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1948 - 2013. Serving Toronto homes for the past 65
years.
Sliding patio doors
Doors installed at locations other than front of house are referred to as patio doors. Main object is to allow most light in, undisturbed view outside and easy access to back yard. With that, this door style presents unique challenges:
- Large, and still easy to operate: an operating panel for a 5' door, double glazed, weighs app 100 lbs. A triple glazed, if used, is 50% more. An 8' double glazed panel is about 160 lbs. Yet, the door has to operate by young children and frail little old ladies. The door's sill needs to last carrying such weights.
- Glazing - where a small size window can survive shabby glazing, a large sealed unit can not. Glazing needs to be both mechanically stronger and better sealed. For mechanical strength a good patio door will use best in class spacer - stainless steel or compatible. A double seal process is paramount for withstanding glass' pump action.
- Due to the doors large sizes, structural integrity has to be considered as well. A typical house window is about 12 SQFT. The smallest patio door is 33 sqft, almost three times bigger, and a sizes of 70 sqft and over are not uncommon. Patio doors also bigger than entrance door, where a typical size is 20 SQFT for a single door or twice for a double. Same applies to screens and hardware.
- Wide glass area, and keep the cold and heat out: Doors are equipped with thermal glass sealed unit, low emissivity coat and warm edge spacer. This will minimize cold and heat conduction and radiation so area next to door will not be too cold or too hot.
- Long perimeter and meeting rail, and still prevent air leak: operating panels are protected with double or triple weather stripping layer. Bottom rail is covered with well adjusted and efficient sweep. Drainage system vents in to the track, not into the house. In sliding doors - wide meeting rail positive interlock combined with additional two line of weather stripping.
- Product life should not be taken for granted. a small window or regular sized door can be installed les than perfect and yet operate relatively well. Large and heavy product as patio doors need to be properly installed, not almost so. Badly adjusted door will become an eyesore, will badly insulate and might be a safety hazard. Door the is frequently used it may require service from time to time, so it's pedigree is important - whether the manufacturer or seller will be around long after the installation to provide parts and service.
- Stock sizes - most fenestration products are custom made or easy to customize. Patio doors, be it sliding or hinged, are made to standard sizes. In most cases it is not an issue, but the few instances requiring custom sizes or options can be costly.
- Not the least of which, safety has to be addressed as well. Old and low-end sliding doors can be easily compromised by removing the fixed pane or jimmying the operating pane. Most new doors are protected against it. Double locks solidly secure operating pane, and foot lock provide a secondary defense line. Tempered glass makes it difficult to break.
Like any other product and more so, selecting patio doors is a
compromise. Either you wish to have above attributes with a good and
long serving product, and compromise on the price; or forgo some of
the futures and select a low priced product.
Regrettably one can not have both.
Styles
Most common patio doors are sliders. In general, sliders carry a lower ticket price and are more energy efficient than hinged - garden doors. Nevertheless, many home owners replace the builder's slider with a garden door - either for ease of use, style, opening area or functionality. Having said that, a high end sliding door may cost as much a comparable garden door.
Dressing
Patio doors, in both sliding or hinged configuration may offer the following attributes. Note that not all doors are available with all options.
- Grids in the glass
- Simulated divided glass
- Outside colour
- Real wood inside
- Art glass
- Crystal cut pattern
- Upgraded hardware
- PVD hardware
- Pet screen
- French rail
- High insulated kick plate
Vinyl sliding patio door
Materials
Sliding doors are offered in solid vinyl,
vinyl/wood, wood, aluminum and fiberglass. Aluminum is now used
almost exclusively for high-rise residential, where other material offer better performance
and nicer, less industrial looks at
similar cost.
Pricewise, vinyl is at the bottom, followed by
fiberglass, hybrid fiberglass / wood and all wood. As wood has its own niche as a top end product,
most home owners select vinyl or fiberglass.
Vinyl and fiberglass sliding doors are thermally efficient, take little space, require no maintenance except for the occasional cleaning, are easy to operate and show a large glass area.
Sizes and configuration
Unlike windows, sliding doors are made in fixed sizes. In the retrofit trade we remove one door and replace it with another of the same size. Notwithstanding that, custom sizes can be offered at a premium. Custom size doors are few and far between, but caution should be practiced for DIY projects. Fixed sidelites and transoms can be added.
Common width doors are:
| Nominal width | Configuration | |
| 5' | XO / OX | |
| 6' | XO / OX | |
| 7' 6" | XOX, OOX, XOO | |
| 8' | XO / OX | |
| 9' | XOX, OOX, XOO | |
| 10' | OXXO | |
| 12' | OXXO, OXO | |
| 16' | OXXO |
Notes:
- Door size indicated is nominal. Actual width may differ by door style and other criteria. Please contact us for exact measurements per particular opening.
- Operating side is as viewed from outside.
- Heights - standard is 79.50". Some sizes available at 6', 8'-10" and 8'.
- X - operating pane. O - fixed pane.
