Internal French Doors, Sliding Doors Or Bifold Doors?

What Is The Difference Between Internal French Doors, Sliding Doors and Internal Bifold Doors?

If you’re looking to open out your interior, then a large set of glazed doors might do the job excellently. In certain settings, they can effectively replace an entire wall of your home, effectively transforming two separate spaces into a single one. In the process, they’ll vastly boost the sense of subjective space in each room, and allow for the dispersal of more natural light through the home.

In the main, there are three different sorts of internal doors able to play this role. They are the French door, the sliding door and the bifold door. Let’s examine each of them, and assess their relative merits.

French Doors

oak-french-doors

A set of internal French doors comprises a pair of ordinary-size double-doors, each with a lot of glazing. Of the three under discussion here, this design is the simplest. French doors open outwards into the next room, they have a classic style and are probably the most common style of interior door.

You’ll often find French doors used to bridge large adjoining rooms in a property. They’re attractive for several reasons. Firstly, they’re simple and elegant – which, as well as being a good thing in and of itself, also helps to cut down the cost of construction. Contrast this with the elaborate folding designs we’ll come to shortly, and their intricate moving parts, and the difference is clear. This simplicity also helps reduce the risk of malfunction – a French door cannot be forced from its track, for example.

Secondly, French doors tend to be smaller than the alternatives. This compactness means that you’ll be able to fit them into more places around the house. Bifold doors and sliding doors tend to have numerous panels as a minium whereas French doors typically only encompass two door panels. While still producing a wider than normal doorway, they are still small enough to suit most properties. This is perhaps one of the advantages of using internal french doors, they are more convenient for less spacious homes.

With the help of frosted glass, internal French doors have a great tact for maintaining privacy within a home. The stylish doors can be used to add more light into your rooms and decorate the interior of your home, while the frosted glass design help to keep the contents of your rooms private. These may be especially useful for more intimate rooms within your home, for example the bathroom or bedroom, or they can be used to veil the untidy secrets of storage rooms. You could also use multiple French doors in close proximity with one another in a hallway to create an expansive ‘wall-of-glass’ effect.

Interior French doors tend to offer a wider doorway while still resembling the classic door style. They are best used for doors where you want a little more width but without having to necessarily knock down walls. They can’t be made quite as large as sliding or folding doors, but if you wanted to make them more expansive they can be augmented with extra windows on either side, known as ‘sidelights’, and on top, where they’re known as ‘transoms’.

Sliding doors

A set of sliding doors consists of several panels, each tethered to tracks so that they’re able to slide behind one another. Since they don’t open outward, they allow furniture to be placed closer by. This also means that sliding doors can be made far larger – with some panels up to several metres wide.

Sliding doors can be arranged in a number of ways. You might have several large panels which slide behind one another, or you might prefer a larger number of smaller ones which can do the same job. The more panels you have, the more tracks you’ll need for them to slide behind one another, and the chunkier your frame will need to be to accommodate it.

It’s also worth noting that it’s impossible to entirely open out a set of sliding doors: at the fully open position, they’ll still be entirely stacked behind one another, and so be no smaller than a single panel. If you find that you’re frequently moving from one side of the door to another – and running into foot traffic coming in the other direction – then this might prove troublesome.

Interior sliding doors are best employed in large openings which adjoin long and narrow rooms. In this setting, you’ll have enough space that not being fully collapsible won’t be a problem, and you won’t have to worry about space on either side of the glass, as the panels of a sliding door don’t swing outward. If you’ve got a kitchen, dining room or conservatory sitting right next to one another, then a sliding door might prove especially useful. You can choose between sliding doors with glass panels or you can completely separate rooms with opaque wooden doors.

Bifold doors

glazed-internal-bifold-door

The most elaborate form of door in the modern home is undoubtedly the bifold door. You might find smaller versions of this design in places where space is at a premium – in front of miniature storage cupboards and wardrobes, for example. Each door consists of several folding panels, which attach to one another via hinges in a concertina arrangement. This means that they can cover distance with smaller panels, and so open without encroaching too far into the surrounding space.

This virtue becomes especially obvious when you consider larger bifolding door designs, which can be seven metres wide or more. Thanks to their folding design, they can collapse without swinging outward across the entire room. They’re restricted to a single plain of motion; each panel is tethered to a guide rail via moving carriages, which prevent the door from swinging outward, and ensure its weight is evenly distributed across the length of the door.

