Wooden sliding doors transform how a home or villa flows - a bedroom opening, a study that closes for work, a pantry or wardrobe face that disappears into the wall. Yet on site they are often the last item to arrive and the first thing every trade complains about, because the opening, the track, the floor level and the door leaf all have to agree. This guide walks through how delivery and installation planning for Santerson Wooden Sliding Doors should be coordinated, from the moment the specification is fixed to the day the hardware is adjusted and the doors glide shut.

Santerson Wooden Sliding Doors are made-to-measure residential sliding doors: dimensions, layout, material and finish are set for each project. That single fact shapes everything below. A made-to-measure door cannot be corrected on site with a saw, so the coordination work happens in the drawings, the shipping plan and the site schedule - not in the doorway.

Start with the specification, not the delivery date

Before anyone talks about a ship date, lock the variables that decide when the doors can be made at all. For each opening on the schedule, confirm the finished floor level, the finished wall finish, the clear opening width and height, and how the door is expected to work - a single leaf, a pair of bypassing leaves, a pocket that disappears into a wall, or a panel that runs on a visible track. Santerson's wooden sliding doors page lists made-to-measure sizing, material and finish options, and project-tailored layouts, so these are choices to be confirmed against your drawings, not assumptions to be carried into the build.

Two details cause most on-site delay, and both are decided early:

• Track and hardware type. A wall-mounted barn-style track, a ceiling-hung system and a pocket-door cassette need completely different structural preparation. Pocket and flush systems must be built into the wall before lining; surface-mounted systems only need a solid fixing line and can come later.
• Floor and threshold condition. Sliding leaves run to a bottom guide. Tiled floors, timber floors and carpet transitions all change the required clearance, so the door height is fixed against the finished floor, not the slab.

Where the project also includes sliding panel systems or sliding-door wardrobes - for example wooden sliding panels used as wall or storage fronts - group them with the doors on the same schedule. They are coordinated the same way: opening, track, finish level, and access.

Build a door schedule the site can actually read

A door schedule is the coordination document. For every opening it should carry the same fields on every line, so the manufacturer, the freight coordinator and the installer are all reading one source of truth:

• Opening reference and room name, matched to the drawing set
• Leaf count and opening direction, including which leaf is fixed and which moves
• Frame size, leaf size and the finished opening after the frame is fitted
• Track type, mounting condition (wall, ceiling or pocket) and the structural support required
• Timber species, grain direction where it matters, and the approved finish
• Glass or ｉｎｓｅｒｔ specification if the design includes glazed panels
• Hardware set: track, hangers, bottom guide, lock or catch, handles

Add one column that most schedules leave out: installation sequence and who is responsible for the preparation. Sliding doors fail on site not because the door is wrong but because nobody owned the opening. Mark each line with the trade that must finish the wall, floor and structural support before the door is even unpacked.

Set the production milestone against the site programme, not the other way round

Work backwards from handover. Made-to-measure wooden doors need a verified opening before they can be produced, and a verified opening needs finished floor levels and set-out drawings that have stopped changing. A practical sequence that most residential and villa fit-outs can follow:

• Site survey or verified set-out drawings, including finished floor and wall levels
• Approval of the door schedule, finish sample and hardware set
• Manufacture of the doors, frames and hardware to the approved schedule
• Packing, loading and freight booking
• Site preparation completed while the doors are in transit
• Delivery, inspection, installation, adjustment and handover

The point of the sequence is that site preparation runs in parallel with production. Walls for pocket systems, structural blocking for track fixings, and level finished floors should all be complete while the doors are still being made or shipped. If the opening is still open when the doors arrive, the doors sit in a store and the finish gets damaged.

Plan the freight so the doors arrive when the trade is on site

Santerson handles furniture logistics and door-to-door delivery, including freight forwarding by sea, air and rail, customs documentation, packaging and container loading, and shipment tracking. For a door package the coordination detail is not which mode of transport is used, but what the delivery actually looks like on the day.

