Slide and turn patio doors are also known as slide and stack doors or slide and swing doors, might look like bifolds when fully open or closed, but they provide more functionality and give you more space inside your room and outside on your patio or terrace.
Slide and turn doors are available from several brands at different price points. Here, we explain the best features of slide-and-turn patio doors and how their design could be a better solution than bifolding doors or sliding doors.
What are slide and turn patio doors?
When closed, slide and turn doors look just like any other bifold and when fully open, they’re also virtually identical.
Slide and turn door action is as the name suggests. Just like a bifold, when fully open, the doors slide across the track and fold together like a concertina. Unlike bifolding doors, slide and turn door panels aren’t hinged or connected together. So whether you have three, four, five, or more panels, each panel moves independently.
The same as bifolds, the door panels can open inwards or outwards and there’s a traffic door for everyday access. A low-threshold option is also available. There are open-corner designs with some products. You’ll find many products tested to the latest security standards and fully weather-sealed, as expected from a patio door.
The slide and turn door operation explained
For example, let’s use a closed set of three-panel slide and turn doors. First of all, you unlock the main door leaf that’s always at the end, either on the left or right. You swing this open. Swinging this door open reveals a gap. Then, you slide each panel along the track, moving one by one.
As each door panel reaches the end of the track (where the master door is hinged open), this, too, swings open next to it. You then move the last panel along the track to the end and swing this open. And just like a bifolding door, you get around 90% clear opening.
Five advantages of slide and turn doors compared to bifolding doors
There are several areas where slide and turn or slide and stack doors are considered better than a bifold. Let us explain these in detail.
Slimmer door sightlines
Some upper-level doors, like FGC’s frameless product, have glass-to-glass edges with complete weather sealing and security. Others, like Sunseeker or Vistaline by ID Systems, are virtually as slim as minimal sliding doors at the mullion.
If you’re drawn to the functionality of bifold doors but find the sightlines less appealing, slide and turn doors could be the perfect solution, offering the best of both worlds.
More space in your room or on your patio
One of the best features of a slide and turn door design is that you can place furniture inside or garden furniture outside, right up to the doors. Just like a bifolding door, the doors can fold either outside onto the patio area or inside of the room.
However regular bifolding doors take up more valuable space. As this slide design moves the panel along its track first, they don’t need to take up any space as part of their opening operation. Therefore you can place your furniture right up to the doors. Instantly, you gain the space a bifold would take up.
Better ventilation than bifolding doors
Something you can’t do with a bifold very well is create an airflow without having to open the entire door set. With slide and turn doors all you need to do is open the master leaf then slide each panel along the track. This creates airflow without having to fully open a set of doors.
Fewer visible hinges and handles than folding sliding doors
Because each panel moves separately, you don’t need connecting hinges as you get on bifolding doors. Neither do you need the intermediate pull handles.
As a result, when you look at your new slide and stack doors from inside your room all you see are neat meeting door panels. There are no visible hinges or pull handles. For many, this clean look inside the room is appealing.
And it’s the same on the outside too. There are no visible hinges or handles, which obviously creates fewer attack points for potential burglars.
Larger door panels than a bifold
Most bifolds go up to around 1.2m maximum panel width. Slide and stack doors typically give you panels up to around 1.5m wide. There’s only currently the Schuco ASS70 bifold or the product by Express bifolds as a folding door going this wide.
The benefit of these wider panels is that you can get away with three doors, whereas most other bifolds need four. Fewer doors mean one less visible mullion, larger glass doors, and a more light and spacious feel.
The disadvantages of slide and stack doors compared to a bifold
We can think of only two disadvantages to slide and stack doors; even these won’t matter to many.
First, you need more physical operations to open or close a set of doors. Because the door panels aren’t connected, you don’t push a full door set open like you do with a bifold. You have to move each panel individually.
The second is that some people might not like grabbing the door edge to move it, and the super slim doors also mean leaving hand or finger marks on the glass as you do.
How much do slide and turn doors cost?
Pricing depends on the brand, size, colour and glass specification. For the top-of-the-range doors, you can expect to pay around £1800-£2500 or more per panel supplied and fitted. Other brands come at about the same price as a regular bifold in the region of £1200 per panel.
Slide and turn doors brands worth considering
Here, we refer to exterior-grade systems with complete weather sealing and security. Single-glazed versions of this design can also be used internally or outside as patio or pool canopy enclosures to create a glass room.
Vistaline by ID Systems
We’ve used ID Systems Vistaline door images in this article as they’re probably the best product to showcase the features of slide and stack doors.
Vistaline doors are Swiss designed, excellent quality and at the top of the range price point. For a framed and slim system, the design of Vistaline is very advanced, and we’d say probably one of the best slide-and-turn doors in a framed design.
They have super slim lines and beautiful looks, and the installed finished product is first-class. First, what makes them stand out from other similar designs are the flipper seals in the track which extend when the handle is turned to create an effective weather seal in the top and bottom tracks. It’s excellent. The second is the extending side-jamb which compresses the panels together when the door is closed to improve the weather and security performance.
Frameless Glass Curtains by FGC
The frameless slide and turn door by FGC, is their own design, made in Kent and available nationwide. It’s at the top end of the price range but you get something quite special.
Door sizes are up to 2.5m high, from three to eight panels, including fixed or open corner designs. These doors are fully weather-sealed, secure, reliable and beautifully made. No aluminium at the mullions, a substantially lower threshold and a stunning overall look to slide and stack doors.
Monoslide 80 by Sunparadise Systems
Monoslide 80 Sunparadise Systems are slide and turn doors with the function of moving out of the way, round a corner and even concealed in a cupboard! They’re especially good on open corner designs where you can stack the doors away from the opening itself. Different and a real talking point too.
Sunseeker Doors
The Sunseeker product is one of the first designs of this type in the UK and comes in several versions depending on where you intend to use them. They’re the slimmest framed versions of these doors and are just as good in cafes bars and restaurants as they are inside the home.
New Wave Doors
The New Wave brand is at the budget end of the market and also comes as a PVCu version too. The sightlines are thicker than the doors mentioned here but great for those on a budget.
Help in choosing slide and stack or slide and turn patio doors
If you are still undecided in which type of doors to choose, we can help and advise you with brand options and suitable installers in your area.
