Bifold doors and sun = lots of heat – what do you do?

I appreciate this may on the face of it be a dim question, but what are you doing to stop excessive sunglare with bifolds? I’ve got 7meters of the things on the back of the house (seemed like a good idea in the design stage), that transfer a stupid amount of heat to the tiled room, resulting in a very hot room and upstairs bedrooms. Individual blinds are £££, and ive not finished the house fully to start investing in awnings and the like. So any temporary non pikey looking ideas??

I was thinking maybe some blackout material on some glass sucky things? can you get external solutions?

ta

Open the door?

Most seriously, can you put some kind of film on the windows to reflect the heat before it enters. Doesn’t need to be bronze mirror but apparently that works well without glaring too much when looking from the outside.

Brise soleil?

What WCA said.

We’ve got a lean to conservatory that produces a massive amount of heat. From March I can turn the heating off and leave the kitchen door open to heat the whole house. From around now I just get up and open the door to the garden when I get up to let fresh air around the house which is great even on a cool day!

Fan?

Not sure blinds will help too much… We have blinds on ours and though we don’t get direct sun on ours it can still get warm as the air between the blinds and glass will heat up and get into the room.

maybe setuild up some form of pergola or something outside with hooks so you can attach material to create some shade for a more permanent fix?

Ideally you want an external solution. I’ve seen internal blinds warp and melt the plastic fittings. You could rig a sail awning if that’s your style, or a regular extending awning like John Stalker used to advertise in the 80s. Or a pergola with planting or canvas screen just outside.

Edit. Found the advert. If this doesn’t convince you, nothing will.

I bet the bi-folds and dark slate flooring looked lovely in the designs though! They do come in more reflective glasses than just clear though don’t they?

My Mum lives in a house with bi-folds in a south facing house, get them open early in the day and light wood flooring. It still gets bloody hot though. There’s also a solar panel on the roof just above that and it gets to insane temperatures with the sun hitting it. South coast too, so a sunnier part of the UK!

I want one of these to cover the deck and shade the back doors.

Outdoor Living Pod

I haven’t got a spare £15k though, so we’re getting some of these

https://www.blinds-2go.co.uk/bifold-pleated/30139/bifold-clickfit-duoluxe-pewter.html

Hopefully will keep the wood floor from reaching spontaneous combustion temps this summer…

Some bifold doors and brise soleil pictured yesterday….

cheers all, much appreciated.

the glass already has a slight film on, which does tone down the heat, but its still a lot. @toby1 all our own doing this as made it up as we went along (it was a part DIY build), but yes grey gloss porceline tiles do not help at all, they get damn hot actually..

My neighbours have those electic 80’s style awnings, work really well but were mega £££.

i like the idea of the Brise soleil, but do they only work towards mid summer when the sun is high??

sui.

i like the idea of the Brise soleil, but do they only work towards mid summer when the sun is high??

Depends on the design and angle of the vanes.

You probably do want solar heat gain from the low winter sun but also to block out the much higher in the sky summer burny sunshine.

If you were mechanically minded you could probably make an adjustable set that tilted like venetian blinds.

I’ve seen electrically actuated ones but they were quite spendy.

First off, kick your architect in the nuts for not having dealt with this in the specification. I bet they’ve designed stupid shaped windows and everything haven’t they?

Edit I see self designed.

Temporary is OK but, bear in mind any real option for these is going to be big and structural. Ideally it should be a designed in solution not something to do after the house is finished.

The correct answer to your question is something like louvolite perfect fit or eclipse (closed at the moment) intu systems. They’re not expensive, will work and not look utterly crap and want binning in 6 weeks time.

Do NOT use film as a temporary.

Nothing external is going to be anything more than very very temporary or permanent.

Long term properly done…

External solutions work well, much better than internal for heat control.
Film is OK but not great for heat reduction, even the best films don’t have a great shgc compared with a half decent fabric and a decent fabric is much more effective outside than in.

7m is a big chunk of glass for a single system unless you go for some sort of awning/pergola etc.

If you’ve space a pergola would be my suggestion as it makes the outdoor space more usable and you’ll be less bothered about direction of draw. Brise solais is a better solution if you’re commonly getting high winds and sun at the same time as fabric systems will need to retract on much lower winds.

If you’ve not got space…

I’m guessing your bifolds open outwards, so anything you do externally will need to clear that (those crazy euros have them open inwards because they like external systems, outwards opening in the UK because we like things that don’t work very well.)

Regardless of internal or external rollers or venetian will work well but need splitting to suit 7m, practically I’d guess into three. Fabric/louvre material choice is key, “pretty” things are generally crap in terms of performance. Technical stuff that does a good job by and large doesn’t come in pretty options, that’s not to say they’re unattractive but they’re not floral patterns and the like either.

I’ve seen electrically actuated ones but they were quite spendy.

