With Big Frames Comes Big Glass

Doors are getting bigger, there’s no question about it. You only need to look at some of the mammoth examples on display at the FIT Show to see that the possibilities for what is capable with doors is only growing:

In the past 12-18 months we have seen a strong rise in the popularity of patio sliders, driven by home owner demand to provide more of their views of the outside, maximum glazed area and maximum light. An area that bi-folds don’t do as well in.

We are also seeing a big rise in the number of large scale patio sliders. The max sizes of sliding sashes gets bigger every year, especially in aluminium. You can achieve some huge spans per sash now. It creates vast openers and an impressive visual when they open. Ideal for four or five metre openings where a bi-fold would cut up that view.

It was Iain McInnes who suggested to me at the FIT Show that given the rise in popularity of large span patio doors, it may not be that long until suppliers start their own “to-site” delivery service. Or the creation of a new company dedicated to this.

Because with big frames comes big glass. It brings a transportation issue. For fabricators it’s generally not a problem. Most have fleets of vehicles perfectly capable of delivering big sliding patios, the glass, and bi-folds too, to installers and their offices. The issue than arises for installers and getting these huge items to site.

Many will only have vans, and even a long wheel-base van can only take items up to around 4 metres. Some will have racks to carry larger items, some will not. And it’s those that don’t have the means to get large items to site who will struggle.

Opportunity for delivery service?

Iain had a good idea with the delivery service. More and more large span patio doors are going to be sold in the coming years, as the improving technology of our products continues to improve. It will result in even wider doors and mammoth glass units. But as I mentioned above, for some installers this is going prove to be an issue.

There will be plenty of installers out there who won’t have the vehicle capacity to get these wider patio sliders from office to site. They could rely on site drops from their suppliers, but logistically these are difficult to organise so most installers wouldn’t want to use that as a default option.

Fabricators have a part to play in this too. There will be plenty out there happy to sell these XL doors to installers, but they will find a growing number of installers will be coming to them to ask for help as to how to get these to site. This is where Iain had an idea for a bespoke delivery service.

Now this could come from two places. Fabricators could set up their own dedicated service for XL items, be them patio sliders, bi-fold doors, mega windows etc. They will already have the vehicles for it, they could sideline a few, or perhaps buy some with the purpose to offer a dedicated to-site delivery of extra large products. Alternatively, there could be an opportunity for a brand new business to be created to service this need. It is quite feasible that a brand new company could be set up, that could approach suppliers to deliver XL windows and doors to site on their behalf, saving hassle both for the fabricator and installer. A bit like Deliveroo for food, except with much more valuable goods.

I really think there is going to be a need for this. The renaissance of patio doors, and the insane sizes they can now be made to will ensure that sales will only continue to rise in the coming few years. This is going to pose a problem for fabricators and installers when it comes to transport. If the right heads came together and figured this out then I think there is a nifty little niche to be exploited here.