Month: August 2017

One popular trend in the housing industry is called the “Tiny House Movement.” Over the past few years, there’s been some big talk about these tiny living spaces and what they can offer, in comparison to a typical home. The conversation has, in large part, been led by minimalist millennials, who are seeking affordable, realistic ways to become home owners.
The concept of “Tiny House Living” appeals to many for the following reasons:

1. They cost less than traditional, larger single family homes.
2. The amount financed is less, meaning smaller monthly payments.
3. It takes less time to pay off a tiny house mortgage than on a conventional home.
4. Thanks to innovation space-saving designs, people can have most of the comforts they typically associate with larger homes.

Tiny houses are typically considered those types of residences that have 500 or less square feet of living space, with those between 500 and 1,000 square feet considered small homes. Even though people are taking an interest in tiny and small homes, they do have privacy complaints and other concerns about floor plans and home designs.

• Problem: The doors swing out and reduce the amount of livable square footage in the home.

Resolution: Replace swing out doors with pocket doors. Pocket doors are a special type of sliding door that is recessed in between the wall and which slides fully out of the way, into the wall, so they do not take up valuable floor space in tiny and small homes.

• Problem: There are no clearly defined living spaces, and it feels like living in an efficiency.

Resolution: Sliding glass door room dividers can help define living spaces and offer privacy between the different areas within the home. They can easily slide open to provide a larger space to entertain guests or closed off when you want your privacy

• Problem: Installing pocket doors would pose too much of an issue, as there are electrical/plumbing concerns or insufficient space in between the wall for a door.

Resolution: For these types of sliding door complaints, you should consider an overhead sliding door where the door track mounts above the doorway on one side of the doorframe. You still gain the added living space as you would by using a pocket door and the privacy you want in your tiny or small home. These are also called “Wall slide doors”.  They hug the wall when they slide open and easily close for privacy any time. They can even lock with a key if needed.

• Problem: Glass doors would be more elegant than solid wood or metal framed doors, but do not provide sufficient privacy.

Resolution: Have your pocket and sliding doors custom fabricated (glass doors are fabricated in our factory), using laminated or tempered glass types that are opaque and offer varying levels of visual privacy such as:

• Opaque Laminated
• Smoked Milky
• White Laminated
• Black
• Frosted
• Smoked Frosted
• Deluxe Milky
• Milky, and More!

To learn more about our sliding door solutions for your tiny or small home or condo, please feel free to call The Sliding Door Company at 888-988-5033 today to arrange an in-home consultation to discuss your needs and obtain a FREE quote!

Today’s gorgeous, bright open-space and loft homes boast an airy, minimalist feel. Well … they do if you figure out exactly how and where to stash all your stuff! Living the minimalist lifestyle can be exceptionally difficult in these wide open spaces; rather than having cupboards, closets, and rooms to hide away unused items, you need to work with the space you have.

If you’re renting, you can’t always just start installing new walls or carving up your space into rooms (sometimes you can’t even if you own). So, what can you do? Use these creative ways to hide clutter instead.

Wall Slide Doors = Instant Transformable Walls!

Need a larger solution? Wall slide doors make it easy to split up your space without any need for permanent restructuring inside your condo or loft. Hang them in patterns to create an entirely new room, section off the living room into two spaces, or split a bedroom into two and share your loft with a friend with ease. Or, better yet, create a small storage room in the back of your open-concept room to stash all those clutter-inducing goods.

Wall slide doors have an additional benefit, too; they’re easy to install and can enable the creation of a guest bedroom, pet room, home office, or other room without needing to pack up and move to a brand-new apartment. Because they’re so easy to install, most landlords are more than happy to allow them in the first place to combat clutter complaints that are so common in today’s open floor plan homes and lofts.

Work Upward

Loft spaces leave little room for hiding clutter, and that typically means there’s at least one pile that ends up sitting in a corner somewhere hidden by a piece of furniture. Though this may work temporarily, it certainly isn’t anything the perfect solution. Instead, stack crates and wooden boxes with hinged covers pointing down in geometrical arrangements against a wall. Stash all your most precious books, knick-knacks, and extras inside. With the hinged door down, you can’t see any of the clutter.

Use Shelving to Your Advantage

If you can’t use crates or boxes (rambunctious pet, perhaps?) shelving can sometimes be a reasonable alternative. The only downside is you need to be able to install hardware to the wall, and you need to be able to reach it in the first place. This solution is best for small items like statues, candles, and decorations.

Use Hanging Racks in the Kitchen

Figuring out how to hide clutter in the kitchen is perhaps the most difficult challenge of all. You have food, dishes, glasses, and pots/pans to stash away. If you don’t have cabinet space, this becomes even more difficult. Instead of keeping your dishware and pots in boxes or baskets, hang them from ceiling racks or directly on the wall in decorative patterns. They’ll stay up and out of the way without appearing like clutter.

As for everything else, counter baskets are fantastic for spices, spoons, forks, and other necessities. Use either wooden, metal, or hard plastic baskets to best suit the overall look of your home.

