I was feeling spending a few months ago and decided to plunk down the $1350 or so for a set of doors from the Sliding Door Company. This was for a standard size closet opening (I'd hate to see the price for something custom).

I already own a set of Pax Doors from IKEA. I was hoping to get a better product by paying more for the Sliding Door Company's product. You get what you pay for, right? The truth is, I didn't.

When comparing the two side by side, I initially thought the SDC doors were significantly better quality. Looking back now though, I think I was suffering from that weird psychological condition where you think a product is superior just because it's more expensive (crap, first my Diesel jeans and now this). Material-wise, the two products are very similar. They are both constructed of brushed aluminum and glass. It's hard to say one is really "nicer" or "better" than the other. Installation-wise, I'd have to give the upper hand to the SDC doors. They were a bit easier to install than the PAX doors.

These doors ain't cheap, right? Hey, it actually gets worse! Keep in mind you have to pay a few hundred extra bucks to get these doors shipped to you if you don't live close enough to pick them up. I have to admit though, the doors came very packaged and nothing was broken. I guess you get some pretty sweet cardboard and styrofoam for that much cash.

The SDC doors come with all sorts of options. I thought it was really cool to customize the doors on their site and see how it looked with 3 pane, 4 pane, etc. Here's the deal though - Each door is actually a single pane of glass and they make you purchase the aluminum dividers separately, which gives you the partitioned look. This is both cool and crappy at the same time.

It's cool because you don't have to commit to how many panes you want on each door when ordering. You can wait until the doors are installed and then play with different combinations to see what looks the best.

Okay, so the crappy part. I can't remember off-hand, but each set of six dividers cost somewhere between $50-100. I think I've tried to block out this figure due to its absurdity. The dividers are just regular strips of aluminum that adhere to the glass with double-stick tape. It's absolutely ridiculous how much they charge for what these things really are. Double-stick tape..come on! It sucked worse for me too because I wanted five panes per door - meaning I had to order two sets!

To wrap up... the doors I purchased from the Sliding Door Company are decent, good looking, modern doors, but seriously overpriced. They're just totally not worth it when you start comparing it to a product like IKEA's Pax system. Why pay like three times the price for something that's not noticeably better (if at all).

The bad part about the Pax doors is that they only come in a few standard sizes. I just saw that the Home Depot is starting to carry some similar modern looking doors. I didn't price them out, but I would think they would be a cheap alternative to the Sliding Door Company's product.

-Tito

As much as I love the quality of their sliding doors, I was very disappointed with the organization and services of the company.

When I first ordered the doors, the salesperson told me the my closet openings are typical sizes: 48" x 82", 60" x 82", and 72" x 82". Therefore, it should only take 2-3 weeks for the doors to arrive. In 3 weeks, I received a call from them to pick up the doors. But when I showed up at their San Jose Warehouse, the guy told me 1 set of closet sliding doors (2 doors) will arrive later and they don't know when they will come in. I was in a hurry so I just loaded the doors and left. When it comes to installation, I realized it wasn't missing just 1 set of doors, but 2 sets, which the guy failed to inform me. Couple phone calls later, they finally admitted it was their mistake and that they will call me as soon as the rest of the sliding doors arrive at the warehouse. I do not own a truck so I have to borrow a friend's truck to pick up the sliding doors.

2 months have passed by and every week when I call to check up on the order, they promised my doors will make it to next shipment because my doors did not make it to this week's shipment.

I know I am a small customer to them since i only ordered 6 sets of sliding doors but I did pay more than $5000!! I picked them because of the quality of the doors and thought the service will be good as well. But in the end I am still waiting for the 2 sets of sliding doors that they promised to deliver to me 2 months ago!

What a disaster! Yeah, the doors slide, but the problems I had with their San Francisco office. Called minutes before my 1st meeting with them (thought I was lost—really bad directions from the assistant)“Sure, come on in, you’re just 2 blocks away”. So I get there and the office is closed!!! Luckily a salesperson saw me as he’s walking to his car--he apologized for the error of his assistant and let me in, this was in mid August. Deposit made, we set up an appointment to have measurements of my closet space, between 5-6 pm on Aug 29th. They showed up at 3:30pm!! Of --course, I’m not home. So measurements finally get taken but I have difficulty getting a contract from Sliding Door. However, they wanted my credit card info, asap, to pay for the balance owed BEFORE the doors arrived or contract delivered. I didn’t do it. Finally got the contract emailed to me…after numerous calls and a different Sliding Door assistant. Poor communication on their part; I had difficulty finding out when the doors would be delivered. Doors arrive in early November, got installed a week later. I’m told I have to remove the handles on my built-in closet drawer in order to accommodate sliding doors. I said no way. So they put in doors that stick out away from closet, more than they should—let’s just say, there are gaps. Not really a big deal to me but I thought they should have told me that at the time of measurement. The diver slats: started popping off a day after installation (put ‘em back on, they pop off, again and again). Never got the door slats I asked for; they didn’t have enough to complete the job. They promised to mail them to me asap (lousey stick on slats!!) Over 2 grand and what, about 10 weeks waiting, I still don’t have the doors I asked for. After repeated phone calls and emails no response from Sliding Doors. Wouldn't use them again/wouldn't recommend.

