Bi-fold vs sliding vs French doors: which is right for your home?
French doors (£1,400–£2,400 fitted) suit standard openings and traditional houses; sliding doors (£1,600–£2,800) suit wider openings where glass and light matter most; bi-folds (£2,800–£4,500) suit extensions where you want the whole wall to open.
Start with the opening, not the brochure
The right patio door is mostly decided by two numbers: the width of your opening and your budget. Up to about 1.8 metres, French doors are the natural answer. From 1.5 to 2.4 metres, a two-pane slider works beautifully. From 2.4 metres upwards, all three remain possible and the decision becomes about how you want to use the space. Everything else, style, threshold, wind exposure, refines the choice rather than making it.
French doors: the traditional pair
Two hinged doors meeting in the middle, opening to give you the full width of the doorway. Strengths: the classic look suits Teesside's semis and terraces; the opening is genuinely full-width; they are the cheapest of the three at £1,400 to £2,400 fitted; and modern multi-point locking makes them as secure as anything else. Weaknesses: they need swing room, they can catch the wind on exposed gardens in Redcar, Saltburn and Hartlepool, and the central meeting stile interrupts the view when closed.
Sliding patio doors: maximum glass
One pane glides behind the other, so nothing swings, nothing intrudes, and the glass area per pound beats every other door. Modern sliders are a world away from the rattly aluminium sliders of the 1980s: smooth running gear, slim uPVC or aluminium frames, U-values that match the rest of the range. Strengths: uninterrupted views, no wind-catch, no lost floor or patio space, excellent value at £1,600 to £2,800. The structural weakness is that only half the opening ever opens, which is fine for a doorway and limiting for a garden room.
Bi-fold doors: the whole wall
Panels concertina to one or both sides, opening 90 percent or more of the aperture, which is the trick that sold a generation of extensions. Strengths: the full opening, the inside-outside feeling, and a genuine transformation of how a kitchen-diner works in summer. Weaknesses: the highest price (£2,800 to £4,500 for three panels), more frame visible when closed than a slider, more moving parts to maintain, and the quality gap between good and cheap systems is the widest in the door market. A traffic door for everyday access is close to essential on Teesside's weather.
The details that decide
Threshold
Standard thresholds are the most weatherproof; low thresholds suit prams, bikes and unsteady knees; flush thresholds look best but need drainage detailed properly, especially on patios facing the prevailing wind. This choice belongs in the quote, drawn, not assumed.
Wind exposure
On an exposed garden, hinged doors catch the wind and sliders and bi-folds do not. For seafront and east-facing gardens across Redcar, Saltburn and Hartlepool, that is a genuine factor, not a sales point.
Glass
All three need toughened glass at this height, standard in any proper quote. South and west-facing rooms should price solar-control glass to stop the extension overheating in July.
Traffic door
On a bi-fold, one panel hinged to open like a normal door. For letting the dog out in February, it is the difference between loving your bi-folds and tolerating them.
The honest verdict
Standard opening, traditional house, sensible budget: French doors. Wider opening where the view matters more than the aperture: a slider. New extension where the whole point is opening the wall: bi-folds, in aluminium, with a traffic door, from a named system with a proper guarantee. And if the budget says French doors, spend the difference on the glass and the hardware rather than stretching to a cheap bi-fold, because a good French door beats a bad bi-fold every single time.