95% of a doors life will be spent closed and so the view should be a primary concern.
A great view can be made or broken when it comes to outfitting the perfect home. The large opening that looks out onto the deck or patio is the space in question. Before you begin, you need to identify your goal.
Most of the time, this means that you have a single vision or concept. You envision your lifestyle once this goal is attained.
There are many options to choose from. Each provides a different experience.
For instance,
• Sliding doors
• Fixed window walls
• And our favorite: folding and bi-folding doors
Let’s take a look at each.
Fixed Window Walls
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.
Sliding Doors
A sliding door lets you open a larger, portioned part of the window wall for passage between the indoors and outdoors.
Folding & Bi-folding Doors
Folding or bi-folding doors give you everything: vision, passage, and total engagement between the inside and outside. Instead of opposites, they become one huge space.
Let’s say you decide folding doors are the perfect solution (that’s our choice too!), you will still need to select from one of the many makers of these miracle doors.
A Google search will likely bring up Nanawall, the industry leader and first promoter of the folding door in the U.S. It will be followed by just about every other door manufacturer in the world. Most companies have added a folding door to their line. This way, they can quote a whole package, rather than having to outsource to other vendors and risk losing business.
However, to most manufacturers, a folding door means taking a swing door, a sash panel, and adding folding door hardware to it. You’re still getting a door, sure, but it is not a folding door.
Companies like Nanawall and LaCantina have an even more limited mission to sell you a folding door out of whatever material you need. They make aluminum, aluminum clad wood, and all wood models to capture the full range. They also make sliding doors and frameless glass walls to make sure to capture your full attention. LaCantina goes so far as to take the same mix of materials and add vinyl for the more budget conscious.
So why am I telling you all of this?
These companies offer a wide range of products and pseudo products hoping that you are focused on the 5% of the year that the doors will be open. But remember, 95% of the time, these doors will be closed.
Shouldn’t that be at least as important as those nice days when you can fully open the doors to freely move between protected and unprotected environments? Absolutely.
3 Reasons Why 2Fold Doors is the Best Folding Door System
At 2Fold Doors, we focus our attention on that 95%. This way you can have a beautiful experience whether it’s a breezy summer day or a frigid winter morning.
2Fold® designed a folding door from the ground up to provide all the same features as the other brands. But we 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. In other words, 2Fold® is a premium solution like Nanawall except with us you get much more for your money.
- 2Fold® 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%.
- 2Fold® Products Are Sustainable: our product is 100% environmentally friendly from recycled steel to harvested Accoya®. No rainforests are destroyed in the making of the product. You get the best results physically and ethically.
To make the best decision for you, identifying your goal is integral. Generally, this means you have a single vision or concept about what your space will look like when the project is completed. But also, you should envision your lifestyle in that new space.
Completely singular vision is perfect for the driven. But it can also lead to missing some great opportunities. Peripheral vision is important as well. In other words, if you have chosen a product without comparing it to others, you may not get the right fit.
At 2Fold, it’s our goal to make sure you get exactly what you want.