If you’re looking at buying French doors for your home, we’ve put together some handy tips and advice on the products available, where you can use them and some of their many benefits. And despite the trend for larger patio doors such as contemporary sliding doors or bifolding doors, there are many great reasons to choose a French door for your refurbishment or new extension.

Buying French doors. Your material options.

One of the first decisions you may need to make is what material is best for your new French Doors. We offer products in aluminium or PVCu and there’s even a timber product available.

Aluminium will give you the slimmest sightlines. Furthermore, the design and strength of aluminium also means a more modern look as these doors go larger and taller than other materials. Where most PVCu or timber doors only go up to about 2.1m high, our aluminium products go up to 2.7m.

PVCu doors are significantly better than dated plastic doors today. Slimmer, more energy-efficient and with great options for colour, buying PVCu French doors need not mean a dated looking product. In fact, our Liniar doors come with some of the best colours and designs. They even come as a flush casement door giving a neater modern or more timber-like appearance. Importantly, if you’re on a budget, PVCu doors also provide one of the most affordable options too.

Choosing the style of your doors

When it comes to buying your new French doors, the great news is how flexible they are with the design. You’ll no doubt be familiar with a regular double door set. But also popular today, and in larger openings, are French Doors with sidelights.

French doors integrate with fixed frames creating screens, corner units, bays and other configurations. Your doors also come with the option for opening in or out. So for instance, as patio doors, they can open out as the garden and patio area tends to have more space for the open doors to rest.

Doors can also open inwards. For instance, we often fit French doors as bedroom doors and these open in also having a Juliet balcony or glass balustrade in front. These are a great solution for having the benefits of a large door while also acting as a window for ventilation.

So whether you want a regular set, or have a more complex design in mind. Talk to us and we’ll definitely have a solution for your home.

Threshold options when buying French Doors

The low threshold on patio doors is heavily marketed today and with good reason. Flush thresholds provide a better transition outside. And many customers like the idea of a lower step and even a flush floor level with the exterior decking or slabs.

The threshold arrangement on French doors is different to the tracks of bifolding and sliding doors. So while you won’t get the entirely flush look, you can get a lower threshold. Most doors come with a choice of thresholds. Therefore, we’ll be able to get the look you want depending on the door type and material.

Energy efficiency of new doors

Whether you choose aluminium or PVCu, you’re assured of the very best in energy efficiency, helping to lower your heating bills.

Aluminium benefits from insulated profiles creating an effective thermal break. Therefore, cold-bridging is reduced. PVCu profiles mostly have multiple chambers and cores. These not only provide strength to your doors, they also make the frames energy efficient.

Similarly, glass is the major component in any door. We use only toughened safety glass, having a soft-coat low-emissivity coating, warm edge spacer bars and argon gas fill. This high performance glass works with the insulated frames for superb thermal performance. The entire door set works hard, preventing heat from escaping in winter, as just one example.

Security and weather performance.

You expect high security from new glazing and quality French doors in aluminium or PVCu are no exception. Depending on the model, expect to see at least four locking points. Some of our doors come with five. If you choose an Origin bifold configured as a double door, you’ll get eight locking points.

When buying new French doors, check the security rating of the door cylinder too. You should get a high security rated cylinder. Importantly, standard specifications must include anti-drilling, picking and snapping. A good door will also have internal glazing beads. Beads hold your glass in place. Internal positioning means nobody removes the glass from outside.

For weather performance, a quality product comes with multiple seals and gaskets. As well as this, most good doors come with certification proving their resistance to air, wind and water.

Personalising your new French Doors

Modern materials, and our choice of the finest products, also provide you with some exellent personalisation options.

Of course, colour comes first. PVCu doors today come with some of the best foiled or coloured finishes and even a grained texture. No more boring white with PVCu, there’s a great colour solution for your home.

In aluminium, the durable powder-coated colours come easy to clean and maintain. Our aluminium doors come in rich black, modern grey, classic white and more than 200 other colours. There’s even an aluminium woodgrain with our Origin products or metallic finishes too

For improved privacy and interior comfort, integral blinds or sun-control glass are both worth considering. We can help you choose the most suitable type for your home and requirements.

All our French doors come with great options for handle styles and colours. Colour, metal, stainless steel and architectural or Art-Deco styles are just some.

Buying French Doors. The different ways to use them

There are multiple ways to use a French door in your home. They’re perfect of course, as exterior patio doors but provide excellent solutions inside the home too.

Standard patio doors

The first choice is as a regular patio door. Whatever the style of your home, size of your room and the door aperture, there’s a French door solution for you.

Whether you choose large or small doors, with or without sidelights, a well-designed door creates a perfect patio door and transforms a room.

Steel look french doors

One of our best-selling products is the steel look patio door. Whether you have French doors or doors with sidelights, these elegant doors promise an altogether different look.

Steel-look French doors give you an industrial, heritage or Art-Deco style and come with the features found on classic steel doors. There’s even matching windows

Interior doors and partitions

French doors are also perfect inside the home and even better when designed without a threshold letting your floors run uninterrupted from room to room.

Whether you choose a steel, look, fully glazed or with side panels, there’s no better way to add a slimline interior door in your home. Divide your rooms, your hallway or separate a conservatory.

Balcony doors

Of course you can use French doors as balcony doors or out to a flat roof.

Did you know you we can also enlarge an existing window converting it to a double door? Instant access to the outside, a more desirable room, better ventilation and more light too.