I have purchased from this company numerous times. They have an excellent reputation within the trade (I'm an interior designer and know a quality product when I see it). This is definitely not your typical low end, inexpensive door which you would find at a Home Depot or Ikea... so yes, you do pay a bit more. HOWEVER, this is certainly one of those "you get what you pay for" type of items. If you value quality over the low end alternatives and knock-off brands, this is the choice for you.

They have a couple of very nice showrooms in the LA area (Van Nuys and Santa Monica) which display their beautiful sliding door options, and their sales staff is very helpful and quite knowledgable.

On a rating of 5 stars, I'd rate them a "6". I recommend to anyone looking for a high quality, yet cost effective sliding glass door.

Wow... Designguru's opinion is quite different from any of the AT topics/comments on this company. And heyyy... just one post! Signed up on the day of this post!

Busted!

:D

(=usually just having one post that's promoting a company means that the person behind it works for the company in question. This at least has been true on many other msg boards.)

...and my sincere apologies if I'm wrong.

I want to point out that none of the comments above have any history, so that doesn't necessarily mean that it is not a true post. Regardless, I am posting as an employee of the Sliding Door Company of San Francisco, and hope that Apartment Therapy will allow me to address the above comments.

I have been with this location for the two years we have been here, and I do know of the two incidents that are mentioned. We do acknowledge that both customers as well as a number of others did not have a good experience with us in that time period. We were understaffed and mis-managed last year and did have our share of problems due to being a new location operating under tough conditions. Since those two posts, we have a new branch owner, better management and increased staff. Our customer satisfaction is high, and our sales process is smooth and efficient. We would be happy to provide numerous references including some very established and credible companies throughout the Northwest, and are proud of how we have grown in the past year. I encourage interested customers to please call or visit our showroom or warehouse to see first hand before making a call based on information from almost a year ago. We have made some big changes.

Thank you!

Let me first start by saying that by no means am I a "blogger". The reason I decided to write a little blurb about my experience with this company is because I almost passed up purchasing a room divider for my loft from The Sliding Door Company because of the unfavorable reviews I read on this site.

With that said, I recently purchased a loft/art studio in Marina Del Rey which houses a total of 80 loft units. It wasn't until I attended a Home Owners Association meeting a few months back that I discovered that nearly half of my neighbors at the gathering had purchased various products from The Sliding Door Company. Surprisingly, of the 7 or so people who I spoke with, nearly all had nothing but positive things to say. Only one of my neighbors had a less than perfect experience (apparently the installation crew damaged a light fixture in her hallway, but I understand it was quickly taken care of and paid for by the company). All in all, this was very reassuring to hear from several of my neighbors that they were very pleased with their experience with the company and their products.

After hearing this feedback, I took the plunge and purchased a room divider for my loft/studio space from this company who had a really cool website, a very nice showroom and good references from neighbors. I've had it installed nearly a week now and I couldn't be happier with the look and quality and what it's done for my space (hence the reason I felt I would take the time to write this review for the company that has put a big smile on my face:). My only negative remark would be that I wasn't able to get the color of frame I wanted as an in stock item. The black frame I originally wanted was a custom color and required a longer lead time. Also, their installers schedules seem pretty busy, so I unfortunately had to wait a couple of weeks for the installation. Normally that wouldn't have mattered but I was very excited about my purchase and couldn't wait to see how it would look in my new place.

With all this said, I wanted to take a moment to share my experience as I feel that this company has a very nice product and a pretty darn good service. For a company to have as many locations throughout the country as they do, they obviously have quite a few happy customers like myself keeping them in business who more than likely refer friends, neighbors and colleagues; which I know I certainly will.

I'm off to enjoy my loft and our beautiful new sliding doors~~~>Cheers!

Let me first say that as an interior designer, I always strive to employ the best components to my clients in every space that I design. With that said, my reputation is on the line with just about every job that I do. Sliding Door Co - while it has a nice product, has hung me high on delivery - time and time again. Walking in the office with three voicemails from site contractors yelling in my ear over another failed delivery isn't the way I prefer to begin my mornings. It seems that every door is now a "standard size" and will only take three weeks delivery. Reality is three times that in my experience.. usually 6-10 weeks. It is a shame b/c they have a decent product.

As far as the product itself, cost is a little high - but not one of my cheif concerns - I guess, b/c I'm not paying for it. The product functions well, overall. My biggest issue with the design is the thick, bulky bottom track that obstructs the floor - I prefer top-hung systems... and get ALOT of stubbed toe complaints. The cheesy "dividers" that tape to the glass are not a favorite of mine .. enough said.

