New patio doors · Windsor-Essex
New sliding, French or garden doors for Windsor-Essex backyards
In Windsor-Essex the back door is a summer door. It's open for the barbecue, the kids and the cross-breeze, and when it's shut it faces the sun for hours. When a patio door is past fixing, choose the new one for that life: how it opens, what glass it holds and which screen goes with it. Independent local installers we connect you with measure the opening and quote the door, and if a roller or latch repair would do, they should say so.
- Sliding, French and garden doors
- Glass picked for summer sun
- Permit and rebate rules, linked
Time for new
When replacing beats repairing
Most patio doors can be repaired more than once. These are the signs one has run out of repairs.
The sill or frame is soft
Years of water under the sill leave wood that gives under a thumb. New rollers won't fix what they sit on.
Panels are bent or out of square
A panel that won't seal however it's adjusted, or a frame racked out of shape, means the door can't close properly again.
Seals keep blowing
One fogged unit is a glass job. When both panels have blown seals and the replacements are fogging too, the door is telling you something.
Parts are gone
Some older sliders use rollers and locks nobody makes any more. When a universal part won't fit, replacement is the honest answer.
Styles
Sliding, French and garden doors: which fits your opening
The right style depends on the room inside, the space outside and how you use the yard. Not sure it's a patio door job at all? The doors and screens overview sorts that out.
Sliding patio doors
One panel glides past a fixed one. No swing room needed, so it suits a narrow deck or furniture close to the glass. The screen slides too.
French doors
Two hinged doors that open the full width. Good for carrying a table outside, but both leaves need clear space to swing.
Garden doors
Usually one hinged door beside a fixed glass panel: a wide view with a single door's swing. The name varies by who's selling it.
Glass choices
Glass for sun-baked backyards: low-E, solar control and safety glass
Windsor has Ontario's longest, most humid summers, and cooling matters more here than in Toronto. A big west-facing patio door lets the late-afternoon sun straight into the family room, and the glass decides how much heat comes with it.
Low-E coatings
A thin, clear coating that reflects heat. Some are tuned to keep winter heat in, others to keep summer sun out; ask which one you're getting.
Solar control on west and south glass
A coating that cuts the heat coming through on doors that bake all afternoon. It can tint the view slightly, so look at a sample first.
Tempered safety glass
Sliding doors must have tempered or laminated safety glass by code. It isn't an upgrade; a new door comes with it.
Permits
Same opening or a new walkout: when Windsor needs a permit
Swapping a door into the same opening usually goes ahead without a City of Windsor building permit, though it's worth confirming with the City. Its building permit list does include basement or main floor walkouts and new or structural alterations to windows and doors.
So turning a window into a patio door, widening an opening or cutting a new walkout is a permit job, and the installer who takes it on should know the process. Outside the city, check with your own town's building department.
What affects the quote
What drives a patio door quote
Every door is quoted to its opening. These make the biggest difference:
- Style and size: sliding, French or garden, standard or custom
- Frame material, and colour inside and out
- Glass: double or triple, low-E or solar control, grilles
- Same opening, or a widened or new one with a permit
- What turns up under the old sill once it's out
- Trim, exterior capping and hauling the old door away
- The screen: sliding or retractable
Get the opening's width and height, plus a photo from inside and one from the yard. A first quote can start from that.
Summer air
Screens and summer airflow: sliding or retractable
A door that's open half the year needs a screen that works. A slider comes with a sliding screen on its own track, which is simple to repair. French and garden doors often have nowhere good to put one. A retractable screen rolls into a housing at the side and pulls across when you want air, so it suits hinged doors and wide openings. If the old screen is the only thing wrong, screen door repair may be all you need.
Rebates and grants
Rebates for ENERGY STAR patio doors
Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program offers a per-opening rebate on ENERGY STAR certified doors, usually tied to a home energy assessment. Only complete doors count, not new glass in an old frame. Confirm the current rules on the program site before ordering.
The City's Sandwich Town and Ford City grants name front doors, windows and porches, and Ford City's covers only work visible from the road, so a backyard patio door is a long shot for either. The grants guide has the details. Doing the windows at the same time? See replacement windows.
Questions
Patio door replacement questions
Explore your options
Worth a look before you buy
Local installers replace patio doors in the city and across the County, including Tecumseh, LaSalle, South Windsor, Belle River and Amherstburg.
Measure the opening and send a photo
Width and height of the opening, one photo from inside and one from the yard. We pass them to local installers who replace patio doors, and we chase it up if nobody calls.