Sliding doors · Winnipeg
Get a hard-to-slide patio door gliding again
A patio door, or deck door, that drags, grinds or needs a hip to open usually has a small problem: worn rollers, a gritty track or a latch out of line. Those are repairs, and worth doing. We connect you with an independent local pro who fixes sliding doors and will tell you honestly if yours is past it.
- Rollers, tracks, latches and handles
- Glass replaced without a new door
- A straight answer when the door is done
What it's doing
Symptoms and their usual causes
Slide it slowly and listen.
Dragging or heavy
Rollers worn flat or seized, or the panel has dropped onto the track. Heavy triple-pane panels wear rollers faster than old double-glazed ones.
Grinding or bumping
Grit in the track, a dent, or a cracked roller wheel catching on every slide.
Jumping the track
The panel rides too low or too high, or the track is bent. The roller height needs setting.
Won't lock or latch
The latch and keeper have drifted apart as the panel sagged or the house shifted. Usually an adjustment or a new latch.
The usual fix
Roller and track repair
Most sliders ride on two roller assemblies under the moving panel. A pro lifts the panel out, fits matching rollers, cleans the track and sets the height so the door rolls level and latches. A dented track can often take a cover strip or insert. The screen panel has its own rollers; that's a screen door repair.
Safe to do yourself: vacuum the track. Don't lift a triple-pane panel out alone; it's heavier than it looks.
Repair or replace
Repair or replace? Signs the door has had its day
A good slider can take new rollers, latches and glass more than once. Look at a new patio door when the sill is soft or the vinyl corners have split, when it still leaks air after new weatherstrip and an adjustment, or when rollers, glass and lock are all failing at once. A complete triple-pane door may earn a rebate; repairs won't.
What affects the quote
What a sliding door repair depends on
- Whether matching rollers are still made, or an adapted part is needed
- Panel size and weight, especially triple-pane glass
- Track work: a clean-up, a cover strip or an insert
- Latch, handle or lock parts
A short video of the door sliding and a photo of the bottom corner help the pro bring the right parts.
Cold snap
Ice, drafts and a door that sticks in winter
In a cold snap, ice along the bottom of a patio door is common. The sill and lower glass are the coldest surfaces in the room, and moist indoor air freezes there first. That's frost on the room side, not fog between the panes.
People are often told it's the curtains. Drapes do trap cold air against the glass, so open them at night, but they're rarely the whole story. Humidity, a worn weatherstrip and a panel that no longer closes tight all add up. A draft or a line of daylight at the edge means the door needs work; ice with no draft points to humidity, which our frost versus fog guide covers. Never force a door frozen to the sill.
The glass
Fogged or cracked glass in a patio door
Each panel holds a sealed unit, just like a window. Mist between the panes means the seal has failed, and the unit can usually be replaced while the frame and rollers stay, the same fix as a foggy sealed unit. A crack means a new tempered unit made to size.
Balcony doors
Condo and apartment balcony doors
Up a tower, wind presses the balcony door into its frame, so a tired weatherstrip shows up as a whistle and a ridge of ice at the sill. Tenants should report it to the landlord; condo owners should check the declaration or the board first. Managers can start on our property managers page. Other doors are on the doors overview.
Questions
Sliding door questions
Explore your options
Other door and glass jobs
Local pros repair sliding and garden doors across the city and nearby, including St. Vital, Osborne Village, Fort Garry, Transcona and Steinbach.
Send a short video of the door sliding
A few seconds of the door moving tells a pro more than a paragraph. We'll pass it to a local pro who repairs sliders, and they'll get back to you with a quote.