How deep the stack is
An accordion door folds into roughly ten to fifteen percent of its opening width. An operable wall stacks deeper, because its panels are wider and thicker: a run of panels around a metre wide each ends up as a block whose depth is the panel count multiplied by the panel thickness, plus clearance. The calculator on the operable walls page gives a figure for a given opening, and the site measure confirms it.
Against a return wall
The simplest arrangement. The track runs to one jamb and the panels stack against the wall beyond it, either in line with the opening or turned through ninety degrees into the room. It costs nothing extra in track and it takes that piece of wall permanently, so it wants a wall with nothing on it: no doorway, no switches, no windows you want to reach.
Split to both ends
Half the panels stack at each jamb. Each stack is half as deep, which suits a room where neither wall can give up much, and it can make the wall quicker for one person to open. It costs a little more track and hardware and it means two stacks to plan around rather than one.
Into a pocket
A pocket is a recess built into the joinery or the wall beside the opening, sized to the stack, with a door or a panel that closes over it. The wall disappears entirely when the room is open. It is the tidiest arrangement and the most expensive, and it can only be built if it was planned before the opening was framed, because the pocket has to be part of the structure, not an afterthought. Venues that sell the whole room as often as the halves usually find it worth the cost.
Remote stacking and turns in the track
The track does not have to end at the jamb. It can turn a corner and carry the panels to a stacking area out of the line of the opening, which is how a wall across a wide hall can vanish into a store or an alcove. Every turn is a design decision with a cost, and the set-out comes from the site measure, so raise it early.
What to decide, and when
The stacking decision sits with the room layout, not with the partition supplier, and it belongs at the same stage as the walls and doors. What we need from you is the answer to a few questions; what you need from us is the stack depth in millimetres to draw.
- Which wall, if any, can give up space permanently
- Whether the open room is sold or used as often as the divided one
- Whether a pocket can be framed in before the wall arrives
- Whether a pass door is wanted, which affects panel layout
- Whether the run has to turn a corner to reach its stacking area