Aluminium doors for Bali villas: sliding, folding and swing

A villa door is not a window with a handle. A 2.4 m-high glass leaf weighs 60–90 kg, gets opened a dozen times a day by guests who have never used it before, and sits at floor level where every storm drives water at it. That is why we start from the leaf: its size and glass build-up set the profile series, the roller rating and the lock, and the opening is built around them — not the other way round.

We work on new builds and in finished villas. On a new build the doors are part of the glazing package described on our aluminium windows and facade glazing page; in an existing villa we replace tired timber or failed aluminium doors in the same opening, usually without breaking the wall around them — see window and door repair and replacement.

Sliding, stacking, lift-and-slide, pocket or folding: which door fits

• Two-panel sliding. The default for bedrooms and smaller living rooms: one leaf fixed, one sliding, half the width open. The lowest price per m² and the easiest door to keep sealed.
• Multi-track stacking. Three or more leaves on parallel tracks slide behind one another, so two-thirds of the width opens to the terrace. The usual choice for a living room facing the pool.
• Lift-and-slide. Turning the handle lifts the leaf off its seals; it rolls freely, and lowering it presses it back onto continuous gaskets. Very heavy leaves move with one hand and the seal is the best of any sliding door. It costs more, and it is the door we recommend for wide openings on the coast or the windward side.
• Pocket sliding. The leaves disappear into a cavity in the wall. Striking when open, but the cavity has to be planned before the wall is built — and it has to drain.
• Folding (bifold). Panels concertina to one side and open the full width. More hinges, more vertical seals and more adjustment over the years, so we fit them where a deep roof overhang shelters the opening.
• Swing and French doors. Side-hung leaves for bedrooms, bathrooms and entrances, with multi-point locks. Outward-opening leaves seal better against driven rain.

Why villa sliding doors fail first in Bali

Most of the doors we are called to fix are less than five years old, and the pattern repeats. Rollers chosen for the catalogue weight rather than the real leaf flat-spot within a year. Nylon wheels on a soft aluminium track grind a groove. Sand, leaves and salt sit in an open track and act like grinding paste. The interlock where two leaves meet is a thin section that flexes in the wind and lets rain through. And the sill is flat, so water that gets past the brushes has nowhere to go but the floor.

We specify against each of those: stainless or sealed-bearing rollers rated well above the leaf weight, a stainless track cap under heavy leaves, thicker interlocks and sashes on tall doors, and a sill with a fall to the outside, open drainage slots and an upstand matched to the exposure. Near the beach we add seaside-grade powder coating and A4 stainless fixings, because standard ones bleed rust down the frame within two wet seasons.

The sill decides whether the room stays dry

Everybody wants the indoor floor to run straight onto the deck. A truly flush threshold is possible, but only with a recessed channel drain in front of the door, a step-down in the slab under the sill and a roof overhang that keeps most of the rain off. Without those three it is a leak with a nice view. Where the terrace is exposed we recommend a low upstand of 20–30 mm — guests step over it without noticing, and it holds back the water a squall throws at the glass.

Glass is part of the safety brief. Every door leaf is tempered or laminated safety glass; on west-facing doors we offer solar-control or low-E glass, which cuts the heat coming through a large glazed wall without darkening the room. Double glazing pays for itself in a few rooms only, which our double glazing guide explains with numbers.