Struggling to find creative ways to hide clutter? Open concept living has its benefits, but it does require a bit of compromise. Contact The Sliding Door Company today to find out more about how sliding wall doors can make your space more accessible, comfortable, and suited to your needs.

ADA- (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant doors and hardware have been an essential part of retail stores, office buildings, and other public facilities and places for years. With Baby Boomers approaching their senior years, these types of concerns are now also essential considerations for new home construction, especially in senior communities, as well as existing homes that may need to be updated.

Since businesses already must be ADA-compliant, we are going to look at handicap and elderly complaints in regards to housing needs and what sorts of things people with these issues desire in their homes.

Standard Doorways/Door Complaints by the Handicapped and Elderly

The doorways are not wide enough.

Even though the ADA requirements for doorways are a minimum of 32 inches and a maximum of 4 feet, this is not always sufficient if someone is in a wheelchair or is using a walker.

Solution: In private residences, doorways can be made wider with minor alterations to existing homes or modified on floor plans for newly constructed homes to suit the individual’s needs.

ADA compliant room divider with Extended designer handle. Sliders have about 3 lbs of push pressure.

The door gets in the way.

The door must not obstruct the doorway and must be able to open a minimum of 90 degrees. Yet, again, this can create issues for those with a handicap and for seniors because it does not fully move out of the way.

Solution: Replace doors that are able to fully open beyond 90 degrees with sliding doors that can move completely out of the way.

The door knob/handle is hard to grasp.

For those with arthritis or other problems with their hands, certain types of door knobs and handles are difficult to turn and open. Based on the ADA requirements, knobs and handles should be easy to grasp and turn.

Solution: Replace non-ADA-compliant door handles and knobs with ones that are, like our door hardware, fully ADA-compliant.

Sliding Door Complaints by the Handicapped and Elderly

The door is difficult to slide open and closed.

This type of situation is common in traditional sliding doors, like the ones that go out to the patio or terrace. There can be different causes for this problem but, often, it is related to the type of door hardware used on the door or the condition of the door tracks.

Solutions: Make sure the sliding door has an ADA compliant handle. Our doors have less than 3lbs of push pressure which is well under the 5lb max for ADA compliance. Verify the tracks are clean and free from dirt and debris. Our ADA compliant accessories make it easy for everyone to enter and leave a space whenever needed.

As people are living longer, and the largest population segment is entering its golden years, it is important to ensure the doors in your home will meet your needs today and in the future. For ADA-compliant door handles, locks, and other hardware or easy-to-operate sliding doors, please feel free to contact The Sliding Door Company at 888-988-5033 today to schedule a consultation and obtain a free quote!

If you are like just about everyone else with a full closet, finding creative ways to hide clutter is a common topic of conversation about your house. Unfortunately, the way many closets are designed causes this problem, because they aren’t built to maximize the existing space, including the way the doors themselves are designed.

Sliding Doors

Not all sliding doors are the same – some slide on a rail and fold together, and others slide on a rail so that one side of the closet is always covered. The folding doors leave more space, but they don’t usually last as long and tend to get in the way. Plus, stacking doors allow for easy access to everything on the inside, including all sides and middle!

Then there are the sliding doors from The Sliding Door Company that slide in front of the closet and along the wall. They are sturdy and attractive, but they don’t take up any extra space, so you have access to your entire closet. These doors are often referred to as wall slide doors or barn doors.

Once you’ve decided on doors, you’ll be amazed at how much use you really get out of your closet. Those boxes you had stashed behind the doors? You might actually go through them, finally. Clearing out clutter will not only help you make more space or find some goodies you forgot you had, but it will also allow for super easy access to everything!

Other issues with the average sliding and folding doors include pinched fingers and areas that are hard to clean. Since the doors never really get out of the way, it’s difficult to get the little dust and debris particles that can get stuck in the corners and tracks. Unfortunately, it’s not just small children who get their fingers pinched! These issues only lead to more sliding door complaints that the wall slide doors can eliminate. Safety and quality are built into every panel that we fabricate in our own factory.

Shelving and Rods

Rather than hanging a straight rod across your entire closet, you might find it more convenient to use a closet organizing system so that you have multiple rods at multiple heights. Your shirts can hang directly over your skirts or additional clothing, thus doubling the closet space you have available.

You can do the same thing with shelves. Rather than having one long top shelf that holds things you often can’t see or even reach, a closet organizer can offer shelves on multiple levels so you can see and access the things you really need.

Creative Accessories

Then there are those small items you need to hang up or leave out for convenience, like robes, belts, hats, scarves and lingerie. Consider a few hooks just inside the doors, now that you can get to that spot. You might also use stackable hangers so that essential smaller and lighter items hang on one hanger in descending order.

Many people underestimate how important their closet is, but where do you keep your most important items? This is where you protect your clothing and accessories, but it’s also where you might store valuable items and materials. You need to be able to access every area of your closet with ease in order to use it properly. Once you have your closet in the shape you want it, you can move on to the rest of the house and make organizing your things as easy as they should be to access.
Reach out to The Sliding Door Company today for your FREE consultation to learn more about our wall-slide doors that are sure to be the dream solution to organizing your closet!