Window vs door options

[NotAGolf]

We're having an extension built on the back of our home. We're going to have an open plan area with a family area on one side and kitchen/diner on the other side. As you can see in the plans below, there's a couple of areas where we could fit doors/windows. There's also a sketchup showing a proposed room layout.

Our original plans were to have French doors near the kitchen, a sliding door in the family room, and a large window on the return of the sliding doors. However, we're now wondering whether that's the right option. A few alternatives:

- Bifolds instead of the French doors. When open, bifolds won't get in the way of the patio area so much.
- Bifolds instead of the sliding doors. Would mean we could have a ~2m opening instead of <1m.
- Bifolds that open around the corner (so bifolds along the rear and return replacing the window).
- Ditch doors in the family room area and just have windows.

We were originally put off by bifolds as a) they're more complex so there's more to go wrong, and b) the larger sightlines (due to all the joints) impacts the view when the doors are closed. Having loads of bifolds are clearly the better option on nice days when you want to open up the back of the house, but I'm not sure if we'd regret the decision on the other ~350 days of the year.

Ditching the doors entirely in the family room would make allow for the best views outside and would make the internal space more flexible, but would we regret not being able to open the doors on the nicer days?

What would you do given the layout? Any words of warning from those who have been in similar situations? The back of the house is West facing.

 

[gort]

We have triple bi-folds, leading out on to a decent sized patio, they were there when we moved in to the house 7 years ago.
As nice as they sounded when we were looking at the house, can honestly say we've only ever fully opened them out once.
Usually only crack the first one open a bit for some air flow, with the main access to the garden though the kitchen French doors.

If we did lots of entertaining, people coming and going from the house to the garden, possibly would use them more... but we don't.
Basically just treated as a massive window.

 

[the-evaluator]

We have triple bi-folds, leading out on to a decent sized patio, they were there when we moved in to the house 7 years ago.
As nice as they sounded when we were looking at the house, can honestly say we've only ever fully opened them out once.
Usually only crack the first one open a bit for some air flow, with the main access to the garden though the kitchen French doors.

It's the opposite in this house, we never open just the first door unless we're going in/out and closing it straight away. If the weather is nice enough for a door to be open then we always open the bifolds fully.

We put the bifolds in as part of our kitchen extension about 10 years ago, originally we were going for French doors to keep the costs down a bit but we would have regretted that so I'm glad we got the bifolds. In the 10 years we've had them we've had precisely zero issues with them.

 

[the-evaluator]

- Bifolds instead of the French doors. When open, bifolds won't get in the way of the patio area so much.
- Bifolds instead of the sliding doors. Would mean we could have a ~2m opening instead of <1m.
- Bifolds that open around the corner (so bifolds along the rear and return replacing the window).
- Ditch doors in the family room area and just have windows.

If it were me I'd have bifolds in the kitchen and bifolds in the family room. The thicker sight lines has never bothered us and it's easily negated by being able to open up the house so much.

Our place had French doors in the living room when we moved in, we're finally getting around to getting them replaced with bifolds. I wish we had done it years ago.

 

[tom_nieto]

Love our bifold doors. We’ve got aluminium and they’ve stood up very well, no issues at all. Sliders might have been an alternative, but to have everything completely open is wonderful in the warmer weather. The layout that we have lends itself well to a complete span. In the cold, having floor to ceiling glass is brilliant and I love being able to see all four seasons in the garden.

I wouldn’t necessarily change simple french doors for a bifold if you can’t increase the size of the opening in the kitchen. Nice to have it all slide one way, but might not justify the expense.

Family room to me would depend a lot of what the view out the window is. I’d be tempted to have floor to ceiling glass but not necessarily doors at all. I wouldn’t have a wrap around opening if you’ve got french doors on the kitchen as the doors would be in close proximity and potentially clash together or just use up the opening (sorry, not explaining well).

I think I’d replace your slider with a bifold, keep the fixed floor to ceiling window facing the kitchen door and also keep French doors on the kitchen (unless you get a great price on bifolds there with a sensible way of opening just one door).

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Bifold the family room, leave the rest as us unless you can increase the width on the kitchen doors, in which case go bifold also.

Lots of bifolds now can have a 'normal' single opening door at the end as part of the bifold so you don't have to open them all up to get out. I would recomend getting this on at least the kitchen if you went for bifolds and ideally on both sets.

I wouldn't bother with 'round the corner' bifolds on the family room and it will make consrution a lot more expensive if you don't have a post in that corner.

 

[NotAGolf]

I wouldn't bother with 'round the corner' bifolds on the family room and it will make consrution a lot more expensive if you don't have a post in that corner.

We're already planning to have a steel column in the corner. The column will sit just inside the window line, so the bifolds could open around it, creating a completely open area.
If we stick with the sliding door option, the column in the corner would make access to the door handle of the sliding door a little awkward, as well as effectively making the sliding door narrower (having the sliding door open from the other end wouldn't make sense given the garden layout). If we had bifold that opened from the kitchen end, slid all the way around the corner, and stacked up at the bookshelf end, that would solve both of those potential issues.

Family room to me would depend a lot of what the view out the window is. I’d be tempted to have floor to ceiling glass but not necessarily doors at all. I wouldn’t have a wrap around opening if you’ve got french doors on the kitchen as the doors would be in close proximity and potentially clash together or just use up the opening (sorry, not explaining well).

It's a reasonable view, but nothing spectacular. I'm not sure if we'd sacrifice the flexibility of the doors for a better view, but it's a close call. My wife actually suggested ditching the doors and going with just windows. It would make that area of the room more usable, but I'd worry it would create a bit of a 'dead-end', and also might get a bit toasty as there'd be no windows/door to open to get a bit airflow.