P C Henderson offers solutions to help meet the desire for adaptable living

The average price of a home in England now stands as £299,000 which is a 6.4 percent rise in the 12 months to September 2015. Furthermore, new strict finance rules under the Mortgage Market Review has resulted in the number of people planning to buy a home within the next year falling to their lowest level on record.

As it becomes more difficult and expensive to buy a house, many homeowners are opting to improve their current property rather than move. Mary Duggan, a judge for the RIBA House of the Year award has noticed an increase in the trend for a broken-plan layout, leading to a demand for snugs and private spaces, partly due to the changes in the modern family, interests, lifestyle and technology. In fact, 60 percent of homeowners have identified creating additional living space as their main priority, with another 47 percent wanting a home office or entertainment room.

Adaptable living is not a new concept to P C Henderson. Fergus Pickard, Research & Development Director at P C Henderson comments: “We have worked to offer a range for sliding and folding door hardware that effortlessly divide a multitude of spaces both in the home and in the workplace.  There was a trend for joining the kitchen and dining room together; we all watched many of the TV shows that had homeowners reaching for their sledgehammers to create a desired open plan feel without thinking of the heating,  energy efficiency implications or how the space would work as a practical living environment with multiple occupants.”

“By using our residential range of sliding and folding systems, homeowners can combine both open and broken-plan living by neatly storing the room dividers when the spaces are opened for entertaining or socialising. When closed, the smaller rooms can be used for independent activities such as reading or catching up on TV shows or to simply reduce the space to minimise the cost of heating the property.’

Reducing energy costs is another factor to consider as the average annual household energy bill stands at £1,098 despite the wholesale cost of gas and electricity going down 37 and 20 percent respectively since 2014. Utilising room dividers in open plan spaces can help reduce heating costs as when closed, only the area in use needs heating.

P C Henderson is a member of the Door & Hardware Federation which represents all the key manufacturers and installers of industrial, commercial, pedestrian and garage doors and powered gates, as well as manufacturers of locks, building hardware and architectural ironmongery.

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