To make the best decision about anything, you need to identify your goal before you begin. Most of the time this means that you have a single vision or concept about what your life will be like when this goal is attained and some idea about what it will look like. This process identifies like a sniper, laser focused on our original vision and how to ascertain it.
Sniper vision is perfect for the driven, but it can also lead to missing some great opportunities by not also applying peripheral vision. That is, keeping your eye on the target while being mindful of that which is outside the area of focus. Keeping an eye on what is popping up along the way to the goal will allow you to learn about new, better or at least ideas you may not have thought of around the target area that might be better. If they are not better, you might be able to gain added benefits that you had not considered when initially taking aim.
Such is the case with the hunt for the perfect solution for the large opening in your home that looks out onto the deck or patio. A fixed window wall lets you become engaged with your exterior surroundings. If you add a single door to that window wall, you can now move in and out between the protection of your home and outdoors. A sliding door lets you open a larger, portioned part of the window wall for passage between the two, but folding or bi-folding doors give you everything. Vision, passage, and total engagement between the inside and outside when you want them to become one huge space.
If you have concluded that folding doors are the perfect solution, you still must select the “perfectest” (I know it is inaccurate word form, but I’m fun like that) one from among the many makers of these miracle doors. This is where your decision can become cloudy and confusing. A google search will most likely show Nanawall; which is the industry leader and first promoter of the folding door in the U.S. It will be followed be just about every other door manufacturer in the world since they have all added a folding door to their line so that they can quote a whole package.
To most manufacturers it means taking a swing door sash panel and adding folding door hardware to it and calling it a folding door. If they make wood, it’s wood; if they make aluminum, it’s aluminum … you see where this is heading. Companies like Nanawall have a more limited mission to sell you a folding door out of whatever material you want or need. They make aluminum, aluminum clad wood, and all wood models to capture the full range. They also cover their bets by making sliding doors and frameless glass walls to make sure that you don’t slip away from their tendrils. LaCantina takes it a step further by supplying the same mix of materials and adds vinyl for the more budget conscious.
All this free advice is what those guys are hoping for, because they are all hoping that you are focused on the 5% of the year that the doors will be open. Imagine throwing a party where people are moving freely between the indoor living/kitchen area and the beautifully landscaped yard or deck immediately to the outside. If that is all that is important to you, I’d suggest that you buy the cheapest one from a generally reliable manufacturer and call it a day.
But what about the 95% of the life of this door when you will be looking out through it while it is closed? Shouldn’t that be at least as important as the fact that on those nice days you can fully open to freely move between protected and unprotected environments? Well, there is one unnamed company that focuses on the 95% and that company is 2Fold Doors.
2Fold® designed a folding door from the ground up to provide all the same features as the other guys but made some very special material decisions to add Value to the 95%. The Steel+Glass+Accoya® design of 2Fold® gives you welded construction, maximum thermal insulation, ease of function and the largest panels possible. The best solution is 2Fold® because it offers 35% more glass area than the typical folding door. This means, 35% more light, 35% more vision and 35% better connection with the world outside 100% of the time, not just 5%.
Yes, 2Fold® is a premium solution like Nanawall except we offer you so much more value and it is 100% environmentally friendly from recycled steel to harvested Accoya®. No rain forests are destroyed in the making of the product and you get the best results physically and ethically.