The Benefits Of Installing A Traffic Door In Your Bi-Fold System

Posted on

Bi-fold doors provide a great solution for combining your interior and exterior living space.  However, when they're locked, you can't get into the house from the outside.  Also, when the weather is bad, you might not want to open up the whole bi-fold system in order to let the dog out into the garden for fear of letting the elements into your home.  But how can you solve these problems?  Read on to find out.

What is a traffic door?

A traffic door looks just like an ordinary door that forms an integral element in your bi-fold door system.  The traffic door is designed to work independently of the rest of the system, so that you can lock and unlock it without the need to open up the whole thing.  This provides you with easy access to and from your home, from both inside and outside of the house.

Even if you have an alternative means of getting out into your garden, for example through your kitchen door, a traffic door incorporated into your bi-fold system still gives you a convenient entry and exit option.  This can provide a good safety feature too, as you will have a convenient additional exit point from your home directly to your garden in the event of a fire elsewhere in your house.  This can be particularly important if you have bi-fold doors that lead out onto your bedroom balcony.

Design options

When incorporating a traffic door, there are several different design options to consider:

  1. The traffic door may be hinged to the door frame, making it totally independent from the rest of the system.  
  2. The traffic door could be part of the bi-fold system, being the last of an odd number of door sections.  
  3. The traffic door could be incorporated within one of the central bi-fold doors, provided the destination section is an odd number.

The design you choose for your integral traffic door will be dependent on the number of panels included in your bi-fold system and on whether this is an even or an odd number.  As an example, if you have only three panels in your bi-fold system, you could opt to have the last one as a traffic door.  In the case of an even number of panels, this design wouldn't work, because the external face of the even-numbered end panel would fold inwards.

In conclusion

If you have an existing bi-fold door system in your home, you could opt to have a traffic door incorporated within it to give your access system more flexibility.  Have a chat with your supplier for more information on the cost of having a traffic door installed and to discuss the design options that could work for you.


Share