I know there have been a few people on this forum who have looked at and in some cases installed bifold doors from Nanawall, Lanai, LaCantina, etc... We are getting started on an addition and want to have a large glass door. I really want to go with a 9' or 12' wide LaCantina bifold door. My wife is perfectly content with a large Anderson double slider and even says she prefers it over a bifold door. I think alot of the reason she prefers a slider is for practical purposes (price) and because she is familiar with sliders and the bifold just doesn't seem like a big deal for her. I see it as something that is going to be there a long time and even though a slider would work fine the bifold would definately be a very cool feature and allow us to really open the room up to the outside. The room is going to be the lower level of the addition and the only entrance to the room will be from the back patio where we do alot of fair season entertaining. I can visualize opening up the room (which will have a pool table and theatre in it) during a gathering and seamlessly being able to extend the entertaining into it from the patio. Or opening the room during the summer when hanging out just to open it to the outside.

I am looking for real world opinions and experiences of the bi-fold door systems - especially compared to double sliders if possible. If you have a bifold door do you use it like you were planning or do you mainly just use it as an entrance door? How are they durability-wise? Do they tend to grow on people who don't initially appreciate the concept? Do you regret buying it if you have one or not getting one if you were thinking about it but went with another option? Any information or opinions, either for or against a bifold would be a great help.

Thanks,

Matt