Door operating side simulation:
To compensate for non-standard width or height, a custom door can be made. Alternatively, an integral transom or sidelites can make up the difference. Sidelites can be mounted on either side of the door or on both, and can be supplied with any size or configuration.
Door with an integral transom
Door with two integral sidelites.
Patio door with insulated kickplate
Manufacturers
Sliding doors are complex products, and as such require a high degree of specialization. While one can start making vinyl windows with a small investment of $10,000, or pre-hung entrance doors in a garage with a drill and a miter saw, sliding doors are made in real factories. Yet, some doors are better than others, as will be demonstrated later. Most, if not all manufacturers will not sell to the public, and any such claim - 'buy direct' should be taken with a grain of salt.
Door grades
We divide the sliding doors into two chief categories:
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New construction vinyl doors - where doors are made with price first in mind. Such doors are offered with minimum passable specifications and are void of any frills. Commonly an all-vinyl structure.
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High end door or retrofit door vinyl doors - where the doors are made to the high standards, performs better, are easier to operate, are serviceable and last much longer. The price is higher than the new construction product, but the value is superior.
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Builders fiberglass doors - all fiberglass doors, lower profile, entry level hardware, bare of options.
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High end fiberglass doors - offered in many configurations, looks, profiles, options and hardware.
Low-end doors are aggressively offered at the market place for fire sale prices, so home owners may unknowingly replace one bad product with another poor product.
A comforting fact is that while the quality gap is wide, the price difference is narrow.
Sliding patio door with colonial grids and matching transom
Build
The reasons for using vinyl is simple. Vinyl is an excellent material to work with, has superior thermal characteristics and lends itself well for all fenestration needs. However, it lacks in two areas - mediocre mechanical strength and it does not take screws well.
Mechanical lack of strength is a non-issue when making windows, as sections are relatively short. Critical areas are reinforced with steel stiffeners, so the combination of both address any structural concern.
Sliding doors are a tougher challenge. height of a door is 80", and frames are made up to 16'.
Sashes - where windows corner welding is structural enough to sustain the product, patio door welded corners are the weakest part. In a good door, the styles and rails are reinforced with steel sections, which is fine. But, in a welded sash the reinforcement can not to interfere with the corner welding, meaning the steel are cut short and the welder corners are guiltless of any strength. Further, low end doors are stop glazed, which in most entry level doors carry little mechanical strength.
A good door will have a mechanical sash, where reinforcements in styles and rails extend to the full vinyl section length, mad are screwed together. This makes the panes much stronger, and will not ever deform. The same steel reinforce net also saucily holds the glass within it.
Frame - In low-end vinyl sliding doors, the frames made of vinyl profiles, screwed together - vinyl to vinyl, which never ends up well. When made like this, the frame does not have the strength to sustain itself, and needs to be supported by the surrounding walls. Not only it is difficult to install, such doors may go off-kilter and compromise the insulation value as well as be difficult to operate. The sill is made of hollow vinyl as well, so may deform under extensive use.
As opposed to that, most high end doors are made a solid wood frame capped with vinyl, so no wood is exposed. The frame is screwed together wood to wood, so that the door is self-supporting and rigid. The sill is supported by solid wood, and will not move or deform.
There is also an in-between product, where internal wood jamb extension is attached to an all vinyl frame. It is used in tight applications.
Sill - better door offer serviceable track, meaning that if damaged track can be easily replaced without removing the whole door or worse - removing the whole sill section.
Weather stripping and interlock - the weakest part of a door or a window is where the sashes meet. In a good sliding door the interlock will be wide, positively lock and supported with two runes of weather strips.
Hardware - what makes the noticeable difference. Cheap sliding doors use matching hardware, visible and under the hood.
- Good doors feature two double ball-bearing, metal roller sets. This way the panel's weight is well distributed and movement is smooth. Cheaper doors use two single rollers, operate on a friction pin, with nylon rollers. When door is not used for long time, say winter, the plastic rollers may flatten and when operated again door will jerk.
- In hinged doors a rigid hinge system keeps the door from sagging or getting off square, so it always closes with a slight touch.
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Handle and locks - cheaper door offer basic handle, and any decent style would be extra. Locking mechanism should be either reversed - locking striker moving up, against attempts to jimmy the operating panel. A foot lock is commonly included in better doors.
Low profile fiberglass door - inside view
Low profile fiberglass door - outside view
French rail fiberglass door
Fiberglass door with square SDL
Fiberglass door with horizontal SDL
Fiberglass door with prairie style SDL
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Fiberglass door handles: high end - left, standard - right.
Vinyl sliding door
Vinyl sliding door OXXO
Installation
A window that was poorly installed may still function, sort of. A regular window can be forced to shut.
Patio doors however need to be installed to perfection, otherwise it will not perform. It will leak air and water, will not open, and when opened will not close. We can not overemphasize the importance of proper installation.
Vinyl door comparison
| MADE TO MEASURE |
| Products can be custom made |
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Sliding doors
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Garden doors
Ratings
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Configuration