If your home has views of Sydney Harbour, spectacular ocean views, or a beautiful garden or courtyard, bifold doors allow you to maximise the width of your doorway to truly capitalise on these impressive spaces. They can also help you enjoy seamless indoor-outdoor living to its full potential. But despite their many advantages, if not properly maintained with regular servicing bifold doors can often require repairs.
Bifold doors are configured to integrate multiple door panels allowing them to be concertinaed open and shut. Depending on their configuration they can either stack to one or both sides of a cavity. There are unfortunately a host of issues that can disrupt the proper functioning of bifold doors. When things go wrong, a bifold door repair professional must first ascertain what is causing the problem. Below we outline some of the issues that may be causing your bifold doors to malfunction, what you can do to repair them, and how to avoid problems in the future.
Typically, you can tell that there is a problem with your bifold door when it becomes difficult to open, stuck or jammed, or even scratches your floorboards! These issues occur when your door becomes out of alignment, often due to the degeneration of the door’s hardware. If your bifold door starts to stick or does not function properly, you should never force it. Ignoring issues and forcing a stuck bifold door can cause further damage and increase your repair bill. Call in a bifold doors repairs expert sooner rather than later.
There are a few common problems that can affect your bifold doors. For instance, the header at the top of the door may drop down slightly. This puts pressure on the rest of the hardware and puts everything out of alignment, causing the door to function poorly. A similar problem is the condition of the roller system at the top of the door can deteriorate. The hinging mechanism has an adjustment nut and over time it unwinds to become loose. When problems such as these occur, it can also put a lot of stress on the hinges of the door. Hinges breaking or bending are another common issue with bifold doors. If your bifold door is out of alignment it may no longer close properly. This presents serious safety concerns as you may be unable to lock or secure your door.
If your bifold doors start to let in a draught or rattle in the wind, the seals may have begun to deteriorate. Your bifold door may have a weather pile on the track at the bottom or seals between each panel; regardless of seal type, this is to be expected over time. Environmental factors such as sun exposure, saltwater crystal deposits, or pollution from industrial areas can speed up this deterioration.
If the hardware of your bifold door must be replaced, they must be repaired using the same hardware brand or system; popular door systems such as Alspec Bifold Doors, AWS Bifold Doors, Centor Bifold Doors, Brio Bifold Doors, Hafele bifold doors, Hawa Bifold Doors, Henderson Bifold Doors, Airlite, and Stegbar door repairs generally cannot have their hardware replaced with another brand without replacing the entire bifold door. Ensure that your bifold doors repairs expert can source hardware for your particular bifold door system. Bifold door hardware often doesn’t have any brand stamped on the hinges or guides. This is because bifold door hardware is made by hardware fabricators, not the bifold door supplier. Identifying the hardware on your bifold door system is part of the diagnostic phase in the repair process.
Your bifold door may be top hung or bottom rolling. Top-hung bifold doors are suspended from a track at the top of the frame, and sometimes a bottom track is used as a guide for the movement of the doors. Bottom-rolling bifold doors run along a bottom track.
Bifold door repair professionals are often called out to replace a bottom track when the real problem is what is actually in the track. Many people aren’t aware that it is critical to keep the track clean and free of dust and debris. Sand, dirt, leaves, pet fur, stones, and almost anything else you can think of will find their way into the track and build up to cause obstructions. Regular vacuuming of the tracks and cleaning of the hardware with warm soapy water is crucial to the operability of the doors. A professional regular servicing can prevent it entirely.
In the winter months, you may not use your outdoor spaces as much, and your bifold doors may remain closed and unused for long periods.
Unfortunately, if bifold doors aren’t opened regularly the hardware can seize up leading to hardware problems and the doors becoming stuck. You should open and close them every couple of weeks to keep them lubricated and running smoothly.
Regular maintenance and servicing of your bifold doors will protect and prolong the life of your investment. Bifold doors can start to show signs of wear and tear from 5 years, and sometimes much sooner.
Again, many homeowners aren’t aware that regular maintenance is often a requirement of their bifold door warranty;
A professional bifold door service involves a comprehensive integrity check of all the seals, screws, nuts, rivets, and moving hardware on the bifold door system, lubrication of all moving parts, and then adjusting the hardware to ensure the system is running smoothly Bifold door maintenance can take around 2-3 hours, depending on the number of panels. The more panels in the system the longer it will take. A professional service will also include a report that identifies any issues that may need to be addressed in the future.
If you are having new bifold doors installed, make sure you know the brand and read the warranty information which you can find on their website, or ask your installer/builder about the warranty maintenance conditions and get a copy of the warranty for future reference.
Bifold doors repairs are more complex than standard door repairs. Many standard door repair companies in Sydney don’t offer repairs for bifold doors. Professionals who specialise in bifold doors have a specific set of skills; it’s essential that your bifold door installation and repairs are carried out by experts in the field.
An expert can find the root cause of the problem with your bifold door, rather than just replacing the hardware that is observably damaged. If a handle is broken, this must be replaced, but it may have broken because the door was opened by force, due to being out of alignment. By not finding the source of the problem, it will keep re-occurring and incurring unnecessary costs.
For bifold doors repairs Sydney, call Exitoso. We are a trusted repair provider referred by some of the top window & door manufacturers and suppliers, including Alspec Bifold Doors, AWS Bifold Doors, Centor Bifold Doors, Brio Bifold Doors, Hafele bifold doors, Hawa Bifold Doors, Henderson Bifold Doors, Airlite, and Stegbar door repairs among others. We deliver quality, cost-effective repair solutions using quality products to provide you with an exceptional bifold doors repairs experience.