Bifold vs. Stacking Doors: Which Option is Best for You?

Pros and Cons

• Pricing: Bifold doors are more expensive than stackers as they have more aluminium and more moving parts requiring more hardware than sliders.
• Openings: Bifold doors open almost 100% whereas, unless you recess them into the cavity wall, sliders will always have one panel that remains in the opening that the other panels stack back onto. In saying that the bifold doors will stack back and take up space in your outdoor area.
• Visual look: Stacking sliding doors will have bigger panels which gives you less visual obstructions when closed. Whereas the bifold doors will have smaller individual panels and hence more metal to glass ratio. This will only be a concern when the door panels are closed. Bifold doors have a more traditional swing panel look where stackers have a more modern streamlined look.
• Hardware: Within our range there are more hardware options for stacking sliding doors than there are for the bifold option. Because bifold doors require a lever handle and then some sort of drop bolt system. This means their style of hardware is more limited. Whereas the stacking doors have large D-pull handle options all the way through to very discreet recessed handles.
• Maintenance: Bifold doors generally require more maintenance as they have more moving parts, hinges and panels. Sliding doors are generally easier for long term maintenance as you can more easily replace rollers on a slider than the specialty hardware on a bifold door.
• Screening: Bifold doors will require a retractable flyscreen system whereas, if your stacker is only a three panel, then you can have stacking flyscreens on the outside (depending on the size of the door panels).