French Doors Cambridge

French doors are a hinged pair that swing open, either into the room or out to the garden. Patio doors slide on a track. The practical differences follow from that. French doors open the full width of the frame, giving you a complete opening and unrestricted airflow, but they need clear space for the swing. Sliding doors need no swing space and offer larger glass panes, but only part of the opening ever opens. For openings up to around 1.8 metres, French doors are usually the natural choice. Beyond that, sliding or bifold doors Cambridge start to make more sense.

For the right opening, yes, and they are the cheapest of the three glazed door types, so the bar is lower than for bifolds. What you are buying is a full-width opening, proper airflow, a traditional look that suits Cambridge’s period housing stock, and a straightforward one day installation. They also carry broad buyer appeal at resale, since French doors polarise nobody. Where they stop being worth it is on wide openings, where a pair plus large fixed side panels starts to approach sliding door territory, and a slider then gives you more usable glass. Up to around two metres, French doors are hard to argue with.

Outward opening is more common and usually better. The doors do not eat into your room, furniture can sit close to the opening, and outward opening doors seal more tightly in wind, since gusts push the door onto its gaskets rather than off them. Remember each leaf needs a clear swing arc equal to its own width, so a 1.5 metre pair needs around 750mm of clear space per side on whichever side it opens. Inward opening suits tight outside spaces such as narrow passages or balconies. Security is equal either way, since hinge bolts stop outward opening doors being lifted off their hinges.

Expect 20 to 30 years from a quality uPVC pair, and 25 to 30 or more from aluminium. The frame itself does not rot, warp or corrode, and modern UV stabilised uPVC no longer discolours the way early white plastic did. The working parts wear first, meaning hinges, shoot bolts and the lock gearbox, and all are replaceable without changing the doors, so a stiff handle at year fifteen is a small repair, not a replacement. Gaskets can be reseated or renewed cheaply too. Our French doors carry a 10 year guarantee on both the product and the installation, and in practice most pairs comfortably outlast it.

Confident DIYers do, and supply-only pairs are sold widely, but French doors are less forgiving than a single door because two leaves have to meet perfectly down the centre line. If the frame is even slightly out of square, the doors clash or leave a gap, the shoot bolts will not throw and the weather seal down the middle fails. Add the fact that a DIY installation is not FENSA certified, which surfaces during conveyancing when you sell, and the case for professional fitting is strong. It is a one day job for an installer. We are happy to quote supply-only or supply and fit.

Yes. French doors are always supplied and fitted as a complete set, meaning the pair of doors pre-hung in their own outer frame, with the locking keeps, hinges and seals already aligned in the factory. Hanging new doors into an old frame is a false economy, since the old frame carries the worn seals, the dated locking keeps and any distortion the previous doors caused, and new leaves rarely match its rebates exactly. Replacing the complete frame also means the gap to the brickwork is freshly sealed and insulated, which is where a lot of draughts actually come from. Every set we fit is a full frame installation.

Modern French doors are as secure as any other door type. The historic weakness was the meeting point between the two leaves, where older doors relied on small flush bolts. Current doors fix this with a multi-point lock on the main leaf, full-length shoot bolts securing the second leaf into the frame top and bottom, and a solid meeting stile between them. Add anti-snap cylinders, hinge protection and internally beaded toughened glass and there is no easy route in. Ours are built to PAS 24. As always, correct installation and adjustment is what makes the hardware do its job.

Replacing existing doors with French doors of the same size does not normally need planning permission, and turning a window into a door at the rear of a house is usually permitted development too, though the structural work needs building regulations approval. The exceptions are the usual Cambridge ones. Listed buildings need consent, conservation areas can carry restrictions on visible elevations, and flats generally need permission. Since French doors are a traditional style, they tend to have an easier ride with conservation officers than contemporary glazing. We fit double glazing in Cambridge throughout the city, including its conservation areas, and can advise on your street specifically.

Better than any other door type. Cambridge has street after street of Victorian and Edwardian terraces, and a hinged glazed pair is what these houses would originally have had onto the garden, where they had doors at all. Georgian bars, astragal detailing, heritage colours like sage and cream, and woodgrain finishes all help a modern thermally efficient door sit comfortably on an older building. In conservation areas, planners generally view a well detailed French door far more favourably than a wall of sliding glass. If your property is listed, consent is needed, and we can advise on specifications that tend to be approved.

Very little. Wipe the frames and glass with warm soapy water every few months, clear any debris from the drainage slots at the base of the frame, and put a drop of light oil on the hinges, shoot bolts and locking points once a year. uPVC and powder coated aluminium never need painting. Check the gaskets occasionally. If a seal has slipped out of its groove it pushes back in by hand. If a door starts to catch or drop slightly, the hinges are adjustable and it takes minutes to correct, which is covered under our 10 year guarantee in any case.