Bi Folding doors and the wind

PaDE · 28 Jan 2022 at 17:16

Wonder what you guys use to stop your bi folds from blowing.

Only solution I can think of are heavy door stops.

We've got a bit of a wind trap by ours and worried they'll slam shut if it gets too windy, hurt the kids and or break the glass :-(

Is there some mechanism on the market that would help?

Thanks

bazzabear · 28 Jan 2022 at 17:58

I have found these surprisingly good for french doors. They're designed to have various ways of working, depending on the situation with your doors.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CGTPH4Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

No idea whether you could find a way to work them with bifolds though. Between the frame and the inner edge of the hinge side of the door might work?

1pudding1 · 28 Jan 2022 at 18:19

Bifolds? Don't yours fold up against each other, then have some catch/magnetic latch to hold them together? Plus, if its blowing that strong, would you have them open?

Ours are triple glazed, and if the wind catches it in the middle of opening the access door, its bloody heavy and gets some momentum up and can be tricky to hold onto, but then, if its that windy we dont open them.

Semple · 28 Jan 2022 at 18:28

bazzabear said:
I have found these surprisingly good for french doors. They're designed to have various ways of working, depending on the situation with your doors.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07CGTPH4Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

No idea whether you could find a way to work them with bifolds though. Between the frame and the inner edge of the hinge side of the door might work?

Looking at the picture of them with french doors i would have thought were rubbish. Do they not just topple sideways?

We normally just latch ours to something heavy.

bazzabear · 28 Jan 2022 at 21:18

Semple said:
Looking at the picture of them with french doors i would have thought were rubbish. Do they not just topple sideways?

We normally just latch ours to something heavy.

They need to be wedged, you certainly can't expect them to hold something with their weight.

if you look at the last picture, there are examples there of how they work best. But, as I said, between the frame and the door at the hinge end (like the main picture, or the bottom right) works very well.

PaDE · 29 Jan 2022 at 20:12

1pudding1 said:
Bifolds? Don't yours fold up against each other, then have some catch/magnetic latch to hold them together? Plus, if its blowing that strong, would you have them open?

Magnets top and bottom, but they aren't that great.

Been searching but can't find anything. So will prob go the heavy door stop route.

Thanks all

a1ex2001 · 30 Jan 2022 at 22:55

PaDE said:
Magnets top and bottom, but they aren't that great.

Been searching but can't find anything. So will prob go the heavy door stop route.

Thanks all

Why would you want them open in a howling gale? We’ve had ours years and never even thought about wind issues!

sovietspybob · 31 Jan 2022 at 10:30

I use a big chunk of slate i dug out of the garden

Buffman · 31 Jan 2022 at 12:19

I've never really had any issues but in honesty I wouldn't open them in a strong blowing wind plus they are enclosed at the sides by other structures /fence so not much of a wind trap.

My bifolds are also large timber ones (approx 2.5m height and 4 leafs for a 4ish metre opening ) so quite heavy!

If I had a long opening in an exposed area I'd probably say sliding doors are a better idea.