Sliding patio doors are more popular than ever
By Russell Yates, managing director, AluK.
If you think AluK has been busy already this year with the launch of the new S140 lift and slide patio door, enhancements to our iconic BSF70 HI bi-fold door and a new Quik Clip clip-in bead system, you haven’t seen anything yet!
We’ve also got a new slim sightline inline slider on the way and a new HI version of our ever-popular BSC94 slider to come this summer.
We’re giving our customers as much choice and flexibility as we can to help them make the most of the opportunities which currently exist in doors – at entry level, mid-range and top end.
The latest consumer research from fenestration specialist, Keystone, suggests that sliding patio doors, like our S140 and BSC94, are currently the preferred option for buyers – overtaking both French doors and bi-folds in the spring quarterly update. There has also been encouraging growth over the past quarter in the number of buyers choosing new doors as ‘improvements’ rather than a necessary expense and we’ve seen price drop from being the second most important consideration for buyers at the start of the year to the fifth most important now – all of which is very good news for companies fabricating and fitting in aspirational aluminium.
As our door system range expands, the priority is to ensure that AluK customers have a solution available to offer to any type of customer – so that they never miss out on an order or an enquiry. There won’t just be more door types in our range, but also more flexibility on glazing and hardware options so that they can adapt their offering to suit any project.
Crucially, we’re doing all that while also simplifying our ordering processes and investing in our own operational logistics so that we can guarantee fast lead times with no complex and costly stockholding for customers.
We’ve already had a great response to the S140 lift and slide patio we launched in April. With slim sightlines, a flush aesthetic and impressively low U-Values of just 1.2Uw double glazed and 0.8Uw triple glazed, it’s targeted at the higher end of the market where margins are strongest.
And we’ve had excellent feedback from customers on the new options for the BSF70 HI, which include a surface-mounted lift and turn handle as an alternative to the more traditional pop-up T handle, and a new easy to install integrated cill for the new build and extensions market. This cleverly removes the need for the builder to cut out the existing brick course to achieve a level internal floor finish with a rebated frame.
But it is our new Quik Clip clip in bead available on both the S140 and the BSF70 which is having the biggest impact.
In our own side by side tests, we demonstrated that fitters could save three minutes 46 seconds glazing a bi-fold panel using Quik Clip compared with conventional beading. Fabricators who have tried out the product for themselves are understandably impressed. Jason Holt, aluminium production manager at Titan Trade Windows, said: “This is the best clip-in bead I’ve seen, and I’ve seen many. Very easy to put in and remove by hand, no need for a Don Carlos or Moon Knife.”
We’ll be announcing details of our new inline slider over the next few weeks and the BSC94 HI will be available during the summer.