Get stylish with sliders

Jagvir Goyal

When the Omni minivan was launched by Maruti Suzuki way back in 1984, its sliding backseat door fascinated all. A similar feeling arose when sliding doors started being used in homes. Yet these doors and windows didn’t become popular because of difficulty in their operation. Over time, the operation systems of sliding doors have improved. These can now be operated effortlessly. 

The regular single leaf or double leaf openable doors and windows make it difficult to operate blinds and curtains. It is here that sliding shutters or simply called ‘sliders’ come to rescue. Sliding shutters also come in handy in bedrooms when space has to be left on each side of the bed for side tables and occupant’s movements. Also sometimes, a wall at right angle is not available to open a door against it and the opened door becomes an obstruction. Sliding doors look stylish and remain confined to door and window frame section. However, their smooth and noiseless operation and easy locking arrangement are essential. In order to provide them, it has to be seen whether enough wall or window space is available to accommodate the sliding shutter when opened. Keep the following observations in mind:

Check the weight

Sliders lose charm if these get stuck during sliding. Therefore, their smooth operation must be ensured and repeatedly checked during installation. For their smooth operation, two things need to be  focused upon — weight of the shutter and the rolling arrangement.

Good quality sliding doors are made to hang on the roller brackets which have to bear the weight of the door. Therefore, the sliding door shouldn’t be made too heavy. Heavier is the door, stronger and costlier shall be the fittings. The weight of the door can be reduced by choosing lesser thickness of glass panel provided in the door.

Roller arrangement

For doors up to 100 kg, choose top track in aluminium, along with double rollers with brackets to hang the door. One bracket should be fixed on each top edge side of the door and the rollers should be allowed to run freely in the track. Tracks are available in lengths varying from 5 feet to 12 feet. The rollers should be provided with high performance ball bearings. Check that the rollers carry height adjustment feature for smooth running of door and maintaining a gap of 3 to 6 mm between the track and the door. For heavier doors having width up to 6 feet and weight around 200 kg, four rollers should be provided per panel. 

Get floor guides

In case of doors, it is better to provide a floor guide for each door. It can be surface mounted and screwed to the floor. For surface-mounted floor guides, a plastic channel is usually set into the bottom of the door. Floor guides can also be run in a groove at the bottom of door. Otherwise, full width metal channel recessed in floor can be provided to guide the door.

Locks and latches 

Doors: Providing a locking arrangement for a sliding door can be tricky. When the sliding doors are provided for the storeroom or walk in closet, one would want to lock the sliding door as valuables are often stored or a small home safe is installed there in a cupboard. For such doors, safe, simple and cheapest method is to provide a latch bolt on the vertical stile of the door. The bolt slides into the hole provided in the side frame and a lock can be put over the latch bolt. Flush locks provided at the edge of sliding doors are often unsuccessful and can be opened with little force. Electronic locks are also available but check their cost before making choosing. 

Windows: In case of sliding window shutters, an inside locking arrangement can be easily provided. uPVC (Un-plasticised Poly Vinyl Chloride) windows have the hardware items fixed to them and one need not buy these items separately and get these fixed on the windows. The hardware items include handles, locks, lifters and sliding handles. In case of wooden sliding shutters for windows, special types of tower bolts are available in the market. At the top of tower bolt, an additional arrangement is provided to bolt the tower bolt by making a hole in the top rail of the frame at a location that is clear of the channel for shutter and rollers. This is a thoughtful item devised and marketed by some hardware manufacturers. 

Track stoppers & other fittings 

In sliding doors and windows, recess type handles are preferable to operate them. One should always provide track stoppers at the end of tracks to prevent the door from sliding out of the track. Slip the track stopper on the end of the track and tighten it with a hex key especially provided for this purpose. These stoppers are provided by the track supplier.

Choice of Material

Wood, uPVC and aluminium are the three options available for sliding doors and window shutters. Glazed wooden doors and shutters are the best option. When a glazed door is chosen for a walk-in-closet, tinted glass can 

be chosen for the panels. uPVC shutters are getting popular and can be chosen for windows only. Doors provided in uPVC create problem as the bottom member of the frame can’t be omitted. In such a case, one has to step over the bottom member while passing through a door which proves inconvenient. Moreover, any luggage or items taken inside or outside of the door can’t be rolled through. One has to pick these up and carry over the bottom member of the door way.

Aluminium sliding shutters are economical but care has to be taken that there is no play in them due to their lightweight. Multiple colour choice is available in case of uPVC or aluminium shutters and the colour can be matched with that of wooden joinery in the house.

— The writer is HoD and chief, civil engineering department in a Punjab PSU