sliding glass door replacement

[John Dirks Jr]

I'm planning on helping my dad replace a sliding glass door in his house. Please forgive my ignorance because I've never done this before.

The door to be replaced serves a second floor wood deck that has no stairs from the ground outside. I'll probably have more questions on this topic but logistics come first.

I understand these doors come as assemblies. Will this new door assembly fit through the front door of the house so it can be carried through the living room and out onto the deck for installation?

Can the new assembly be dis-assembled, parts carried through, and then reassembled for installation, or is the only sensible option to figure a way to hoist it up from the ground on the outside?

Forgot to add. The front door is your typical 30-36" sngle hinged door.

[hausdok]

You'll need one of these or a similar product. Last one I did, I had a custom metal fabricator solder one up to the exact size that I needed. It worked great.

Sill install instructions

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

M.

[Marc]

Best to go to the store, if possible, and measure it. Wood entrance doors would be 6' 8" of height. Steel equivalents are usually a little less as are sliding glass doors. It won't fit if your front door is steel, but if it's wood, there's but a small chance.

Get some friends over before the install date and tossed it up to the deck.

Marc

[kurt]

Yes, they disassemble/assemble for the most part.

Jamsill is fine, although a perfectly functional pan can be fabricated on site from peel and stick. Personally, I prefer the 40 mil self adhered instead of the thin stuff.

DO NOT OMIT THE PAN.

[John Dirks Jr]

Is taking it apart and putting it back together a bad idea?

What about transport? Upright, flat?

[John Dirks Jr]

Yes, they disassemble/assemble for the most part.

Jamsill is fine, although a perfectly functional pan can be fabricated on site from peel and stick. Personally, I prefer the 40 mil self adhered instead of the thin stuff.

DO NOT OMIT THE PAN.

Good then, that might be our best approach.

[John Dirks Jr]

The house is a mid 80's with aluminum siding. Since the aluminum is not so forgiving compared to vinyl as far as flexibility during the install, I'm wondering how that will go.

Any insight with regard to AL siding and trying to preserve the finished appearance?

[Tom Raymond]

There are lots of very good doors that come knocked down if your thinking of a slider. Hinged doors are almost always assembled, and many sliders are too. If you get an assembled slider the operating panel comes out easily, the stationary panel sometimes not so much. Remove the operator and turn the door on it's side with the stat panel down, four strong bodies should be able to lift the door up over the rail from outside, two on deck and two below. Use good ladders if it's really high, and a few extra bodies if they're all your dad's age. We do them this way all the time at the day job. Don't go through the house unless you care to fix more than the patio door, even a KD door will go over the rail easier most of the time.

Sill pan is a must. Prefab is easy, peel and stick is better, but if you have access to a brake you can bend your own. What ever you choose bed the door in a good quality polymer caulk, NPC Solar Seal or OSI Quad would be my preference, in that order. Silicone will work but nowhere near as well.

Tom

[kurt]

S'funny, I don't bed the door; I just set it there and secure it.

Caulk inhibits drainage from the pan, no?

[gtblum]

Drip cap at the top.

Use a framing square as much or more than a level.

Don't over run the screws and distort the frame.

Make damn sure it's flush with the rock on the inside, or you'll be trimming it with lots of caulk.

Don't stuff too much insulation between the frame and the jamb.

Leave an eighth inch reveal where the inside of the trim meets the frame.

Get beer, and stand around admiring a job well done.

[Steven Hockstein]

Is it an option to reuse the frame and just upgrade the doors and hardware?

[kurt]

Yes, but I don't remember ever having pulled one that wasn't rotten underneath from lack of a pan.

[Terence McCann]

Get beer, and stand around.

I excel at this part.

[Ben H]

Get beer, and stand around.

I excel at this part.

Just happens to my strong point as well.

[Tom Raymond]

S'funny, I don't bed the door; I just set it there and secure it.

Caulk inhibits drainage from the pan, no?

We fab metal pans. To provide a thermal break the pan stops short of the interior, and the caulk goes on the pan just short of that edge. That creates a dam and beds the door, and also covers any fasteners holding down the pan.

Tom

[Tom Raymond]

Is it an option to reuse the frame and just upgrade the doors and hardware?

I've done that once. Hurd sliding patio door used as the primary entrance to a very busy household (my childhood home, at one point there were 10 of us there, 5 were teenagers). The frequency was astounding; all of the moving parts, track surfaces, and weatherstrip completely wore out. Exact replacement parts were procured and installed far easier than complete replacement.

If factory parts were not available I never would have attempted it. Just because a Dodge intake manifold will fit on a Buick big block doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Tom

[Jim Katen]

. . . We fab metal pans. To provide a thermal break the pan stops short of the interior, and the caulk goes on the pan just short of that edge. That creates a dam and beds the door, and also covers any fasteners holding down the pan.

Tom

Ha! Good thing we don't inspect in the same area. When I find them that way, I tell them that the pan was installed by a goofball and tell them to re-do it properly, with end dams & side dams. If they're worried about a thermal break, they can use PVC or peel & stick.

I just saw one about a month ago that was done as you describe. They had to replace subflooring, a few feet of rim joist, and the ends of three joists.

The caulk only holds for a little while, then it leaks.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Steven Hockstein]

Is it an option to reuse the frame and just upgrade the doors and hardware?

I've done that once. Hurd sliding patio door used as the primary entrance to a very busy household (my childhood home, at one point there were 10 of us there, 5 were teenagers). The frequency was astounding; all of the moving parts, track surfaces, and weatherstrip completely wore out. Exact replacement parts were procured and installed far easier than complete replacement.

If factory parts were not available I never would have attempted it. Just because a Dodge intake manifold will fit on a Buick big block doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Tom

That is what I meant. If it is an old Andersen slider, keeping the frame may be an option (of course to Kurt's point, depending on the condition). If the manfacturer cannot be traced or if parts are not available, it may not be an option even if the frame is good.

[Tom Raymond]

The caulk only holds for a little while, then it leaks.

Then your using the wrong caulk. An adhesive, self sealing, polymer caulk, specificallly the brands I mentioned, will last for decades applied as bedding on a metal pan. Extending the metal all the way to the interior in this climate creates mad amounts of condensation which leads to as much, or more, damage than omiting the pan altogether.

If there is no bedding compound under the door then what prevents air infiltration?

Tom

[kurt]

That's why I don't use metal pans. 40 mil self adhered; no heat transfer.

Wrap the stuff up into end and interior dams; no air infiltration. It's thick gooey stuff, it adheres and goos into all the little places air and water like to go.

Takes about 8-10 minutes to wrap an opening.

I grudgingly concede caulk works to keep out air and water. Polymer caulk will hold up longer than the door frame. Problem is, folks installing doors use whatever's on the truck, which is usually some crap silicone product.