Presuming that we are talking about YOUR house, why on earth do you care what I prefer?

Your house design is about YOU.

There are pluses and minuses to both. French doors tend to seal better, open and close with less efort and look more upscale than sliders.

However, sliders conserve on space and top quality ones seal better than the old clunkers I used to see 25 years ago. Lately, I find myself using both styles in the same home.

jennymama, We chose French doors because I remember having a sliding door a couple of houses ago and kids getting their fingers closed in them. Also, I just closed a sliding door at an open house last weekend and it was sooooooooo heavy. On the side of the sliding door, I like the way you can put a metal bar down to lock it well. I am putting in French doors.

Gee, lowellches. Why bother posting?

We have seven pair of french doors on our main level and three on the lower. I'm not fond of sliders.

What style home are you building?

We did Pella French doors with built-in shade. Very happy with them a year later. Pella doors are great.

yes, the sliding doors can save space, but I think french doors will give it a better look.

It's a matter of personal taste, layout and budget. Just don't choose a cheap door; these things only work if they are well made.

Thanks for the responses. We are in the south, and we are building a country house with a large front porch. We will have 3 sets of either sliders or french doors (possibly using both) - living room, master bedroom and a set in the basement opening to the patio.

Dh and I looked at a set of Anderson sliders at Home Depot that were NICE. Sliding doors have come a long way!
We are still leaning towards french doors, though. Sounds like that is what the majority of posters prefer as well.

What about windows? Single-hung or double-hung, or does it depend on the location (ie. upstairs where you would need a double-hung to clean it properly; or a single-hung on the ground-level floor where you could easily clean it from the outside)? Or should all windows be single or double hung? What about brands? We live in a small town, so Lowe's/Home Depot will probably get a lot of our business.

Lowellches - The intent of my post was to gather opinions to help make an informed decision...is't that part of the reason for these boards?

We love our french doors.
We are in the south, too. We have double hung windows. We have fixed windows, too for a clean look for our windows in our family room.

My DH and I went round and round on this issue. The bottom line is, Decide the "feel" and "look" you want for the room you have in mind for the doors. French and sliders each envoke a completely different feel and purpose.
I had a pair of Anderson sliders in my old house (the one we tore down for our new one), I loved them because they felt like heavy quality doors which opened out to a back courtyard. Sliders really have come a long way!
In our new home, the sliders didn't give the feel I wanted for our front rooms, but we are using them for our back courtyard doors again (more informal, didn't want to invade into the space of the room). Again, it's all the about the look and purpose you intend for the room in question.
Hope this helps.
btw, we have installed all casement windows, because it was the look we wanted.

Boy, lowellches, that was mean-spirited.

We have casement windows, which I love. We like the benefit of a completely open window, especially living in San Diego, as they let more breeze through. Fairly easy to clean, too (well, once a year, anyway). I like your idea of combining French doors and sliders.

We have multiple french doors around most of the house but went with 8x8' and 8x16' sliders in the back to make the most of the view. I see them as more like windows that you happen to be able to walk through rather than the doorways that separate you more visually and psychologically from the outdoors.

For windows we mixed single hung, fixed and sliders depending on where they were and how they would be catching the breezes. No casements, however. We are in a potentially high wind area and I was afraid casements would get ruined if we had a big wind blow through.

You won't be able to do single hung windows in lower level rooms unless the room also has an outside door. By code, bedrooms must have two egress points.

We are also in the south and have three large verandas. Love them. Are you having a screened in area also?

We went with casements as well.

jenny

If you pick patio/french doors - I recommend the 3 point locking system. I know that the Anderson A400 series has them since this is what we used - but I know there are others. I find the 3 pt locks seal much better. I chose Anderson because I love the frictionless doors (there is no rubber seal at the bottom that you have to fight to push the door open). Make sure you analyze the swing of the doors to make sure that you won't hit furniture inside or outside - you need a lot more clearance than you think once you place furnture in the rooms. That might ultimately drive the selection of slider vs. french.

I wouldn't bother with single-hung. You rarely see them in new construction. We did mostly double-hung, with casements where they made sense (over kitchen sink, square windows in shed dormer). As far as french doors vs. sliding doors, where will they be used? We used a french door in the great room. It is the style with one fixed side where the other side wraps over it. We also have two sliders where having a door open in would have interferred with furniture.

"You won't be able to do single hung windows in lower level rooms unless the room also has an outside door. By code, bedrooms must have two egress points."

There is no code where we are resticting single-hung windows anywhere.

Is there not a code about a second egress in bedrooms, in case of a fire?

We currently have french doors in our home and the plan we have decided on has 6 sets...we are thinking of using sliders in some areas instead because of view, space concerns, traffic flow and screening. I love the look of French doors, but for us the sliders might make more sense, at least that is what DH tells me....I am coming around. :) We will have windows on either side of each slider and substantial trim blending it all together to get a more traditional look.

