1. A measured opening, not a drawn one

Start from site measurements taken after the floor and wall finishes are in place, not from the architectural drawing. Wardrobe widths and heights change once tiling, plasterboard, screed and flooring have been installed.

• Width, height and depth at three points each — left, centre, right — so out-of-square walls are captured rather than assumed away.
• Floor level difference across the opening. A sliding track runs on a plane; a sloping slab has to be corrected before the bottom rail is fixed.
• Clearance above the head for the top track and any valance, plus clearance below for the threshold if one is used.
• Position of skirting boards, architraves, downlights, air grilles and door reveals that the doors will pass when they travel open and closed.

Record these figures on a marked-up elevation with the measurement date and who took them. That single sheet prevents the common argument about whether an uneven wall is a joinery problem or a substrate problem.

2. Structural support for the track and the glass

Sliding wardrobe doors are heavier than they look. A full-height glass panel on an aluminium frame puts its weight into the top track, and that load travels into whatever is above the opening.

• Confirm the wall build-up: masonry, light-gauge steel framing or timber studs, and the thickness of the lining boards.
• Specify solid blocking or noggins behind the fixing line for the top track, bottom rail and any side returns. This is easiest to add while the frame is still open.
• Confirm ceiling type above the wardrobe — suspended grid, plasterboard on battens or exposed slab — because it decides whether the top track can be face-fixed, underside-fixed or must sit on a purpose-made header.
• Agree who supplies and installs that blocking. In our projects it is usually the builder or carpenter, working from fixing drawings we issue.

Our aluminium frame glass wardrobes and the wider glass-door range are made to measure, so the carcass and track geometry can be adjusted to the opening. What cannot be adjusted on site is a wall that was never framed to take the load.

3. Door layout, travel and clearances

The plan should show how many panels the opening takes, which panel is fixed, which slides, and where each panel stops. Two-panel and three-panel arrangements behave differently in narrow bedrooms and in long runs.

• Panel overlap on the centre stile, so the gap between doors stays consistent along the full height.
• Travel distance for each door, checked against switches, bedheads, vanities and the room door that has to swing past the wardrobe face.
• Handle or recessed pull position, and whether it clashes with an adjacent panel at the closed position.
• Interior fittings — hanging rails, shelves, drawers, soft-close mechanisms — drawn to the same elevation, since drawer fronts need clearance in front of them before the doors close.

For corner rooms and walk-in layouts we plan against the same rules; sliding door corner wardrobes simply add a return leg, which changes where the track can be joined and how deep the access point becomes.

4. Glass specification and safety expectations

Write down what the glass is before ordering, because finish and glazing type are not interchangeable on site. Tinted and textured glass change both privacy and how much light bounces into the room.

• Glass type and thickness for the panel infill, plus the frame profile and colour — clear, bronze, smoked or frosted finishes each read differently against bedroom lighting.
• Where glazing is required to be safety-rated: guest rooms, children's rooms, hotel rooms and any low-level panel near a floor. Confirm the requirement with the local certifier or engineer for the project.
• Edge treatment and whether handles are fixed through the glass or mounted on the frame.
• Interior lighting inside the carcass: power feed location, transformer access, and whether the door travel will pass across a cable run.

We do not state a compliance standard on your behalf. Put the applicable glazing requirement in the plan, signed off by whoever certifies the project, and we build to what that requirement says.

5. Moisture, ventilation and room conditions

Wardrobes are installed into rooms that are still wet with construction moisture. Glass shows condensation long before timber reveals a problem.

• Confirm screed, render and plasterboard have dried sufficiently before the carcass is delivered and packed up on site.
• Keep ventilation paths to any external wall clear; do not let the carcass block a vent or a return air path.
• For bathrooms and laundry-adjacent rooms sharing a wall with the wardrobe, confirm the waterproofing has been completed and tested before that wall is closed in.

6. Delivery route, handling and site sequence

Full-height glass panels are the least forgiving item in the fit-out. The plan needs a delivery date that sits after painting and flooring, plus a route that gets the panels to the room intact.

• Delivery window measured against the trade sequence: floors laid, paint touched up, then joinery last or near-last.
• Packaging size checked against lifts, stairwells, corridor widths and turning radii. On upper levels, confirm whether a panel can go in by lift at all.
• Storage on site — flat, dry, upright-safe, away from trades knocking into it.
• Access hours for apartment and hotel projects, and who signs the delivery note.

For international orders this is where freight planning belongs. We handle container loading, packing lists and door-to-door delivery on our logistics service, but the last leg — getting panels from the kerb to the bedroom floor — is usually a site-side job and should be named in the plan.

7. Responsibilities, drawings and sign-off

The most useful page in the installation plan is a short responsibility table. It removes the assumption that somebody else sorted it.

Close the plan with an inspection step: door travel checked along the whole run, gaps measured at top, middle and bottom, soft-close and locking operation tested, glass surfaces inspected, and any snags logged with a date. Handover is not complete until that list is signed.

A pre-production checklist worth copying

• Site measurements taken after finishes, dated and attributed.
• Floor level across the opening confirmed and corrected.
• Blocking behind top track and bottom rail installed and verified.
• Panel count, travel direction and stop positions drawn on an elevation.
• Glass type, thickness, tint and safety requirement recorded with certifier sign-off.
• Interior lighting feed, switch and transformer access located.
• Drawer and shelf fronts checked for clearance in front of closed doors.
• Delivery route, lift capacity and on-site storage agreed.
• Responsibility table signed by builder and joinery supplier.
• Snag and handover inspection scheduled before practical completion.