complaint we hear most is that the doors have got heavy, or that they catch part way along the run, or that the last leaf will not pull up tight enough to lock. All three are usually the same underlying issue: the leaves have gone out of alignment relative to the track and each other.
Bi-fold hinges and carriages have adjustment built in, generally in more than one axis. Setting them properly is fiddly and it has to be done in the right order, because moving one leaf changes the relationship of every leaf after it. Done correctly the doors glide with one finger. Done in a hurry you end up chasing the fault from one end of the run to the other.
Rollers and carriages do wear, particularly on a set that has been running slightly out of line for years, because the load is going through the wrong part of the wheel. They are replaceable. So are the hinges, the shootbolts, the handles and the multipoint on the traffic door. The frames and the glass almost never need to come out.
The other regular one is the bottom track filling with grit, hair and general garden debris until the rollers are riding over the top of it. On a bottom rolling set that will stop a door dead. Keeping the track clear is the single most useful thing an owner can do, and it takes two minutes with a vacuum.
Locks on bi-folds behave like any other multipoint door, so the same faults apply. A key that will not turn, a handle that spins loose, a snapped handle and a key broken off in the barrel are all covered in our advice section, and the cylinder security point in uPVC door lock security applies here too.
Draughts on a bi-fold are a compression and brush seal issue, the same as any other door, and are dealt with the same way. There is more in draughty doors.
Glass and misting
Bi-fold panes are large, they sit low, and every one of them has to be safety glass because the bottom edge is well below the 800mm threshold in the regulations. That means toughened or laminated, and on a big opening the choice between the two is worth a conversation rather than a shrug. Our page on toughened or laminated glass sets out where each one belongs.
When a bi-fold pane mists up it is the sealed unit that has failed, not the door. The unit comes out and a new one goes in, and the leaf, the hinges and the track are untouched. Bi-fold units are heavy and awkward, so it is a two person job, which suits us. See misted double glazing and our glass unit replacement page.
Keeping them running
Bi-folds are the one door in the house that genuinely rewards a bit of routine attention, and they are also the one people are most surprised to hear that about. Vacuum the bottom track a few times a year. Wipe the seals rather than letting grit sit against them. Put a light lubricant on the carriages and the hinge pins, not a heavy grease that will collect dust. And if the doors start to feel heavier than they used to, get them looked at before the carriages wear.
A full door service covers all of that plus resetting the alignment properly, and on a bi-fold it is worth having done every couple of years. It is a good deal cheaper than a set of carriages.
What it costs
There is no call out fee. You pay for the work done.
New bi-folds and bi-fold repairs are both quoted on the job, and with bi-folds that is more true than usual. The width of the opening, the number of leaves, the material, whether the existing structure will take the load, which way the stack folds and what has actually worn all change the figure completely. Any range we published would be meaningless. Sealed unit replacements start from £75 for a hopper sized pane, and that is the one starting price we quote, though bi-fold units are considerably larger than a hopper.
We will come out, look at what you have got, tell you what it needs and what that costs, and you decide with nothing owed either way. Our repair prices page explains how we quote, and door repair costs covers what drives the number on repair work.
Where we work
Wishaw and out across Lanarkshire: Motherwell, Hamilton, Bellshill, Coatbridge, Airdrie, Newmains, Shotts, Larkhall, Blantyre, Uddingston, Carluke, Lanark, East Kilbride, Cambuslang, Rutherglen and towards Glasgow. Every area has its own page on areas we cover.
Getting a price
Ring 01698 604 278 between eight and five, Monday to Friday, and you will get one of us. A photo of the full run of doors plus a close up of whatever is sticking tells us most of what we need, and WhatsApp is the easiest way to send it. The contact form works just as well if you would rather write it down.
Have a look at the before and after gallery for the standard of work, and the reviews page for what people said about it afterwards.