For property renovations and new extensions, aluminium French doors are slim and stylish and offer numerous options for design, colour and styling. Here’s an explanation of aluminium French doors, including other names they can be described as and how to choose them for your property renovation project.
An introduction to Aluminium French Doors
The French door is the staple garden or balcony door in old and new properties. Despite the popularity of contemporary folding doors, French doors remain popular and more so, given their excellent price point.
Aluminium French doors can also be known as patio and residential doors, which are widely used in all types of dwellings.
French doors made in slimline aluminium are slimmer than their PVCu or timber counterparts. But, at the same time, they are strong, secure, weather resistant and come with excellent door energy ratings, helping save money on energy bills.
Advantages of aluminium doors over PVCu or timber French doors
The slimmer frame lines are the significant advantage of aluminium French doors over double doors in PVCu or timber. The benefit to you for your project is less visible aluminium, wider and taller glass panels and more light coming into the room.
Importantly with double doors is the sightline at the middle mullion where both door leaves lock together. In PVCu, this can be the thickest part of the door, looking thick and bulky and obstructing the views to the patio area or garden.
Depending on the brand of residential doors used, aluminium can be up to half the size of timber or PVCu.
Another benefit of using aluminium for French doors is that they are available in larger door sizes. Aluminium doors come wide and taller than PVCu and timber materials. As a result, you can have bigger doors, more glass, and fewer frame elements, whereas other materials may require side or top panels to take up the slack.
If a project requires bifolding and French doors, we can make these using bifold door profiles. The key advantage here is matching doors. All the profiles look the same as the door handles and overall sightlines.
The types of French doors explained.
When choosing the style of aluminium French doors, your options are determined by the size of your opening aperture. For the smallest apertures, a standard set of double doors works best.
Typically the maximum size of a French door leaf is 1000mm to 1200mm, depending on the model used. Therefore, wider openings than the maximum widths possible will need French doors with side panels. Taller apertures will need a top panel above the doors.
The choice of doors also extends to which way you’d like them to open. For most types of projects, these open out onto the patio area, freeing up the space inside the room. However, balcony doors frequently open inwards, maximising the space available on the balcony itself.
In addition to the opening direction of the doors, the choice of threshold is another consideration. Aluminium French doors come with a standard or low threshold providing better accessibility to the outside and with a reduced step. At the same time, low thresholds still offer excellent weather protection.
Making aluminium French doors bespoke
Aluminium provides the biggest range of colour options. With over 150 RAL colours, including the option of a different colour inside and out, there are virtually unlimited ways to personalise your new doors.
With colour comes a choice of glass. As standard doors come glazed with toughened safety glass, having a soft-coat low-emissivity coating, warm edge spacer bars and argon gas fill. Options include laminated glass for enhanced security and meeting the required security ratings triple glazing, acoustic glass and integral glass blinds.
Your options also extend to the door handles and hinges, available in a choice of styles and shades depending on the brand of door.
Quality-made aluminium French doors by C&A Window Systems Ltd.
At C&A Window Systems Ltd, we manufacture the leading Reynaers brand for our residential projects or other systems to suit commercial applications or specific customer requirements.
Contact us today to discuss your project requirements and get a free quotation.
