6-panel bifold doors, made to measure

This bifold door combines the pair of doors of the 4-panel bifold door with the four folding panels of the 5-panel bifold door, for the widest set of the five. The pair of doors gives a roomier everyday way through than a single traffic door, and on a warm day the four panels clear the full width.

The standard size is 5,400 × 2,300 mm, up to 6.00 m wide. If that is wider than your wall allows or than you need, the 5-panel, 4-panel and 3-panel bifold doors are the narrower steps back, each with fewer folding panels.

At six metres wide, this is the set that comes closest to a fully open wall of anything we supply in hinged or folding form — to go wider you would need several frames side by side. The pair of doors means that for everyday use you never have to move the full six metres; that is kept for the moment the garden and the room really need to become one space.

With four folding panels, the stack that ends up against the reveal is the largest of all five bifold doors in our layouts. On a wall this wide it is worth checking with a builder beforehand whether the lintel can take the weight of the whole set, and whether there is enough depth for the folded panels on the side where the set gathers.

For this bifold door, measure the width and height of the opening in several places, the reveal the stack of four folding panels will stand against, and the floor build-up under the track and the pair of doors. On a set this size, have your builder or installer check the whole junction — floor, lintel and reveal — beforehand.

Colour and finish are usually the same across the whole set, pair of doors included, for a continuous look over the full 6 metres. Maintenance on this largest bifold door is the most extensive of the five: two door panels in daily use, and four folding hinges plus the bottom track, which must be kept clear of dirt so the heavy stack moves smoothly.

In a renovation, this is the biggest job of the five bifold doors, usually only possible if the existing structure already allows a wide opening or is altered as part of the work. In a new build, this width is often fixed early in the design, together with the structural engineer, precisely because a 6-metre opening affects the structure of the whole wall.

For security, this largest bifold door has the most locking points of the five: two door locks and the locking points at each panel joint of the four folding panels. Ask about the standard specification of these locks if the set is going on the ground floor.

The two door panels carry their weight on their own hinges, separate from the folding hinges of the four folding panels. The configurator checks for each panel whether the hardware suits the profile and the size, especially on this largest and heaviest of the five bifold doors.

Still not sure? Use the comparison with the other layouts in this group, above, to see which arrangement suits your situation best.