Other options I found are Open Close Doors (www.openclosedoors.com), who have a superior product (in my opinion) and never fail on delivery... and lead time is decent. The price point is the same as SDC, and (my fav) is there's not intrusive bottom track laying across your floor...they are all top-hung. Ikea's PAX series (www.Ikea.com) is a practical solution, but the quality is a little less than SDC and my site contractors hate installing ANYTHING that shows up that must be pre-assembled with a bag of 60-70 screws and nuts... but nonetheless a solution.

Bottom line - SDC is a decent product.... I just can't seem to ever get it delivered!

SDC changed the dynamic of my living space and added the feeling of more square feet.
We added sliding doors between family room and office. More often the doors are open to give an open loft feel, but when I work in there for hours at a time it's closed with no distractions-my own cocoon.
During the day the frosted glass matches the wall color and at night it glows like a lantern, I'm thinking of adding colored floor led's.
For 2k and custom fitting it was a bargain. i feel like we put an addition onto our condo highrise condo.

Anyone have any ideas about a sloped wooden floor? One side is about 1.5 inches lower than the other. Will any of these sliding door solutions work with my slant?

I just wanted to comment that not all IKEA products are of low quality. I have found that their quality ranges from cheap to excellent. You really need to evaluate each product on its own. If you assume all IKEA is inferior you can miss out on some real bargains. Generally, price is a decent indicator (you get what you pay for).

I purchased 4 Ikea PAX wardrobes in 2010. The UGGDAL glass doors were made in Germany not China (or so the box says). Maybe thats why the doors were $600-700/pair. The quality was excellent and assembly, though time consuming, was trouble free. The glass, frame, hardware, packaging were all top notch. There were no scratches or flaws in ANY of the 8 doors I assembled. Remarkable since I have had my share of IKEA frustrations before. The UGGDAL doors and PAX cabinet factories have very good quality control.

I suspect Ikea sourced from Germany for safety and reliability reasons. They are very structural and cosmetic parts. Defects or returns would be very costly due to the weight and amount of high value materials involved.

I am a mechanical engineer and believe the UGGDAL mechanical design to be superior. The glass doors are very heavy, sturdy and well designed. They have been used daily for 7 months.

After reading about others SDC experiences and stick on strips (IKEA uses extruded aluminum channels and cut glass to save on shipping size and reduce breakage potential. Smart!) I would have to agree that $1500 for a set of SDC doors is excessive for what you get.

In response to plang0012 inquiry, you didn't say how big the room was. 1.5" over 20 feet might be doable. Keep in mind that sliding doors on a slanted floor can be problematic. The doors may not stay in position and slide by themselves. Plus it could appear awkward beacus ethey would not rest parallel with the wall nor plumb. Also, you'd end up with some unattractive gaps either at the walls, floor or ceiling. There are some creative ways to hide the defect but I would defer to the installer.

Like the previous poster, I too checked out Ikea doors since they are definitely stepping up their game in quality. Although I found there doors to be nice "looking", their quality and the overall sturdiness of the door systems (even the more expensive ones) just wasn't worth the hassle or risk. And we definitely didn't want to attempt to install these doors ourselves.

I'm not sure what the past posts about $1500 per closet door set from sliding door company (maybe for an unusually large closet???)? My wife and I purchased three sets of closet doors for our second house in Las Vegas and the amount for the three combined was under $3500. I couldn't be happier with my decision to go with this company. After we had the closets installed in our LV home we were so happy with the doors that we upgraded our doors in our home in Brentwood and replaced all of our entry doors to our bedrooms, office and bathrooms with their glass and aluminum framed swing doors. YOWZERS... let me tell you how fantastic they look!

I'm definitely a fan.

Purchased two barn door style doors for my Jack-and-Jill bathroom, closet doors for my master bedroom and swinging french type doors for my linen closets in hallway.

Here are my reviews on overall experience (scale of 1 to 10)...

Website: 8

First contact with salesperson on phone: 6 (she sounded very busy and distracted; rushed to give directions and store hours)

Visit to showroom:

Appearance - 9 (really nice showroom in Studio City; a lot to see and choose from)

Salesperson knowledge and overall experience with her - 10 (Jennifer was very helpful and knowledgable - made up for the mediocre first impression over the phone. Gave us great design ideas we hadn't considered).

Price/cost: 8 (including installation, everything came to just under $6,000. Not a fortune, but not cheap. Looked at other options that were more cost effective and ultimately decided to go with this company and their doors since they have a good reputation and a nice product)

Delivery time: 9 (the closets doors and barn doors were delivered and installed within 10 days... just had to wait for the custom swinging doors that took 7 weeks; worth the wait though as they look beautiful)

Product: 10 (couldn't be happier with the quality - make my home look much "fresher")

Overall rating: 8.5

Thank you The Sliding Door Company and everyone involved in the design, sales and installation process. You all were very professional and a pleasure to work with.