Attractive Sliding Plantation Shutters for sliding glass Patio Doors

Many people are searching for a better way to furnish sliding glass patio doors that lead outside. Why not consider sliding plantation shutter panels as these are ideal for sliding glass and stacker doors, and for partitions. They are practical and elegant and quite simple to install.

DIY Shutters offers a somewhat unique system for creating these plantation shutter panels for doorways.

It is typically a robust dual track system which does not need a bottom track. Imported systems use and require a bottom track as part of the ‘boxed-in’ design. This impedes access through the doorway.

The DIYShutters plantation shutter doors system also comes with a deep pelmet . Imported  ‘boxed-in’ systems are made so they can be pushed against the opening as an enclosed unit so they look clumsy. Their pelmet is typically a small flat piece of narrow MDF. The pelmet from DIYShutters is a nicely contoured solid wood piece painted in the same colour as the shutter panels. It can be between 102 mm and up to 140 mm high ( or deep) and comes with mitered returns, giving the installation a professional finish.

DIY Shutters sliding door arrangement is integrated with the building, or reveal, and is not ‘overdone’ but kept simple and clean.

With all shutter panel door sytems it may be possible for some light to come through between the panels and the architrave at a very low angle of incidence, but this can be blocked off if desired by attaching a light strip at either end.  In most instances, this is unnecessary (the photo #2119a does not have light- block strips).

Here are a few visual examples of how plantation shutters can be used to provide privacy and light control for patio doors. When moving from the room onto the patio it is important that it is easy to move through the sliding shutter panels and then through th sliding glass doors. Timber plantation shutters as supplied by DIYShutters are ideal as the material is light, being only two thirds the weight of PVC for example, or only 40% the weight of heavy aluminum as another example, so pushing a panel back to either side is easy. Furthermore, the shutter panels are hung from a robust overhead track. There is no track on the floor which means there is no drag from rollers attached to the bottom of the shutter panel which run along a track mounted to the floor, where dirt can accumulate impeding the movement. Imported Chinese made plantation shutter door systems nearly always use a cumbersome bottom track. DIYShutters has done away with the bottom track and uses a hidden fin to guide the panel instead.

Below is a typical PVC shutter door system. Note the ‘boxed in’ appearance and track strip along the floor. This bottom tarck also becomes a tripping hazard.

Note also that with PVC. a sliding shutter door will often be two panels joined together as the maximum width allowed for PVC shutter panels is 750 mm. This means more bulky plastic blocking your view.  Otherwise the louvres sag in the heat and under their own weight. DIYShutters plantation shutter panels for wide patio doors can be up to 1050 mm. This is one of a number of major advantages from using engineered timber; in so many ways wood is superior to PVC as a material for patio door plantation shutters. Timber plantation shutters just look more elegant.

For ultra wide patio doors, DIYSHutters offers a unique construction for the panel where a centre mullion, or metal strip, divides the louvre length into two. The plantation shutters still look elegant and ‘minimal’ and the view through the patio door is preserved. Shutter panels up to 1.5 metres as one single piece can be constructed this way. So a 3 metre wide patio door could be covered by just two ultra wide panels as in the photo. This is just not a practical possibilty with PVC. By using three panels of 1.5 m each, it is possible to cover a patio door opening of width up to 4.5 metres.

In some cases the customer has wanted four panels to cover a glass doorway leading onto a patio that was 4 metres wide and where the galss door panels opened out to either side from the centre. An example of this can be seen from the Stegbar site, configuration SD04. In this case the panels need not be the mullion type,  since two overhead tracks can accomodate an arrangement;  by placing two panels to the rear, and two at the front. Passing out through the shutter panels is achieved by sliding either of the centre panels to the side and then moving through the glass panel ‘stacker’ doors leading out onto the patio.

The last case is where the customer may have a glass door stacker panel system that is greater that 4.5 metres wide or alternatively they want the plantation shutter panels to stack back to either side so they have as much view through the glass patio door as possible. In this case DIYShutters would use a track on the floor, since for example, there may be three panels stacking to the left and three to the right, so three overhead tracks are needed, and because the panels will move more than the distance of their own width, a bottom track is required. Again please see the photos below.

The shutter door system from DIYShutters has the following key advantages:

1. simple three part system;

• a head board to which the tracks are attached
• 2,3,4, or more shutter panels which will slide along on an overhead dual track
• a pelmet which attaches to the head board to conceal the track system and add a professional finish

2.The above three components are ready to be mounted when they arrive and are unpacked.

3. It usually takes just 2 to 3 hours for a typical installation to a glass sliding or patio door of a typical home.

Installation is in the order above. The headboard simply screws up into the reveal of the patio door opening. The panels are hung on the carriers that move inside the tracks. Once everything else is complete, the pelmet is hung on the front of the head board.

In addition to the above, the carriers must be inserted into the tracks, the fins mounted to the floor, and if there are returns on the pelmet, these are added last by simply pushing them up over the dove tails on the front pelmet strip. If light block strips have been ordered, these will be need to attached to the shutter door panels. End Stops will need to be positioned to limit the travel of the shutter panels as required. That’s it. All done. The simplest of sliding shutter panel door systems offered exclusively by DIY Shutters.