Blogs

Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Come See My New Baby

OpenUp is a departure for me in that the 2Fold technology of joining steel and Accoya® (the miracle wood) has been modified/tweaked hence the “adoption.” In this creation I reached out to the world at-large and committed the heretical act of substituting aluminum for my precious steel.

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2Fold Strategic Parterships with Hyline and Warren Windows
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

2Fold® Reasons for Strategic Partnerships

The idea of a strategic partnership is to find other companies that have something that you don’t have in your bag of tricks. If this analysis passes the mirror test where the “fit” looks the same from the other side, then you have a strategic partnership in the making.

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thin door frames | steel and glass doors | luxury windows | custom steel doors | minimalist architecture
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

What is the best insect screen for doors?

Sliding screen doors work well and can stack over each other when not in use.
If the sliding doors are pocketed, where the panels retire into a hidden pocket in the wall when opened , the sliding screen panels can do the same. Unfortunately, the screen door stack is always visible through even the closed glass panel where they reside when no

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Lockbox | Lockrail | Terrace Door | Window | Drawing
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

What is a lockbox?

How It Happens and How You Can Avoid It
Innovators are the ultimate optimists. They seek to make things more functional, productive, and resilient. Many of these innovators are entrepreneurs. By nature, entrepreneurs are individuals or small groups often with limited resources. An

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Owner | CEO | Engineer | Ed Page | Steel Doors | Luxury Steel Design
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Don’t Innovate Yourself Out of Business

How It Happens and How You Can Avoid It
Innovators are the ultimate optimists. They seek to make things more functional, productive, and resilient. Many of these innovators are entrepreneurs. By nature, entrepreneurs are individuals or small groups often with limited resources. An

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Thermally Broken Steel | Custom Steel | Luxury Glass Doors | Luxury Windows | Steel | Custom Steel
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

IS THERMAL INSULATION NECESSARY FOR STEEL WINDOWS?

The steel window and door industry has long been resistant to adding thermal insulation to their products. We need a little history here to help explain the reasons behind the reluctance. Steel was the metal window profile material of choice until the 1960s, when aluminum came onto the scene. Aluminum extrusions were a lot less expensive

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2Fold Difference | More View | Smaller interruptions
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Which folding door is best for me and how do I choose?

95% of a doors life will be spent closed and so the view should be a primary concern. A great view can be made or broken when it comes to outfitting the perfect home. The large opening that looks out onto the deck or patio is the space in question. Before you begin, you need to identify your goal. Most of the time, this

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Manufacturing | Four Panel Door | Bi-Fold | Production
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

My 5 Step Design Process for Delivering on Quality Custom Jobs

Custom manufacturing is in my blood. And challenges in meeting unique client driven solutions are what I live for. Over the years I have been asked to create many new window and door designs. I’ve never built a standard product that could be mass produced. But, there have been times when I’ve given in to overly optimistic engineering and manufacturing practices.

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Weak Link | Chain | Paper clip | Supply | small business | steel | custom steel | luxury steel design
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

A Kink in the Supply Chain: How Lean Distribution is Changing the Game

Custom manufacturing is in my blood. And challenges in meeting unique client driven solutions are what I live for. Over the years I have been asked to create many new window and door designs. I’ve never built a standard product that could be mass produced. But, there have been times when I’ve given in to overly optimistic engineering and manufacturing practices.

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Cogs | Gears | Wheels | Virtual Manufacturing | room with a view | outdoor living | small business
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Virtual Manufacturing of Windows and Doors

Custom manufacturing is in my blood. And challenges in meeting unique client driven solutions are what I live for. Over the years I have been asked to create many new window and door designs. I’ve never built a standard product that could be mass produced. But, there have been times when I’ve given in to overly optimistic engineering and manufacturing practices.

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Chalk Board | Writing | Sustainability | Environment | small business | steel | 2Fold
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Why Is Environmental Responsibility Important?

Custom manufacturing is in my blood. And challenges in meeting unique client driven solutions are what I live for. Over the years I have been asked to create many new window and door designs. I’ve never built a standard product that could be mass produced. But, there have been times when I’ve given in to overly optimistic engineering and manufacturing practices.

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Diagram | Joints | 2Fold | Glazing Bead | Thermal Break | Windows | Doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

What’s up with glazing beads on steel windows and doors?

Funny that you should ask. It is one of the most misunderstood components in the construction of steel windows and door. In almost all cases they are NOT made out of steel. You wouldn’t know to look at them because they are painted to match the hot-rolled steel profile sections.

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Field Glazing | Fixed Unit | Window | Door | 2Fold | Glass
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Why are Steel Windows & Doors SO Hard to Install?

The most common installer of windows and doors is a carpenter. As a generalization, these individuals are well versed in handling a multitude of wood products and materials. They think like carpenters. They think in terms relative to lumber and a certain amount of

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Muntins | Grids | Mullions | 2Fold | Difference | View
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

How do I select the best folding door for me?

To make the best decision about anything, you need to identify your goal before you begin.  Most of the time this means that you have a single vision or concept about what your life will be like when this goal is attained and some idea about what it will look like. 

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Competitors Logo | Folding Doors | Steel Doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Can Window and Door Competitors Be Friends?

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to meet a project architect from a firm I have worked with for many, many years on a job site. We showed some samples and discussed her project’s design intent and special needs. It was a lot of fun for me because

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Thermally Broken Steel | Custom Steel | Luxury Glass Doors | Luxury Windows | Steel | Custom Steel
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Thermal Insulation & Steel Windows

The steel window and door industry has long been resistant to adding thermal insulation to their products. We need a little history here to help explain the reasons behind the reluctance.

