April 11, 2024

Take a Closer Look: Our Slim Sliding Systems

Written by Rebecca Clayton

The IQ Glass showroom in Amersham is the UK’s largest dedicated architectural glazing showroom. We receive over 250 visitors to our showroom each month. Each visitor comes here with the sole purpose of learning more about architectural glazing and the applications possible on their project.

As you enter the Courtyard at Sky House one of the first things you will see is our slim sliding door show box. This standalone building is the show space for our popular window/door system.

More than just a sliding door; the minimal system is a moving glass façade system with ultra slim sightlines of just 20mm. The beauty of this slim sliding door is not just in its minimal framing, but also in its versatility, enabling architects and specifiers to tailor the system to their project.

At the Courtyard showroom, we try to showcase the most popular configurations and options.

Slim Sliding Doors

Two walls of the showroom are made entirely from slim framed sliders. The shortest wall showcases a two-track sliding configuration and the other shows a three track. These two opening types are the most popular configuration of sliding doors and help clients understand the differences between the two options.

Opening Corner Configuration

The two and three track sliders are installed with an opening 90-degree corner. The slim framed system can be designed with opening corners from 65 to 177 degrees, but a right-angle opening is by far the most popular.

One advantage our system has over some other slim sliders is that you can have uneven elevations meeting at a corner (for instance a two-track and a three track). The showroom captures a real-life example of how that connection works at both the head and base frame.

Pocket Door

At the rear of our luxury door show space, you can see a single-track pocket door. The large sliding door slots back into a hidden pocket within the wall. Our systems can be designed as pocket doors from 1 to 4 tracks deep.

This is another advantage of our minimalist system; some sliding systems that offer pocket doors can only do this from two tracks to four (if you want a single slider you need to use a two-track system, have space for two tracks within the wall and then just block one of those up).

With the slim sliding door system, you can have a single-track slider that slots effortlessly back into the wall whilst maintaining all the minimal detailing of the sliding system. Lots of visitors mistake this door with a frameless window and are shocked when we slide it open!

Slim Sliders as a Window

When clients want to exactly match their opening windows to their sliding doors, we can use the slim sliding system as a sliding window to do this. By using the same profiles for the windows as the doors architects can create a more cohesive glazing design.

At the showroom, you will be able to see a two-pane sliding system shown as a smaller sliding window. In the configuration shown both panes are sliding and showcase two different locking options; the manual thrust lever lock or the manual internal key lock. Both locks maintain the slim profiles and offer the same level of security, they are just operated via a different means.

Base Options

Another great feature of the sliding door system is the integrated drainage base. Normally you wouldn't be able to investigate this as it is always hidden below the floor finishes. At the showroom, we have various hand samples of the different base options to show you what happens below the floor.

The sliding door installed in the box showcases the drainage base paired with an external French drain. Our hand samples also showcase alternative options with integrated external drainage channels.

The Vitra Pivot

Inside the Sky House building, you will also be able to see the large Vitra Pivot solution. This is a pivot opening solution made from the same profiles as the slim framed slider. These large pivot windows can be used for feature openings where large singular elements of opening glass are wanted.

The system installed at the showroom is very large and includes the D pull handle in two finishes, the thrust lever handle locking and the hold open, self-close mechanism.

 

Frame Finish Options

The slim framed sliding doors in the courtyard showroom are powder coated in everyone’s favourite version of grey; RAL 7016, anthracite grey. In addition, we have take-away samples of the most popular powder-coated colours and a full wall showing all the RAL colour options available.

As the sliding system can be powder coated in any RAL colour you have a lot of design flexibility.

Come and see for yourself!

If you are interested in slim framed systems or are looking for one for your project then contact us to make your appointment to see the showroom for yourself.

Visit the Contact Us Page for ways to get in touch.

 

Interested in Sliding Doors?

Download our FREE sliding doors eBook: Choosing and Specifying Sliding Doors. It offers some general advice for specifying sliding doors as well as giving you a rundown of all the sliding door systems available for your project (with a cost guide at the back).