Good thread, jenny!
We have 10 pairs of Peachtree French doors in current home. Yes, the south too. Would not use Peachtree again. They look great, but don't seal well. Undecided which French doors to put in new home.
bluegrass, do your Pellas seal well? sniffdog, what about your Anderson?
The sliding patio doors do take much better advantage of beautiful views. luckymom, after reading your post, I may consider putting them across back of house. The way you described framing them would give a much more traditional look. Please post a photo as you proceed.
Has anyone posting used channelled glass or butted glass?

emmachas,
Uh oh...I knew this day would come...now I have to go back and read the threads on posting pictures so I can do it too. I actually have a picture, a few in fact that show what I was talking about, so I will learn how to do the pics ASAP so I can be a fully contributing member of Garden Web BAH!

Ok, so my 12 year old showed me how to do this as she fixed my hair in many little braids...so you didn't need to know that but here goes with the pictures!
One is the slider the other a similar look with French Doors.
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emmachas

I had peachtree builder grade patio doors in our last house and they were - well - horrible. Theses were early 90's doors, single point locks, and rubber seal at bottom. They warped, had very large seams where air got in, and had to be replaced. You know you need new doors when duct tape is needed on the inside to block the cold air.

I stumbled on the Anderson A400 series doors by accident - a guy at home depot suggested we price them just as we were about to hit the order button for another brand. The pricing was so good at the time that I decided to given them a try. Glad I did - I love the A400 doors.

It is the combination of the frictionless door and the 3 pnt locks that I really like. The door seals tight because the rubber seal is mounted around the flat face of the door (no rubber seal under the bottom of the door with separate weather stripping attached to the door frame). When you pull up on the handle you get a great seal all the way around. After I got rid of the peachtree's and put in A400's - our heating bill dropped significantly. We also open and close these doors many times each day (dogs & deck lounging) so not having to fight the door to get it open was a great feature.

The a400 doors made such a great impression on me, that I insisted that we put them into our new home being built. The builder typically uses another brand - but i wanted the andersons given our experience with them.

When deciding between slider and french doors, be sure to consider whether you have room for the door to swing. We went with a slider in the eating area of our kitchen becasue we didn't have room for a door to swing in to the dining area and the deck outside the dining area is small so we didn't want to have to leave space in that area for an out-swing door either. We have the Andersen 400 windows and like them and our triple slider is also Andersen but I can't remember if it's 400 series or the woodwright series.

I have a slider in this house and will never have another. The tract gets dirty, especially if you have pet hair. DH has to take the entire thing apart at least 3 times a year to clean and replace the ball bearings or whatever they are called.

I have french doors at the new house and no more dirty tracts to deal with.

Lots of great responses!

Sniffdog, I was looking at the same Anderson slider you have. Glad to hear you are pleased with it.

Luckymom, wonderful pictures! I love a 'wall' of windows.

Furniture placement will not be an issue for me as far as patio doors go, however the view is a big factor for me. We are building a very open floorplan with a long back wall that will have a set of patio or sliding doors and several sets of windows. I really never thought about a slider having a better view than a patio door so I will have to check out trim widths.
Lucky for me, I have extra time since it has been one of the wettest years on record (we're still trying to get footings poured)...Yes, that was sarchasim!

Sigh...Decisions, decisions!

"Is there not a code about a second egress in bedrooms, in case of a fire?"

The code (where we are and other places I am familiar with) requires an egress to the outside that is a mininum height and width AND a certain number of square inches (also can't be too high off the floor). They only count the clear open area. So in the case of a double hung or single hung window, slide the lower section up - that open area is what is measured. The difference between a DH and SH is that with a SH only the lower portion moves (the upper section is fixed and can't slide down as it does with a DH). But in this case it doesn't matter. It is the lower open section that is measured. In the case of a SH, the window has to be slightly bigger than a DH does, but not much (something to do with the way the lower sash slides up, I think you need another 2" or so).

The theory is that a firefighter in full gear needs to be able to get through. Which is a joke, since they will just take an ax to the window. It's not like we all leave our windows unlocked so they can rescue us. They just smash the window out.

Replaced a slider in the current house with french doors several years ago. Will never go back to a slider because of the filthy track that is a continual cleaning nightmare. Use Pella; it's been okay so far.

Local distributor who handles pretty much everything told us "Anderson doors; Marvin windows, and you'll have the best." For what that's worth to you.

luckymom, thanks for the photo! (I still haven't succeeded in posting one!) I love the way that patio door opens the view. And, the framing really does make the whole unit look very traditional. Beautiful!
sniffdog, thanks for the additional info on the Anderson doors. Like you, I will never buy Peachtree ANYTHING again.