As an manufacturer of bifolding doors, this is always a discussion point with our clients - there are a range of choices Crimsafe make a bifolding security screen door - functions like a typical bifold but with the added security that only Crimsafe can offer There are retractable insect screens like Freedom, which we have used on several of our bifold installations, through ti Centor Or if you are really adventurous you would use an air curtain, above the bifold to deter the flies from coming in to the home at all (if you do a search for air curtains on google you will find a vast number, used extensive in commercial applications but creeping more and more in to our homes Enjoy your wide open space that your bifold will create - www.centralglass,net.au

If the front of the house is west facing in Queensland and you have glass on that side of the house, in summer in the afternoon the sun beats down on this side for hours, heating up the whole house. There is some speculation on double glazing as some think that they do heat up, better than nothing. Once the sun hits the wall you are lost. These image are for north this is worst for west. A more passive means of cooling the house is to install tall enough thick leaves to the base trees on the western side so that they shade that elevation. Problem with that is that in winter, that sun would be nice. So you need trees that drop their leaves early winter and have them back on say September when the sun starts to heat up. Some trees hold onto their leaves till a few weeks before spring, so make sure you do your research and think root barrier up front to protect your footings. Photo below horizontal external shade screens, Another method is to shade the house with screens, i said house not windows. With western sun, it is low when it starts to clear the roof overhangs, so no amount of horizontal shade devices will make any real difference. The screens for western sun in Queensland must be of a vertical nature. So screens that hang OUTSIDE the house to around say 900 mm off the ground would be fantastic. Since the sun travels around the west from more south west in peak summer to west in winter, vertical blades tend to be ideal solution and should pivot, to deal with this moving sun. In the past, Queenslanders used to have these vertical screens on castors and they moved them around to suit the conditions, for some reason we did not learn from the past. This house the screens are not shading the walls at the bottom so they would still heat up. From the plans i see you are building in brick, so western sun and bricks in summer make an ideal oven. Takes bricks 12 hours to cool down depending on the colour. All material heats up in the sun, but bricks take longer to cool, light weight material which is properly insulated is a better choice and against popular opinion, glass is also a good choice, all better if vertically screened. Double brick tends to keep a house cooler and you might as well use the double brick for structure instead of the decorative nature of cavity brick house, but after a while that heats up and takes forever to cool. Studs hold up the roof, not the face bricks. Ever wonder why the house stands up during construction with stud wall and roof? Photo is vertical blades which pivot. A good landscape architect would be worth a look and they will know how to blend your style of house with the garden. North windows in Queensland even with no overhangs, (which is stupid in Queensland) do not get sun into the rooms, but in winter it might crawl in say 2 M which is nice. What are you doing with the roof and concrete tiles heat up nicely and the darker you make them the hotter they get, Colorbond is a good choice with all the hail we tend to get, or keep a stockpile of tiles for when they break. Colour also makes a difference to heat. Make sure you vent the roof space, whirly birds, and vented eaves or gable ends, make sure you fully insulate the roof and also ceiling, and choose a light colour. choose a style of external screens or trees to fit the house. See if that makes a difference to the report which is there to make your life better and we are talking the cost of air con for the life of the house, the reports are there to help save you money, maybe a bit more up front but worth it in the long running cost of a house. Ros

Sharyn, your photo has a tiny gap between the top of the door and the underside of the square-set plasterboard. The laundry in your photo has been cleverly and beautifully designed, detailed, and supervised and I suspect that the track for the bi-fold doors has been concealed behind the square-set plasterboard. There isn't a lot of detail in the photo so it would be good to see how neat it looks when closed. I think that the square set opening to a small, heavy-duty, utility space is likely to become damaged and dirty before too long. I would probably spend my money on somewhere else and just go with a boring and practical MDF door reveal and architrave for a European style laundry. As always God is in the details and this particular detail will cost you as far as design, detailing and supervision. I hope you have a good designer (who likes getting the details right) and a good builder (who likes building to precise tolerances) on your team. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Levers are much easier to use than knobs particularly with you hands full so I prefer them on external doors. I thing they are better with large heavy doors that need a large latch to secure them as a knob would take more turning. Also think about the other hardware on the bifold. Are there long handles to pull those doors back and how would a knob match