French Patio Doors

French Patio Doors

French patio doors are an excellent choice if you want to join up two separate areas and flood a room with light. You may want to connect the inside of your house with the outside or you may want to have a large opening between two rooms so they can feel like they run from one to the other and there is no better way to do this than to have a nice big pair of French patio doors.

Originally French doors were a pair of casement doors with many small pieces of glass making up each door, originating from a French design. These days, however ordinary patio doors are called French doors also so if you want the ones with lots of small panes of glass then be sure to tell your installer, although today the glazing units are usually double glazed and made of one piece of glass in each door with fake glazing bars in between the two pieces of glass to give the effect of several small panes.

If you do not already have an opening for French patio doors then you will need to create one, this really is a job for a builder as it requires structural alteration. If you are lucky enough to have a window where you want to form your opening and if it is wide enough then you may be lucky enough not to have to undertake any structural works, you may be able to just remove the window and the piece of wall from underneath, make the opening narrower and fit your doors, this will save you a considerable amount of work and money. It is always best to seek professional advice before undertaking any works of this magnitude though.

You need to decide on the material you are going to get your French patio doors made out of also, wood is one option but you are far more likely to select UPVC as your product as this is reasonably cheap these days and once fitted needs minimal maintenance, it does not rot and requires no painting so there seems to be little choice for choosing wood these days. If you do choose UPVC you will find it readily available in white, mahogany and golden oak colours.

Getting a pair of UPVC French patio doors made can be slightly costly but you will usually find that the large DIY superstores stock them in a few sizes these days and if you are forming the opening then you can easily make this opening to suit what ever sizes they carry. These ready made mass produced French patio doors can cost significantly less than having a bespoke pair made for you.

If your French patio doors are a part of a larger conservatory then be sure to check out our Conservatories Prices page for more information.