Sliding Glass Door (house, buy, price)

[alsidw]

I appears the slider on the bottom of my patio sliding glass door needs replacing and I was looking for a reference or DIY information.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[bznavyveteran]

Hello Sid,
See if you can determine the manufacturer and model number for the door. Search and find who sells that door. Buy a replacement slider unit from the mgfr or vendor. Lift the door up and swing the bottom out, then lay it on it's side. Replace the broken unit and reinstall the door. Tada!!!

[alsidw]

Thanks, it is great to know we have talented people on the list such as yourself. Being retired I would like to do it myself and your information is giving me the push. All of the windows are PGT and I will check to see if the door is also. Of course there is always a fly in the ointment, the two sliding doors are between my den and my screened porch but the floor level is higher on the house side than the porch so I imagine I will have to remove both glass doors and take them out from the low side( porch). If I can I will wait a bit until the weather gets cooler so I do not cause the house to heat up, i.e. run the ac more than necessary. OTH, I could tape up the opening with plastic sheeting. I know the job will take 2-3 times longer than necessary because, well, that is just the way things seem to work for me, especially doing it for the first time.
Thanks again,
Sid

[bznavyveteran]

Knowing how something is suppose to be done and being fit enough to do it are two different things. I have done this job before when I was younger and later in life have hired someone to do it. I have to tell you of the young man I once hired to do this. He came out and took out the door much like I have described and laid it across two saw horses to easily work on the door. He replaced the defective parts, adjusted the rest of the door, and lubed everything just fine. He was installing the door which is simply lift the door into the upper groove, slide the bottom into the bottom groove, and you are done. Except the door was heavy and something was keeping the bottom from easily slipping into the bottom groove. It was almost in. He decided to give it a few gentle taps with a hammer. The glass of that sliding door exploded into a thousand tiny fragments. I was sitting on a kitchen chair and he was standing there; both of us frozen and stunned by what had happened. No one was hurt. I said that I had never seen anything like that before and he said that he had never seen it either. He said that he had another piece of glass in his truck. He changed it out, reinstalled it (carefully), cleaned up and left. All for the original quoted price. Good luck with your project.

[alsidw]

Success, after looking at several You Tube Videos I learned about the adjustment screw on the door, I fiddled with it and in doing so saw a large accumulation of dog hair from the previous owner two dogs. I cleaned and cleaned and used bamboo skewers to fish out the hair and grease and vacuumed more and finally used WD 40 more to dissolve the gunk, cleaned some more and Viola, it works much better. Got a lot of sand-no surprise too since I have a back yard that is naturally sandy. Next time I will use my air compressor to blow it out. The door is inside of a screened porch so it does not get wet and rusty just got gummed up. I went on to use my chain saw on a few oak tree limbs, then cut the grass and finally collapsed from exhaustion and heat but feel good about what I accomplished today. More yard work tomorrow. Oh yes, cleaned the gutters of leaves from all the oaks. I will get gutter guards soon.

[newred5]

Way to go Sid

[alsidw]

Thanks, hope it will help someone else in the future.
Sid