Modern French doors

Slimline French doors

A door leaf is wider than a window sash, so a door shows more frame than the window figures of the same system. Our slimmest French doors are aluminium: the Reynaers SlimLine 38 door shows 72.5 mm of frame and leaf, the ConceptSystem 77 door 150 mm and the MasterLine 8 door 153 mm. The 89 mm of the ConceptSystem 77 is its window, not its door.

Ultra slim aluminium French doors

Aluminium is stronger than uPVC, so the frame can be slimmer and still carry a heavy leaf with triple glazing. The MB-Ferroline, made to look like steel, shows 112.5 mm of frame and leaf on an inward-opening door without a rebate and 127.5 mm with one; opening outwards the leaf is wider. It insulates less well than the MB-86N.

Contemporary French doors without a centre post

Where the two leaves meet there is either a fixed mullion or none at all. Without one, nothing stays in the opening when both leaves are open. Ask about it before you order: you see the difference every day.

Modern exterior French doors: colour

Anthracite and black are the usual colours on a modern house: RAL 7016 or RAL 9005 in aluminium, a foil in uPVC. Inside can be white. Black handles suit both; anthracite handles come with aluminium only.

Slim French doors in uPVC

uPVC is the cheaper of the two and insulates amply for two hinged leaves (Uf 1.10). In anthracite or black foil, with white inside, it gives a modern door at the lower price.

Glass in modern French doors

A modern pair is mostly glass, so the glass does much of the work. With HR++ double glazing the pane reaches Ug 1.1; with HR+++ triple, Ug 0.6. The triple unit adds 12 to 16 mm of thickness and 30 to 36 kg per m² against 20 to 24 kg for double, and on a tall leaf the hinges carry that every time you open it.

In a door, and in glass low down near the floor, the building regulations where you live can ask for safety glass. Ours is laminated, class P4A, in double (Ug 1.0) or triple (Ug 0.6). Where a side path or a neighbour looks straight in, satin obscure glass lets the light through and keeps the view out.

Handles and hardware on a modern door

On a modern door the hardware stays quiet: a handle in the frame colour, or black on a dark frame. You can pick black, grey, white, cream, silver, titanium or gold, and anthracite if the doors are aluminium. The hardware colour covers handle and hinges and doesn't have to follow the frame.

Most outside door handles are made to length, so you choose the shape first and the length after. Every lockable handle carries SKG 2 stars. That is a Dutch test of the hardware on its own, to NEN 5089, and not a UK security rating for the whole door.

The threshold on modern French doors

The threshold runs under both leaves and is part of the unit. You choose its height, 55 or 35 mm, and its colour, black or grey. Under a black or anthracite door a black threshold keeps the bottom edge in one colour. If you want to step through without a step up, a low threshold is an extra you can add.

Cylinder and keys

The doors come with a cylinder. You can swap the standard one for a security cylinder, class C. Ask, and all cylinders in your order can share one key, which is useful if your front door comes from us as well.

Modern French doors, supply only

We make the pair to the frame size you enter and supply frame, two leaves, threshold, hardware and cylinder together. We supply, we don't install, so fitting is for you or your installer, and so is notifying the work where that applies.

For Part L, a door with more than 60% glass needs 1.4 W/m²K or DSER band C, and other doors 1.4 W/m²K or band D. A modern glazed pair may well fall in the first group; the U-value of your whole door, frame and glass together, is in the quote.

Further reading

• French doors
• Black French doors
• Narrow French doors
• Modern composite front doors
• Slimline bifold doors
• Slimline aluminium windows
• Doors