Before booking, confirm four things in writing with the supplier and the site contact:

• Delivery address and access. Villa and apartment sites often have no ground-level loading area. A long sliding leaf needs a trolley, a lift that it fits into, or a carry path that does not turn a corner.
• Package list by opening reference. Every leaf, frame and hardware set should be labelled to the door schedule, so the installer picks up the track for the right opening.
• Hardware separation. Hangers, tracks and glass panels travel differently from timber leaves. Confirm whether hardware ships with the doors or in a separate consignment, because the installer needs both on the same day.
• Import and delivery scope for the destination. Duties, Incoterms, insurance and how far the door-to-door service extends to the actual unit door should be settled case by case before the goods move, not after they arrive at a port.

Then align the arrival date with the installer, not with the builder's wish list. A realistic target is delivery a few days after the openings have been signed off as complete, with dry, secure storage available for the leaves.

Prepare the opening: the site checklist

Give the site team one page they can sign off before delivery:

• Finished floor level complete and level across the full run of the track
• Wall finishes complete, and for pocket systems the cassette built and lined
• Structural support or blocking in place wherever the track is fixed, verified against the hardware specification
• Opening dimensions re-measured on site and compared with the door schedule before the goods arrive
• Clear access route and storage area, off the ground and away from wet trades
• Other trades finished above the door run - ceilings, lighting, cornices, curtains - so nothing has to be worked around later

If the project also uses doors in other styles - for example classic French double doors in a matching finish - install them on the same visit. Matching finishes, aligned reveals and one snag list are easier when the joinery package is fitted together.

Installation day: what to check in order

A sliding door is accepted on performance, not appearance, so the inspection order matters.

1. Unpack and inspect against the schedule. Confirm each leaf, frame and hardware set against the opening reference, and check for transit damage while the packaging is still there to claim against.
2. Set the track. Level and position the track to the approved height and offset; a track that is out of level by a few millimetres will make the leaf creep or bind along the whole run.
3. Hang and adjust the leaves. Set hangers so leaves run parallel to the wall and to each other, with equal clearance top and bottom.
4. Fit the bottom guide. Fix the guide to the finished floor line so the leaf stays vertical and does not knock the floor finish.
5. Fit handles, catches and any lock. Confirm the leaves latch correctly at every open and closed position.
6. Cycle test. Open and close every door several times, checking for smooth travel, no binding, no rubbing on the floor or wall, and no leaf lifting off the track.
7. Protect and record. Re-protect leaves that must stay in a busy space, and record the model of track, hangers and bottom guide with the handover file.

Handover and after-sales: close the loop before the defects period

Santerson lists on-site installation support, inspection, warranty coverage, spare parts and ongoing maintenance under its installation and after-sales support service. In practice, the value of that support depends on what the owner can show afterwards. At handover, record the door schedule as installed, the hardware set used at each opening, and any adjustment made on site. Sliding hardware is a wearing item, and a spare hanger ordered with the original hardware reference is a five-minute fix; one ordered from a photo of the door is a guess.

Set one follow-up check after the building has settled and the doors have been used - especially in a new build, where floor levels and wall linings move in the first months. Track height, hanger tension and the bottom guide are all adjustable, and a single adjustment visit keeps the whole sliding package running quietly.

A short coordination timeline to copy into the programme

Coordinate these seven stages and the doors stop being a site problem. The test is simple: when every leaf runs smoothly on the day it is hung, and nobody is chasing a track three weeks after completion, the delivery and installation plan did its job.

If you are specifying sliding doors for a villa, apartment or hospitality fit-out, start with the opening schedule and the finished levels - the rest of the coordination falls out of those two documents. Santerson supplies made-to-measure sliding doors as part of a wider furniture and building materials package, so doors, wardrobes, joinery and finishes can be produced, shipped and fitted on one coordinated programme.