One key advantage a folding design has over a sliding one is that the door is able to collapse more fully, with the panels neatly stacking to one side when the thing is entirely open. However, the downside of this is that the door expands slightly as it closes, which means that you’ll need to clear a space on either side of it. If you’re looking to hang curtains or blinds, then this might prove especially problematic.

Folding doors are very flexible when it comes to their layout. They vary in size – not only in terms of the entire door, but of the panels which comprise it. You might find a large door built from just three or four panels, or from six or seven narrower ones. Internal bifold doors are great for larger spaces. They can completely separate off open space living quarters acting as room dividers. This quality is something they have in common with sliding doors but are not evident in French door styles.

In most cases, each of the panels is attached to a single long chain that is attached to one side of the frame, so that the entire door can collapse in one direction. This is the bifold door style. In some cases, however, you’ll find two sets of equally-sized panels which extend from either side to meet in the middle. This design is known as ‘French-fold’, as it mimics the double-door design of a set of French doors. In other cases, you might find a symmetrical design comprising a single door on one side and a long chain on the other. This allows you to move from one side of the door to the other easily, without having to go to the trouble of opening out the entire door. Internal French folding doors are similar to bifold and sliding doors in their spacious nature but you still benefit from the traditional opening style of the classic french doors.

Read our guide on Bifold doors vs French doors to find more information on the difference between these types of doors so you can find the correct door for your home.

View our full range of internal doors to find the door that best suits your style and if you have any questions, get in touch with our friendly customer service team who will be happy to help.

In Summary

Each variety of door we’ve mentioned comes with their own advantages and disadvantages, and your choice will hinge on the layout of your home (and, naturally, your own personal tastes). Materials, glazing and installation can each have a bearing on how your door ultimately looks and functions – so be sure to assess your options carefully before committing to a purchase!

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Which is cheaper internal sliding doors or internal French doors?

As a broad generalisation, French doors tend to cost less than sliding doors. This is because sliding doors tend to be bigger, have more glass in them and use more materials to build their opening mechanism.

Sliding doors also cost more to install as the track mechanism takes longer to fit than a hinged set of French double doors do.

This isn’t always true of course, a high-quality set of solid wood French doors from one supplier may cost more than a flimsy set of white-primed wooden sliding doors from another. However, if comparing like for like in terms of quality, generally internal French doors tend to be cheaper.

Can I replace French doors with bifolds?

If you want to change up the look of your internal doors, technically there is no reason why you can’t replace a set of internal French doors with bifolds.

If the French doors are big enough, you won’t even need to worry about widening the door opening unless you choose to. However, it won’t be a straight swap.

Any time you install bifold doors you will need to fit a track for these doors to function. This does not have to be a long or difficult process but it does make it slightly more difficult than replacing one set of French doors with another set in the same style.

Are bifold doors more expensive than sliding doors and French doors?

When it comes to internal door styles, bifolds are usually the most expensive option. As with French doors and sliding doors there are exceptions of course, but in general you will have to stretch your budget further if you’re after bifolds.

This is because of the way they work. It also means they tend to be stronger and more durable than sliding doors, while creating a more flowing and functional space than French doors do.

The strength of bifold doors also tends to mean that they have thinner profiles. This means that they have larger glass panels in them, and are able to share a lot more sunlight between separate spaces when they’re closed.

While bifold doors do tend to be the most expensive internal door style, the improvements and functionality they bring do make them a worthwhile investment.

What’s the difference between internal sliding doors and internal bifold doors?

The main difference between sliding doors and bifold doors is the way that they open.

Some people confuse the two door types as they both "slide" along tracks. However, the way they move along these tracks is completely different and has quite a strong impact on where you might choose to use them.

Whilst great for increasing light flow, the fixed panel of a sliding door can make it quite an awkward choice for an internal door, as one large panel slides behind the other, a relatively large opening is needed to accommodate them. Even when the door is open, the panels will still remain in the opening, separating the two spaces and clearly defining itself as door between rooms.

On the other hand, the concertina opening of bifold doors means they fold away to completely remove the barrier between rooms, this is why they're often referred to as room dividers. They create a real open plan feel for your home, and can maximise the amount of light that flows through it.