Let’s face it they’re not cheap for a decent one any how and the electric ones are very nice.

Useful post as I stare out our south facing patio doors into the glaring sun.

*Tears up sketch of possible extension*

thanks dangeourbrain,

my preference has been to do a pergola, however that also means doing the patio (there’s a 30cm drop out of the doors at the moment) which with all good DIY projects, i’ve run out of money for. Loads of space, so world is effectively my (cheap) oyster..

I find this time of year is worst. As the sun gets higher it has less thermal penetration. I’m south coast south facing.

so world is effectively my (cheap) oysterwhelk..

so world is effectively my (cheap) oyster whelk.. prairie oyster

But seriously, something as close to the glass as you can internally.

Perfect fit type “Metallised” or spc fabric plisse blinds should work reasonably well and fit in the glazing reveals. Get something reputable, it’s not going to be *very* cheap but it will last until you’re ready to spank 20k on a pergola.
Oh and get the fabric spec from whom ever is supplying them, if they can’t give you one don’t buy them.
Decent fabrics will have at least solar & thermal transmission and reflectance (variations on a theme area available subject to who’s fabric it is) values for the various colours and fabric.

Pick a fabric based on a high reflectance and low transmission (low absorption of its given) not a colour. It’s there to do a job not look nice. If you don’t like the appearance hang a nice voile in front of them.

I’ve seen electrically actuated ones but they were quite spendy.

I’ve stayed in hotels in Spain with them, they are very good.

so world is effectively my (cheap) oyster whelk.. prairie oyster

lol

lots of info to digest! thanks again all.

Velux roof on the extension, if that’s where the windows are. Otherwise open the folders so the heat dissipates

We have bifolds in our west-facing kitchen, which also has an AGA that Mrs Gti will only allow to be turned off when the temperature hits 35c in the kitchen. We have Somfy roller blinds but all they do is keep the worst of the heat out; the room still gets pretty hot in summer.

We stay in a holiday let on Arran most years at some point, the bedrooms are downstairs, the living area and balconies are upstairs, and as it sits slightly elevated above the bay, it has lovely views. When it’s bed time, the bedrooms are nice and cool, it wasn’t until we started staying there that I realised we generally do it wrong.

Possibly not acheivable to retrofit, but if I was building a new house, that’s what I’d do.

A pal of mine had a large set of bifolds fitted (south facing, south coast, walled garden, black patio). He specified the strongest bronze coating they offered. The installer gave him all sorts of grief “been doing this all my life, you don’t need it, waste of money etc”.

He came back after work to find the installer completely pink from head to toe muttering about the direct sun and he’d “never seen anything like it”.

If you retrofit the bronze coatings they do a very good job when the windows are closed.

So any temporary non pikey looking ideas??

Aren’t there various products out there for Greenhouses that do this kind of thing?

In our South facing room we have silver finish perforated micro Venetian blinds which work well at reducing heat build up whilst still allowing light in.
The work room (previously called the lounge) has timber Venetian which don’t reflect great but keep the direct light down whilst not being affected by the breeze so much.
Ideally external blinds, fritting can help as well – we use that for projects.

chaos
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So any temporary non pikey looking ideas??

Aren’t there various products out there for Greenhouses that do this kind of thing?

ooh that’s a good point, there is indeed but width may be an issue.. ill go digging..

Aren’t there various products out there for Greenhouses that do this kind of thing?

Bifold doors with that white greenhouse paint….quite a look 🤔

My neighbour has built a pergola the full width of his house after having bi-folds installed.

I have external electric shutters on the double doors in bedrooms but not in the lounge, all South facing. So bedrooms cool lounge hot.

A cheap instantish solution is to hook white sheets over the outside of Windows. Any heavyish white material, I use cotton sheets doubled over and sewn round the edges.

I have done a few for furniture, it really blocks out the sun. Perishes after a couple of years just use them when needed.

Can fully recommend solar/heat reduction window film from these guys:

Solartek Films

I’ve used them for both heat reduction and privacy in the past. Nice chaps too.

Google shade sails, worth a go and can look good too.

Rotate your house. Our doors face NE, sunny in the morning. HTH

Seriously, we also have an extendable Stalker awning. I use it to shield the sun when I’m working sat on the deck. But 7m is a lot of door and a big awning.

Flicking through the Scotts of Stow catalogue that we occasionally get addressed to the old biddies that used to live in our house, amidst all the waterproof mattress covers and polycotton bedsheets I saw this:

https://www.scottsofstow.co.uk/deluxe-striped-easy-fit-cafe-awnings/

(I’ve got a 20% off code too if you want it)

We have a shade sail that we attach to the back of the house. Works a treat, cost about 20 quid. I take it down if its windy or rainy.

You could borrow my BBQ. Once you light it the sun disappears and your problem goes away.

Fan?

I wouldn’t say he’s that keen.