Glass doors in Windsor-Essex homes: repair, reglaze or replace
Around here the back door and its screen get used from the last spring frost, around mid-April, until late October. That's a lot of trips over one track and one latch, so most door trouble is a worn part, not a worn-out door. We're a free referral service: tell us what the door is doing, we hand it to an independent local pro who fixes that sort of door, and we check that they called you back.
Patio sliders
Sliding patio doors that stick, leak or fog
Drags, grinds or jumped the track
Usually worn rollers or grit in the track. The panel comes out, new rollers go in, and the track is cleaned or capped.
Won't lock, latch or close all the way
A panel sagging on tired rollers stops the latch meeting its keeper. Raising it often beats buying a new lock.
Fog in the glass or water at the sill
Fog trapped between the panes means a blown seal; the glass unit can be replaced alone. Water at the sill usually means blocked drain holes.
Past fixing
New patio doors: sliding, French and garden
A new slider in the same opening
When the sill is soft or both panels keep losing their seals, a new slider goes into the existing opening.
French and garden doors
Hinged doors open wide to the yard but need room to swing, so they suit a patio better than a narrow deck.
Rebates and City grants
The provincial rebate covers complete ENERGY STAR doors only. City grants for Sandwich Town and Ford City homes list front doors.
Front of the house
Front doors, sidelights, transoms and storm doors
Front and entry doors
A draft or a latch you have to lift is often weatherstrip or hinge work. When the door is done, compare materials.
Inserts, sidelights and transoms
A cracked insert or a sidelight with a blown seal can usually be reglazed while the door stays, older decorative glass included.
Storm doors
Two jobs in one frame: the glass or screen insert, and the closer that stops it banging open in a gust. Both are small fixes.
Screen season
Screen and retractable screen doors
Screen doors
A patio screen that won't stay on its track, a sagging hinged screen door, or mesh the dog went through. Mostly rollers, hinges and mesh.
Retractable screens
A screen that rolls away into its housing when you don't need it, handy on French doors and wide openings.
Window screens
Torn mesh, bent frames and missing screens, on windows or a screened porch. One screen is worth asking about, and so is every screen.
The glass rule
Door glass must be safety glass
Sliding and storm doors
Under the Ontario Building Code, sliding and storm doors take tempered or laminated safety glass, so replacements are ordered that way.
Sidelights and big door lites
A wide sidelight that could be mistaken for a door needs safety glass, and so does large glass reaching low in an entry door.
When a glass door breaks
Keep people and pets back, take photos, then cover the opening. Tempered glass crumbles into small cubes, so sweep wide.
Questions
Before you call about a door
Where pros go
Door and screen help across Windsor and the County
We connect people with door and glass pros throughout the city and the County towns. Further afield? Send your address first and we'll find out whether a local pro makes the trip.
Send a photo of the door and tell us what it's doing
Dragging, fogging, slamming or letting bugs in: a photo and one line is plenty. We send it to a local pro who takes that job, and check in if nobody calls.