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Shop | Manufacturing | 2Fold | Brewster New York
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Another Steel Window & Door Company Moves to New York

New York State is the home to more steel window and door companies and builds more of them than any other state in this country.  So you might want to ask why a company that had been based in Arizona wanted to move to this crowded market.  Well, the reason is that . . . well, it’s complicated

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2F-8000 folding door | folding door systems | steel folding doors | steel doors | luxury glass doors | steel and glass doors | custom steel doors | minimalist architecture | luxury windows
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

The Best Alternative to NanaWall Folding Doors.

In every segment of every product category, there is an 800-pound gorilla. In the folding or bi-folding door market that product would be NanaWall. I can’t tell you how many times I talk to savvy architects and contractors that tell me about their “NanaWall” only to find out that what they are

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custom steel doors | luxury windows | thin door frames | steel and glass doors | luxury glass doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Everything You Need to Know About Pivot Doors

Almost 20 years ago I designed a pivot door that was 8 feet x 8 feet. It was painted bright red and was installed on a small interesting house designed with all corrugated paneling on the exterior. This all glass door with very thin

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minimalist architecture | luxury windows | luxury glass doors | custom steel doors | big front doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Why Are Three-Legged Stools So Important?

Animals float, swim, slither and stand on all fours. The more developed of us can stand on our own two legs. This two leg thing is more like a parlor trick because we can’t do it without a lot of mental resources

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custom steel windows | custom steel doors | luxury windows | thermal break steel windows | luxury glass doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Is Failure Such a Bad Thing?

Failure almost always ends in pain and injury (either physical or psychological), but seldom ends in death. When faced with a calamity of any proportion, my first response is always, “well, nobody died.”

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steel and glass doors | custom steel doors | big front doors | minimalist architecture | luxury windows
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Why Do People Like and Hate Sliding Doors?

While sliding doors predate World War II, they exploded onto the building scene in the 1950’s and 60’s. They became the staple of the ranch-style tract house and a regular component of apartments and hotel/motel chains, and of course, we can’t forget about mobile homes.

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thin door frames | luxury windows | luxury glass doors | thermal break steel windows | custom steel doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Who are my heroes?

I’m spending my week in Atlanta at DriveWorks World 2017. DriveWorks is an amazing, infinite customization configuration that sits on top of SolidWorks 3D software. Before you get turned off by this blog because

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luxury windows | custom steel doors | luxury glass doors | thermal break steel windows | thin door frames
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

How Do You Go About Designing a New Product?

There are two general ways to go about the process of designing a new product. You can start with a revolutionary new idea or technology and evolve it, or you can start with a burning need and figure out what technology

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In-Swing Door | Window Wall | Muntin Grids | Lock Box | Steel | Custom steel door
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Muntin vs. Mullion! What’s the Difference?

I would venture to say that most people don’t even know the words muntin and mullion, much less know what the difference is. In fact, as I am typing this, the automatic spelling checker in Microsoft Word has identified “muntins”

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Insect screen | sliding screen | patio folding door | backdoor | backyard
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Do You Really Need insect Screens?

I’ve spent most of my 45-year career designing and selling beautiful windows and doors. Most of them have been mostly glass with relatively thin frames. Architects usually specified them because they fit into the modern, delicate aesthetic of their design.

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home | front of house | multi story building
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

How Can I Make My House Bigger?

A home in need of a 2fold product. Open spaces and connectivity leave exposure points that 2fold products can fill.
Bigger isn’t always better, although don’t try to tell most guys that. Despite that, I’m going to look at making your house bigger in obvious ways and less obvious ways. Let’s start with the obvious

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Competition | Windows And Doors | Logos | 2Fold | Steel
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

What are the Differences in these folding Doors?

Folding glass walls or folding exterior glass doors are used to create large openings in a building that can be fully opened to physically join the outside with the inside. This is why people are attracted to them in increasing numbers. Imagine having

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Window wall | out-swing door | lake view | sun room | muntin grids | steel windows and doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Steel vs. Aluminum for windows and doors?

Windows and doors were never made from aluminum until the mid 20th century. Steel was the metal that dominated the market before then dating back to the 19th Century. Cast iron storefronts can still be found in building of the late 1800’s, however

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Painting | Doors | Windows | House | 2Fold
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

What is a Door and Why Should I Care?

I have probably hit a new low in being pedantic and speaking down to you, but there is no depth to which I will not travel. Almost all of you if asked what is a door will create the mental image of the entrance door of your home or the door leading to

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minimalistic architecture | luxury glass doors | custom bi fold doors | thin door frames | folding patio doors
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

Making Your Model Home Memorable

There is no such thing as bad publicity is something that you always hear, but we use the word memorable here as a positive description. Nobody wants to be the example that their competitor uses to explain

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Interior great room | Open Folding Door | Three panel folding door | Bi-Folding door | Custom Steel Doors | 2Fold
Ed's Ideas
Ed Page

What’s a movable glass wall?

Modern architecture loves huge expanses of glass. Who wants to be boxed into the dreary darkness of four bare walls when you could commune with nature within a climate

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Before | Renovation | Single hinged Out-Swing Door
News
Ed Page

Tucson Project Before

Since the beginning of the year, we have been building and arranging for the installation of a wonderful project in Tucson. The house is in a country club community and was

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luxury glass doors | steel and glass doors | minimalistic architecture | thin door frames
News
Ed Page

Patent and Trademark

The building that received the applications for patent and trademark protection for the revolutionary 2Fold® Folding door system was quite a bit newer than this one. After 18 months of design, testing and software development . . .

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thin door frames | luxury glass doors | steel and glass doors minimalistic architecture | folding patio doors
News
Ed Page

Testing

National Certified Testing Laboratories in York, PA conducted a full round of Air, Water and Structural testing on a 2Fold® Folding door. Additionally,

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