One of the advantages of aluminium bifolding doors is the wide availability of colour.
Traditionally white, silver and brown were the most common colours on older aluminium products. Doors and windows would often be fitted in hardwood subframes and choice was generally limited.
Today your new aluminium bifolding doors and windows are available in a huge choice of colours including some you may not be aware about.
Colour choices for bifolding doors.
The powder coating process on aluminium doors has been used for over forty years. As technology has advanced so has powder coating. It is now very environmentally friendly and offers a virtually unlimited choice of colours.
Generally, most colours are chosen from the RAL colour chart. The RAL is now an internationally recognised standard that is widely used in commercial and residential aluminium coating.
There are also other colour “references” available such as Syntha Pulvin and British Standards. These are more widely used commercially but still possible to obtain if their specific colour is what you require. However in the vast majority of cases, RAL numbers provide sufficient choice for most requirements.
Metallic colours for bifolding doors.
Recent advancements have introduced metallic effect colours to polyester powder coating. These, unlike the satin, matt of gloss static colours of the RAL range are metallic in appearance giving a very subtle metal look typical of natural aluminium or silver.
One further addition to the metallic range of colours is a textured finish. This replicates surfaces such as granite, sandstone and general “stone” appearances with a rough surface. This type of powder coated colour has been hugely popular in Europe for several years already.
Anodised Aluminum.
A further choice available to you is anodising. This is not powder coating and has been around far longer. The Anodising process involves oxygen and aluminium having a chemical reaction that creates a film on the natural aluminium. This creates an even more realistic metal look to doors.
Colours available apart from shades of silver include bronze, gold and differing shades of grey and blue to name but a few.
What to remember with powder coated bifolding doors and windows.
It is perfectly possible that your windows may come from a different supplier to your bifolding doors.
In order to ensure a consistent colour match, it is important that that same RAL reference is used but also the same powder manufacturer of the RAL colour. There are several different manufacturers of polyester powder including Interpon, Tiger, Axalta and others. Whilst they all use industry standard colour charts there can be differences in the colours from company to company.
Therefore if you are having aluminium bifolding doors and windows from different suppliers check that they use the same make of powder. This is the best way to ensure that your windows and doors will match.
