Homeowners who have gardens, decks, or patios understand the value of functional doors. Choosing the perfect exterior door can be a difficult decision. Which is better: Garden doors vs. French doors? Let’s find out.
What Is a Garden Door?
Garden doors are a popular style of exterior door, opening outwards like traditional entryway doors. Sometimes homeowners shy away from these doors. Their main concern is that only one door opens for passage since the other one remains fixed.
What Is a French Door?
French doors are popular choices for interior and exterior doors. This type of door consists of multiple panes of glass within a frame. Today’s French doors draw heavy influence from Italian Renaissance art and architecture, coming in Victorian, prairie, and contemporary styles.
How Are Garden and French Doors Different?
The main difference between garden doors and French doors is their hinges. French doors use a sliding mechanism, while garden doors get screwed to one side. French doors slide open and close on a track, connecting your home to the outdoors, whereas garden doors swing wide open.
That’s how they get their names: sliding French doors and swinging garden doors.
Garden Doors vs. French Doors: An In-Depth Comparison
A choice between garden-style doors and French doors is a personal one. Nonetheless, knowing the pros and cons of each might help.
1. Style and Design
Garden doors can dramatically change the appearance of a home and match a particular style. With their retro and sophisticated design, garden doors will boost your home’s curb appeal and market value. Choose from different styles, colors, frames, finishes, and hinge swings.
French doors offer a modern, contemporary look that can enhance newer home designs. Stylish sliding doors provide security as well as full open-door ventilation. Three and four-panel configurations are available in a variety of sizes and heights.
2. Physical Space
Before making a decision, it is essential to consider how the door interacts with your deck or patio. French doors do not open outwards and can maximize your space. With the sliding design, you have complete control of your patio without sacrificing space.
On the other hand, garden doors have the advantage of optional double doors. Double doors open wide, making it easy to move furniture and appliances inside and outside the house.
3. Sturdiness
French doors lack solid center support because the two doors open and close. The foot bolts used for French doors are not as strong as the doors are not securely attached to the frame. In contrast, garden doors have a sturdy center support with a fixed door.
Garden Doors can withstand regular and daily use without any failure. The sliding mechanism on French doors may require maintenance as the rails can get stuck or go off the tracks. These days most modern doors provide smooth gliding operation.
4. Cost
The budget can play a significant role in choosing garden doors vs. French doors. Costs can vary depending on the type of material, features, and customizations. Generally, garden doors tend to be more expensive than French doors.
5. Energy Efficiency
Since garden doors are a combination of steel and wood, they lose heat quickly and are not energy efficient. On the plus side, available ventilation options help maintain the indoor air temperature and save energy.
French doors use high-quality materials and insulated glass for better energy efficiency, while sliding doors are essentially large windows. These doors offer all the standard features and potential add-ons with energy-efficient technology.
Additionally, French doors can have double or triple panes and Low-E coatings for UV protection. A tight seal around the door ensures lower energy use and stabilizes indoor temperatures.
6. Natural Light
With new doors, you want natural light entering from the back of the home, and French doors are a perfect choice. Sliding glass doors have the greatest surface area and the ratio of glass to frame, providing the highest quantity of natural light for your home.
French doors also provide an unobstructed view of your backyard, garden, deck, or patio. Whereas garden door components do not leave enough room for glass, making it harder for light to enter your home.
7. Privacy
Garden doors are an excellent choice for homeowners who want privacy. French doors are glass panes that offer a clear view inside your home. Garden doors can be customized entirely for privacy as you can pick the type of glass.
8. Security
French doors are an extremely safe option for residential properties. Garden doors typically have one lock making them less secure. Multi-locking mechanisms are available for added security, but they are costly.
French doors feature tempered glass and built-in security features for maximum safety and protection. In addition, the sliding design allows for the integration of an optional security bar, deadbolts, and kick locks.
How Can The Window Experts Help?
Garden doors and French doors from The Window Experts are an elegant way to effortlessly transition your indoor space with the outdoors. With beautiful doors in your Ontario home, you can start enjoying your outdoor living space.
The biggest decision you will make in your home design is choosing your exterior doors, but even the best doors cannot perform without professional installation. With over five years of experience, we are experts at installing doors. From aesthetics to energy efficiency, our doors will exceed all your expectations.
The Window Experts are fully committed to giving our customers a less stressful and far more caring approach to door installation by redefining the typical remodeling process. We will work closely with you from design to installation and provide exceptional customer service.
We provide:
- Best-in-class products
- Skilled artisans
- Warranty for door installations
Our team is here to help you create a home that you love, and it all starts with contacting us to learn more about how we can help. Garden doors vs. French doors – it’s your choice!
Contact The Windows Experts today to revitalize your home with top-quality exterior doors. Call us at (905) 875-2596.
