Beginners Guide to selecting a Sliding Door System
Sliding door gear is available in a wide range of shapes and sizes, with various systems on the market to suit different needs. The variety can be overwhelming if you're unsure of what to look for, but understanding your options can make the process much easier.
Once you have made the decision to incorporate a sliding door into your project, the first step is to decide whether you would require a Straight sliding door system or a Pocket door system – please see the definitions below:
Straight Sliding Sytem
For residential and commercial applications, sliding doors are a great way to save space, open rooms, increase natural light and provide easy access.
Or
Pocket Door System
Slides into a hidden compartment or recess within the adjacent wall.
Straight sliding door systems also come in many different styles to match the aesthetic of the room it will be installed in.
As this is only a beginner’s guide, we are going to focus on top hung straight sliding door systems.
To order or specify the correct system, you will need to obtain the below door details:
- Height
- Weight
- Width
- Thickness
A common misconception that people have is that ordering the highest weight capacity system means that you are ordering a better system, this is not the case as it is imperative that you order the correct weight capacity system. If you order a door system that’s weight capacity is far superior to the weight of the door, the door will not run smoothly.
Let’s imagine that the door dimensions are as per the below:
Height: 1981mm, Width: 762mm, Weight 85KG and Thickness: 44mm.
These details will allow us to select the correct sliding door system.
Now we have these details, we can start looking at the straight sliding door gear category on the website.
You will note that the weight capacity increases in increments of 40kg, 50kg, 70kg, 80kg, 90kg and 150kg. There are also other door systems on this page such as self closing systems and barn door systems.
As we know the weight of our door is 45KG, we can select the next weight bracket sliding system which is the: Saheco SF-P50 Sliding Door Track Fitting Set 50 kg.
The next step is to select the correct length of these tracks. As a rule of thumb, we need to ensure that there is enough space on the track for the door to sit on the track and has enough space to slide and cover the opening of the door. This means that we will need to double the size of the door to give us our track length.
As we know the door is 762mm we will need to double this to allow the movement as mentioned above – this gives us a total length of 1524mm.
You will see below the 3 different sizes available for this track. Based on our calculations above, we know that the 1495mm is too sort which means that we will need to select the 2000mm track.
Most of our straight sliding door system tracks can be cut down on site to meet the required length.
Once you get more comfortable choosing your door system, you will notice that there are a wide range of accessories that you can order for your sliding door system such as soft close, synchronisation systems, additional hanger bracket for double doors.
As you will see, we have only scratched the surface when it comes to Sliding Systems – we have a dedicated sales team who have the knowledge to ensure you find the correct system. Please feel free to give us a call and go through your requirements with us.
We can even sell you the handles, locks and anything else that you may require.
