French Doors with Side Panels

Brighten up Your Interior

French doors already provide charm and additional sunlight to any room. Open up your rooms further by adding sidelights or a transom. While front doors often feature one or two side panels to provide for a brighter entryway, the same benefits apply to doors for patios, balconies, and gardens. Why not enjoy wider views of your backyard or surrounding landscape from inside too? French doors are available in four materials with a range of custom glazing options for insulation, soundproofing and security.

French Doors: Overview & Advantages

French doors come in both single and double door as well as with both inswing and outswing options. Each door features a large glazed surface which provides lots of natural light and great views while allowing easy access to the exterior. With both doors open, they offer a larger uninterrupted opening area which is ideal for balconies, bedrooms, and areas that see more use such as patios or gardens.

Some of the many advantages include:

Offer tilt and turn functionality
Increased views
More natural light
Better ventilation
Optional glazing bars to match historical styles (e.g. Georgian)
Faster and simpler to use than sliding doors in high traffic areas

Material Options

Neuffer offers four material options to choose from for all

Timber
uPVC
Aluminium Clad Timber
Aluminium Clad uPVC

With a simple turn of the handle, each of the two doors swings open immediately creating a large open area, and importantly, using all of the available space. Sliding doors in contrast always leave half of the overall space closed. Bi-fold doors also open to 100% of the available space but are suited for large wall openings not found on balconies or many patios.

French Doors with Your Choice of Custom Options:

Neuffer offers a range of custom options your project. This begins with your choice of frame material and continues to style, glazing, finish, colours and fittings. Non-standard shapes such as arches are available and glazing bars can be integrated for a more traditional look. On the other hand, minimal, aluminium clad options can create a sleek contemporary look.

Door Frame Materials

We offer two main materials, timber and uPVC as either stand alone or aluminium clad. Each option offers a different set of features.

UPVC is well suited to those on a tight budget while still offering most of the same customisation options. It can be upgraded to improve thermal performance and security as required. Timber boasts great insulation and strength without additional reinforcement, foam or internal chambers. It provides a traditional and natural look for any home while requiring a bit more upkeep than synthetic materials. We offer a wide selection of hardwood and softwood including oak, cherry, larch, meranti and much more.

Aluminium cladding represents the best of both worlds. For those on a stricter budget, aluclad uPVC provides solid security, durability, insulation and aesthetics at a great price. For the ultimate bespoke solution and premium aesthetics, aluclad timber frames are second to none. They feature a sleek modern look outside and robust weather resistance. This adds up to minimal upkeep over the years while retaining the cosy look of wood indoors.

Colours & Finishes

uPVC frames are available in a large selection of RAL colours as well as decors to mimic timber for example. Our solid timber frames are available both in the entire RAL colour palette as well as a range of natural stains and finishes. Aluminium is also available in the RAL colour range applied to the anodised surface via powder coating.

Glazing: Energy Efficiency, Security & Soundproofing

French doors typically feature large glass surfaces to provide the most natural light possible and the best views. Since most of the doors' total surface area is glass, your choice of glass plays a major role in overall energy efficiency, U-values and security.

With external doors, it is important to ensure that energy is not lost, whether that be cool air in summer or warm air in winter. Choosing double or triple glazing will go a long way towards ensuring this as will optional non-conductive warm edge spacers and argon filling between panes.

Door and Window Fittings

Large glass surfaces can be a potential vulnerability depending on their location. A second or third floor balcony door presents little risk while ground level doors should be configured with further security options. These include multipoint locking, shootbolts, locking handles and concealed hinges. Laminated safety glass should be installed on the outermost pane at least in order to provide an added layer of security and make breaking the glass difficult.

Was this information helpful?

( 4 ratings , Ø 4.89 )