Plantation Shutters for Sliding and Stacker Doors

Newer homes across our patch are built around glass: wide stacker doors onto the alfresco, big north and west facing living room windows, open plan layouts where one wall is almost entirely glass, and sliding doors that get used forty times a weekend. A hinged plantation shutter panel gets in the way on openings like that.

Panels that fold clear

On stacker and sliding doors we will normally suggest bi-fold or sliding track shutters rather than hinged panels, so the walkway stays clear and you can still get out to the barbecue without folding something back first. Bi-fold panels concertina to one side; sliding track panels run along a track and stack behind each other. Either way the doorway is open when you want it open, and the louvres do their job when you want the sun out.

Where we see them most

North Lakes, Mango Hill, Griffin, Murrumba Downs and the newer Narangba and Burpengary estates in Moreton Bay. Bridgeman Downs, Bracken Ridge, Fitzgibbon and Taigum on Brisbane’s northside. Birtinya, Bokarina, Sippy Downs, Peregian Springs and the Pelican Waters expansion on the Sunshine Coast. Same brief everywhere: bigger glass, more sun, and a family that wants to use the deck.

Full-height door openings

Not every big opening is a slider. This Caboolture job ran from floor to head height, so four white PVC panels were made up to cover the full span, each split by a mid rail. The frame was set square across the opening with a head trim finishing the top, the stiles line up across the width and the mid rails sit level from one panel to the next, which is what stops a wide set looking piecemeal.

PVC or timber on the windows beside them

Every PVC panel we fit has an internal aluminium spine running through the stiles, which keeps a wide panel straight instead of letting it sag under its own weight. Basswood timber is lighter than PVC, so a single panel can run wider before weight becomes the limiting factor: on a big living room window that means fewer panels, fewer stiles and more glass.

Whichever way the opening runs, adjustable louvres let you cut the afternoon sun back from about two o’clock without shutting the room into darkness the way a blockout blind does. We fit them across Brisbane’s northside, Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast. Chris measures every opening on the day and you have your price before he leaves.