Sliding door is a common type of door used in Singapore be it for HDB or Landed Properties. It is also commonly found in commercial building. The reason for such wide spread use is because compared to swing door, a sliding door is much more space saving and compact.
Most sliding door relies on a roller system and wear n tear will occur on the wheels of the roller system. Thus a replacement will be required 3-5 years after the installation. However, do know that there is a need to balance long term servicing of the door with the aesthetic outlook of the door. While most home owner are aiming for the minimalist style which would require a lot of concealing of system, do realise that this will have an impact on your home in the long term.
There are basically 2 types of sliding door.
The normal sliding door which we tend to see are those that leads you to your patio area in your home. A example of the door is as follows:
as a rule of thumb, the more of the system you can see, the easier it is to maintain. As show on the first picture, any sliding door repair work is hard as all parts are concealed. For the 2nd picture, any part replacement is easier to access.
The 2nd type of sliding door are pocket sliding door. Such doors are the hardest to repair and may require hacking of walls and partition in order to access. Below are 2 samples of pocket sliding door.
As seen above, the doors are moving into a concealed space and in some situation, the removal of the entire track is required to do the repair work. As such the only way to do the repair is to hack the portion that it is resting inside. In such cases it is common for the repair cost to escalate due to the job scope.
Which sliding door system is suitable for me?
While there is no right or wrong, from a stand point of a door repair specialist we will advise our client to go for a simple system which allows easy access for replacement of parts in the future.
While aesthetically not that pleasing, the burden on your wallet in the long run is worth it.
