Not too long ago I launched a couple of polls in which I asked readers to vote and tell me what they thought a good set of PVCu and aluminium bi-folding doors should cost a home owner. It followed my poll on what people thought a good composite door should cost a home owner. To see the results of that poll, you can click here.
I am now closing my bi-folding door poll to take a look at the results and see what the industry thinks bi-folding doors should cost the consumer.
The question and results
In this latest poll, I was asking readers to tell me what they thought bi-fold doors should cost home owners in both PVCu and aluminium. These were the questions:
Aluminium being undersold?
As expected, the most popular aluminium option was more expensive than the most popular PVCu option. But not by much. I actually expected the £5000-£6000 bracket to be the most popular option in the aluminium poll. As it turned out, most thought that a good PVCu bi-fold door should just be a nudge under what an aluminium one costs.
It leads me to believe that aluminium bi-folding doors are being undersold. Perhaps we are now seeing the effects of an industry that seems unable to stop the cycle in now finds itself in. Undercutting the competition to win business, whilst eating away at margins at the same time.
We have started to sell aluminium at our place, including bi-folds, and if I was taking part in the poll, I would have voted in the £5000-£6000, and maybe the one above. I have just recently quoted a customer for a 5-section Smarts bi-fold fabricated by Prefix. Glazed it came to £5600 give or take a quid, rising to roughly £6500 with integral blinds by Morley Glass. According to the poll results, we’d be in the higher brackets.
At £4000-£5000 I think aluminium bi-folds are being a tad undersold. Long term, this will be damaging for the sector. We all know what happened to the PVCu part of the market when it got stuck in the cycle of undercutting. Next to nothing margins and poor quality. The symptoms of a race to the bottom. Thankfully the PVCu market has turned itself round somewhat. However, I see the same trends in the aluminium bi-fold market. I fear we’re about to ruin it for ourselves again.
As for the PVCu bi-fold results, they’re about where I thought they would be. Cheaper than their aluminium counterparts. However, if the current pricing trend on the other side of the fence continues, that gap might not be so big in the years to come.
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