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R311.2 Egress door. At least one egress door shall be provided for each dwelling unit. The egress door shall be side-hinged, and shall provide a minimum clear width of 32 inches (813 mm) when measured between the face of the door and the stop, with the door open 90 degrees (1.57 rad). The minimum clear height of the door opening shall not be less than 78 inches (1981 mm) in height measured from the top of the threshold to the bottom of the stop. Other doors shall not be required to comply with these minimum dimensions. Egress doors shall be readily openable from inside the dwelling without the use of a key or special knowledge or effort.
Blocking an egress door IS NOT a fire hazard. An unattended open flame is a fire hazard, a space heater too. Lose to flammable materials is a fire hazard.
If "replacing the unit" is a far stretch- at least replace the weatherstripping. And while the door is out replace the rollers.
Go with Bldr.
If you want to use the sliding glass door in the winter, check the weatherstripping first. If it has any age, the frames have likely warped a bit - especially mid point on the vertical where the frames meet when closed. There may also be some cracked or even chunks missing.
Living in a variety of rentals in a part of the country where putting the shrink wrap kits was common for winter, I was always surprised at just how much cold air came through old weatherstripping. When you are applying it and the plastic is fully bulging the moment you seal it on the last edge (before shrinking it), it gets your attention.
A slider is not meant as a constant use door. They don't hold up for that application. A quality french door is more durable. One side opening or both. Both side opening is good for getting furniture / appliances in the house..
I have curtains. Thanks for all the great ideas y’all!
You need lined drapes or blinds. They will keep the cold out of the house. We've had both with blinds being new. So far it keeps it out for us. I used to have a heavy lined drapes hanging. It was very effective. My hub got tired of the drapes because it wasn't smooth to open it up due to the curtain rod. That didn't bother me plus I liked the look of the drapes. It was one large panel
You're all assuming there are actual air leaks. It's just as likely that cold air (chilled by contact with the inside glass surface) is falling down the surface and causing an apparent draft.
In that case the solution is to put something in front of the slider - like a drapery.
You need lined drapes or blinds. They will keep the cold out of the house. We've had both with blinds being new. So far it keeps it out for us. I used to have a heavy lined drapes hanging. It was very effective. My hub got tired of the drapes because it wasn't smooth to open it up due to the curtain rod. That didn't bother me plus I liked the look of the drapes. It was one large panel
Where do you find one panel drapes that extend entirely across sliding doors?
OP - you may have already addressed this, I’ve not read all of the posts - we had a slider in our kitchen to our patio that was bad. Rotten corners via 15 years of water in the tracks (rain). Went through a winter with them before we could fix - very drafty and cold.
We replaced with outward swinging French doors instead. Double opening for when we need to move big items in/out of the house. Nothing special - Home Depot Jeldwen’s, cost about $2k for everything start to finish. It’s now been nearly 4 years and they’re still perfect - a composite material that doesn’t rot. Being outward opening, when the cold wind blows against them, they seal up even tighter - 0% drafts. And the glass is low E insulated, which is impressive in how much they not only insulate but also reduce the sun’s heat during the hot summer months too. When the summer sun is beating down on them, you can stand next to the glass and barely feel any of the sun’s heat on your skin. We’re very happy with them, and turned out to be the best decision for us on how to fix our sliders.
They open outward to about a 7 inch concrete step that is flush with the door, then down to a larger 15 inch landing area and another below that before getting to the patio. No overhang above. We were originally gong to enclose the patio, but haven’t done so yet and probably won’t. That being said, and we get a lot of snow here in the western burbs of DC - they’ve never been a problem to open even with 30 inches of snow up against them. Although we don’t use them when there is that much snow (garage instead), we’ve never had any of the issues associated with outward swinging that some warned us against for not getting them (inward swinging instead). We do have a drip cap above them for code. Since they’re outward swinging, they don’t impede on our kitchen table eating area at all.
Where do you find one panel drapes that extend entirely across sliding doors?
Amazon has a great selection of 100 in. by 84 in. insulated extra-wide drapery panels for sliding glass doors. They all seem to be priced very reasonably too. If you have Prime the shipping and return is also free.
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