Exterior bi-fold doors

I’ve got these leaking windows on a wall facing the sea. Timber window frames that run from floor to ceiling with a glass timber framed sliding door at one end. There must be about 4 or 5 m of glass over the length of it. With a little bit of light rain everything is okay. The weather bureau sometimes classifies the storms on the south coast as a gale. I’ve never actually been there when the rain pounds, but I’ve heard tale that the rain can almost blow horizontally. I don’t believe that for a moment but it does give the impression of how nasty it can get for people to say that. Some of the woodwork on the window frames is showing signs of rot. So, one solution is to rip it all out and start again. Aluminium. One idea suggested was to replace it with a big bi-fold door. So that the whole length of the door and window can open up and be folded back. That would bring the outside into the lounge as it were. It would make the lounge and balcony one big space. Could be good on a nice day. And the question: How good are bi-fold doors at keeping the rain out when there’s stormy weather? There’s no verandah over that area. So, are bi-fold doors any good at being waterproof?

At that size, it'll need to be more than one fold I reckon. Also look into stacker doors. These days they all seal pretty well

Has to be considered. I suspect sliding doors would be more robust too.


The last time I was there and it was raining, water was coming in through the old wooden sliding door. It was too wet to figure out way. I had assumed there must have been some kind of drain hole in the bottom runner that was blocked.


When I had a chance, I looked. No blocked holes. In fact, water is free to drain away on either side of the runner. So why was it leaking – don’t know. The only thing I can think of was that there was so much water hitting the glass, draining into the runner, and because it couldn’t escape quickly enough was building up and overflowing.