A Sliding glass door or Patio door, a type of sliding door in architecture and construction, is a large glass window opening in a structure that provide door access from a room to the outdoors, fresh air, and copious natural light. A sliding glass door is usually considered a single unit consisting of two panel sections, one being fixed and one a being mobile to slide open. Another design, a wall sized glass pocket door has one or more panels movable and sliding into wall pockets, completely disappearing for a ‘wide open’ indoor-outdoor room experience.
The sliding glass door was introduced as a significant element of pre-war International style architecture in Europe and North America. Their precedent is the sliding Fusuma panel door in traditional Japanese architecture. The post-war building boom in modernist and Mid-century modern styles, and on to suburban ranch-style tract houses, multi-unit housing, and hotel-motel chains has made them a standard element in residential and hospitality building construction in many regions and countries.
If the sliding part of a door with two sections is on the left side of the door, from the viewpoint of an observer outside the house, the door is left-handed (LH). If the sliding part is on the right, it is right-handed (RH).
Security design in the doors is aimed at preventing the doors both fixed and sliding from being lifted of their rails, fitting anti-lift blocks can be fixed to the top of the frame to prevent the lift of the door off its rails, so in theory preventing unauthorised entry to the room when sliding door is in the closed position. A portable security bar can also be fitted from the inside the room to prevent sliding action when door is closed. The adjustable security bar can also be used for added security when traveling.
