Door glass · Windsor, Ontario
Replacing the glass in front doors, sidelights and storm doors
A cracked pane in the front door, a sidelight gone milky, a storm door panel that lost an argument with a road-hockey ball. None of these usually means a new door. The old glass comes out, new glass made to size goes in, and the door stays where it is. We'll connect you with a local glass pro who does door glass, from one storm door pane to a decorative front-door insert, and they quote the swap.
- Keep the door, change the glass
- Safety glass where the code asks
- Leaded and patterned glass
Front-door inserts
Front-door inserts: clear, privacy and decorative
In a steel or fibreglass front door, the glass usually lives in an insert: a framed unit screwed together through the door. It comes out in one piece, so the door itself isn't touched.
Clear glass
Plain sealed glass. A crack or blown seal is replaced like for like, or with low-E.
Privacy glass
Textured or frosted glass that lets light in and blurs the view from the sidewalk.
Decorative glass
Bevelled or patterned inserts. An exact match isn't always possible, so the pro may bring samples.
Beside and above
Sidelights and transoms
A sidelight is the tall glass beside the door; a transom sits above it. Both are often sealed units that fog like any window when the seal blows, and the unit can usually be replaced without disturbing the door.
Under the Ontario Building Code, a sidelight wide enough to be mistaken for a door must have safety glass, as must storm doors and sliding doors. Large glass reaching low in an entry door needs it too, so the pro orders tempered or laminated glass where the rule applies.
Older porches
Leaded and stained glass on older Windsor porches: restore or replicate
Walkerville's heritage register runs from Hiram Walker-era cottages of the 1880s to semi-detached houses on Argyle Road from about 1905. Houses that age are where original leaded door glass turns up. Three ways to handle it:
Restore it
Sagging or rattling leaded panels can be releaded and cracked pieces replaced. It's specialist work, so tell us it's leaded when you ask.
Protect it
A clear safety-glass panel fitted outside takes the weather and knocks, and the original stays.
Replicate it
A panel past saving can be remade in the old pattern.
In the Sandwich Heritage Conservation District, replacing a door in its existing opening doesn't need a heritage permit, but a new or altered opening does, according to the Sandwich district plan. Walkerville isn't a heritage district yet and its plan goes to Council this winter, so check with the City before changing original street-facing glass there. The Walkerville page tracks where that stands.
Storm doors
Storm doors: glass panels, screen inserts and closers
A storm door holds a full glass panel, glass over a screen, or inserts you swap with the seasons, and its glass must be safety glass. In the Sandwich district, a storm door needs no heritage permit.
Broken glass panel
Replaced with tempered glass sized to the frame.
Screen insert
Torn mesh is redone; a missing insert can often be made.
Closer and latch
A door that slams or won't catch is hardware work, covered under screen door repair.
Glass or door?
Swap the glass or replace the door?
New glass is the smaller job whenever the door swings and seals, the slab isn't split or rusting, and the frame is solid. Price a new door when the slab is warped or peeling apart, the frame is soft, or it leaks air whatever glass is in it. The entry doors page compares materials, grants and heritage rules.
What affects the quote
What moves the price of door glass
Every piece is cut or ordered to fit, so the quote depends on the piece:
- Size and shape, including arched or oval inserts
- Safety glass wherever the code requires it
- Clear, privacy, decorative or leaded glass
- A sealed unit or a single pane
- Whether the insert frame can be reused
- Matching a pattern across a pair of doors or sidelights
Photograph the full door, then get close where the glass meets its frame, so the pro can see what holds it.
Matching patterns
Matching obscure or etched glass
When one sidelight breaks and its twin is fine, the new glass sits beside the old. Common textured patterns are usually still made; older etched ones may not be, so a close match, or replacing both so they agree, is sometimes the better call. A photo with a ruler held against the glass helps. For a window rather than a door, see broken window glass.
Questions
Door glass questions
Explore your options
More help with doors and glass
Door glass pros work across the city and out into the County, including Walkerville, Olde Sandwich Towne, Riverside, Ford City and Amherstburg.
Photograph the glass and the edge of its frame
A photo of the full door and one close in on the glass edge. We pass them to a local glass pro who handles door glass, and we make sure you hear back.