Bi-fold craze continues

A huge 54% increase in Google searches per month proves that the bi-fold boom is showing no signs of slowing down

Howard Hirst, Sales Director for Liniar, revisits a key piece of research from 2014 and draws some interesting conclusions…

During our investigations last summer on the growing interest in the bi-folding door market, we discovered that at the time, there was an astounding 70,000 Google searches every month from people in the UK searching for bi-fold doors!

Already a huge amount of searches – but when looking into it again recently, we found that figure has now risen to a mind-blowing 108,130* searches per month. That’s an increase of 54% in less than a year, proving that the popularity of the product is still very much on the rise.

Looking for luxury

Relatively new to the fenestration industry, bi-folding doors have created the biggest growth area in the sector for many years and the consumer market has bought into it in a huge way.

Driven by a seemingly endless supply of makeover TV programmes and style magazines, bi-fold doors have become a highly desired finishing touch for homeowners looking to add that bit of luxury to their property.

Liniar tapped into the craze with the development of the first bespoke uPVC bi-fold door, closely followed by the launch of the first real competitor to aluminium bi-folds with the Liniar ModLok™ door system.

Best of both worlds

With a fully patented aluminium exo-skeleton, the ModLok™ bi-fold was designed to take Liniar fabricators into new areas, enabling them to access an even wider part of the market and to compete with their aluminium counterparts, while offering the thermal benefits of uPVC and a fully matching installation.

As with all of Liniar products, a significant part of the design thinking is about making the product easier to fabricate and to install.

Because of the unique exo-skeleton there is no need for reinforcement in the sashes, which obviously benefits the production process. This is underpinned by the use of the full face-plate width ModLok™ itself, in which the lock and the reinforcing are integral to one another.

Lightweight and rigid

It’s as lightweight as this kind of product can possibly be because we’ve used aluminium as the ‘reinforcing’, which makes the life of the installer so much easier. The rigidity of the rolling mechanisms ensures that when they complete a job they know they can walk away with little prospect of a call back.

As well as being a technically outstanding product, the ModLok™ bi-fold couldn’t be more aesthetically pleasing. Every aspect of the conception was carefully thought through so that we could conceal as many elements of the locking and rolling mechanisms as possible, creating a closed euro-cylinder profile design that is both secure and functional – and at the same time pleasing on the eye.

Spoilt for colour choice

Consumers, both residential and commercial, have a picture in their mind and an expectation when they think of a bi-folding door – and colours can help them to achieve the perfect result.

With significant growth industry-wide in the popularity of coloured and foiled fenestration products, Liniar caters to demand by producing its full range, including bi-folding doors, in a fully matching range of colours and factory-fitted foils for a beautiful installation.

Absolute precision

Having bespoke designed, tried and tested technical products, and knowing how to manufacture and install them is critical to being successful in the bi-fold market.

More moving parts and tighter tolerances mean that bi-fold doors are far more complicated than windows and doors, meaning that absolute precision is required at all stages, from survey through to manufacture and installation.

All Liniar products are fully and continually tested, ensuring that they remain robust and will stand up to the repeated operation necessary for daily living, with all components designed specifically to work together.

Tested to the max

Our on-going cyclic testing programme ensures that our customers, and their customers, can be confident that our products will remain functional throughout their life-cycles.

The ModLok™ bi-fold in particular has been tested to the extreme, achieving an impressive 127,800 full opening cycles, well over ten times the British Standard.

And to confirm our confidence in the product, it was also the first bi-fold to pass a stringent new scheme from the independent testing and certification company Build Check.

While several others failed to pass the Folding Sliding Doors Scheme, including aluminium doors as well as uPVC, Liniar’s ModLok™ bi-fold met the testing requirements with ease.

Meeting demand

With this long list of benefits, together with many others, fabricators and installers of the Liniar bi-fold door range have a product suitable for every sector of the market and are in a prime position to access more than their fair share of the market potential.

So, whatever those 108,130 Google searches are for each month, Liniar’s customers can be very confident that they can readily satisfy this ever increasing demand for bi-fold doors.

For more information on the Liniar bi-fold door range, go to: www.liniar.co.uk.