Sliding Glass Door Repair in Phoenix

Why it grinds

A sliding door rides on two rollers set into the bottom of the glass panel. They're small, and they carry a panel that can weigh 100 pounds or more. Over the years the wheels wear flat, the bearings fail, or the plastic housing cracks. The door sinks onto the track and scrapes metal on metal. Dust and grit in the track speed that up, and Phoenix has plenty of both.

There are adjustment screws at the bottom corners of the panel that raise it. Turning them buys some time. Once the rollers are worn, adjusting only lifts a bad wheel higher, and the door drops again before long.

What a roller replacement involves

The panel has to come out of the frame. That means lifting it up into the top channel, swinging the bottom out, and setting it down on padding. It's heavy and awkward, and it's the reason most people call us rather than do it themselves. With the panel out, the old rollers come off the bottom, new ones that match go in, and the track gets cleaned and checked.

Tracks wear too. A track with a groove worn into it will chew up new rollers. Some tracks can be fitted with a stainless cap that gives the wheels a fresh surface to ride on. A track that's badly worn or bent gets replaced.

Then the panel goes back in, the height gets set so the door glides without touching the top, and the latch gets lined up with the keeper. The sliding screen gets the same treatment if it needs it.

Latches, handles and locks

A door that's hard to lock usually has a latch that doesn't meet the keeper anymore, because the panel has dropped. Resetting the height fixes it. A latch or handle that's broken gets replaced, and most are standard parts. We also add a secondary lock: a pin lock through the frame, a foot bolt, or a bar in the track. A sliding door with only the factory latch is easy to lift out from outside, and a secondary lock stops that.

Glass and seals

The glass in a sliding door is a sealed double-pane unit. When the seal fails, the glass fogs between the panes and no cleaning clears it. A new sealed unit gets made to size and set into the existing panel. Any glass in a door has to be safety glass, so that's what gets ordered.

The weatherstripping around the panel, the fuzzy strip along the edges, keeps dust and heat out. When it's flat or missing, it gets replaced.

Replacing the whole door

A frame that's bent, a track that's rotted through, or a door that's been patched too many times gets replaced, with a new door in the same opening. The stucco around the outside and the trim inside get patched where the old frame comes out.

Problems we fix on this page

• Sliding door hard to open
• Sliding door grinds on the track
• Sliding door off the track
• Sliding door rollers worn out
• Sliding door lock broken
• Sliding door handle broken
• Sliding door drafty
• Sliding screen door off track
• Sliding screen torn
• Sliding screen door won't close
• Track bent or worn
• Water coming in under the patio door in a storm
• Milgard slider rollers worn
• Andersen sliding door hard to open
• Pella slider lock broken
• Jeld-Wen patio door rollers
• Old aluminum slider needs new rollers
• Multi-slide door panel stuck
• Is it worth fixing a sliding door or replacing it
• Should I hire someone to fix a sliding door

How it starts

Send a photo of the bottom corner of the panel from inside, one of the track, and one of the latch. Tell us whether it drags, grinds, or won't lock. Fixed price up front, no surprises on the bill. Levi is on the job.