View ChannelsFeatured: Finance
View ShowroomsFeatured: Radiantec - Radiant Solar Heating

BobVila.com

Home

How to Repair Sliding Doors

Sliding doors can stick in their tracks, making them difficult to open and close. If debris in the tracks isn't your problem, you may need to replace the rollers.

DIFFICULTY RATING:

Get Adobe Flash Player to see this content.

View text version of this Step-by-Step

Download for iPod

What materials were used in this video?

Door, sliding glass Graphite Level Roller Screwdriver Vacuum

Clip Transcript For:

How to Repair Sliding Doors

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" As sliding door gets older they often begin to stick and jam. There are few simple techniques to get your doors sliding smoothly again. Sliding doors don't actually slide, but roll on plastic or metal wheels along a track on the floor. If your sliding door sticks or jams, vacuuming the track will often fix the problem. Pebbles, sand, and gravel, small kids toys You would be surprised what builds up in those tracks overtime. If there is still resistance to sliding smoothly then the rollers on the bottom of the sliding glass door most likely need to be replaced. To replace the rollers, you'll have to lift out the sliding glass door. You'll need someone strong to help you. First though, the rollers on the bottom of the door have to be raised up. This is done by turning the adjusting screws at each end of the door in a clockwise direction to raise each wheel up into the sliding unit. Now with a strong friend to help you, lift the door up and swing the bottom over the lip of the track. Leave the door securely on a pair of sawhorses. Once you remove the door, you will discover that there are two sets of rollers to remove, one set in the front and the other set in back. You can tell the rollers are worn if they're hard to turn or if you can wobble them from side to side. To get out the rollers, remove the screws holding the bottom bar of the door in place. Although designs vary, there is usually at least one screw at each end of the bar. Once the screws are out, work the rubber gasket loose with a screwdriver and wiggle the bar away from the glass. Next, remove the roller brackets. The roller should slide out easily, but you may need to wiggle them free. Unless you have a major brand sliding glass door unit that's not too old, you may have trouble finding an exact replacement roller unit for your door, but you can find kits of just the wheels that will fit most units. Assemble the new wheel and axle from the replacement kit and slide them in, in reverse order to the way you remove the old wheel. Most roller units are held together by the wheel height adjustment screw. With the new wheel in place, slide the bracket back into the bottom of the bar. Do the same with the other roller unit. Slide the bar back into place working the gasket back into the bar. Replace and tighten the screws that secure the bottom bar to the rest of the door. With the help of a strong friend, lift the door back in place first inserting the top of the slider, and then swinging the bottom of the slider over the lip of the bottom track and into place. Once the door is in place, adjust the height of the front and back rollers so that the slider does not rub against the track and the slider is level. Once the rollers are set, coat the rail that the rollers run on with graphite, and with the new wheels in place, your sliding glass door is back to working smoothly."

[-]

More Videos »Related Videos

Hanging Doors and Installing New Door Trim

Bob meets with Ryley on the third floor of the Cambridge House to re-hang the old doors (they've been stripped) and install the new trim.

Storm-Ready Windows and Doors

Doors and windows are vulnerable components of your homes protective shell or envelope because they are easily penetrated by wind-borne debris often generated by the high winds of storms like hurricanes. If that envelope is breached during a storm because of the failure of windows and doors, wind, wind-driven rain and debris can enter your home causing considerable damage to its interior and your property. A more critical issue develops when the envelope is breached -- high winds can enter your home and exert high pressure on your walls and roof. These internal pressures combined with the external pressure of wind blowing over your home can lead to catastrophic damage. You can protect your home's openings by installing impact-resistant windows and doors or installing impact resistant coverings, such as shutters over windows and doors. Impact resistant glass and shutters are specifically designed to meet a combination of impact and continuous pressure from the wind. Always use products that have been tested to one of these standards and have been designated as such through a recognized product approval system or evaluation report. Ratings SBCCI SSTD 12 ASTM E 1886 and ASTM E 1996 Miami-Dade Protocols PA 201, PA 202, and PA 203. Impact resistant windows usually consist of a clear plastic-like film sandwiched between two specially-treated pieces of glass, giving the window greater strength than glass alone. Equally important as the strength of the glass is the strength of the window's frame. An impact resistant window is tested as a unit that includes the glass, the frame, as well as the attachment hardware and the installation method. Impact resistant windows should always be installed following the manufacturer's recommendations. Exterior doors should also be wind and impact resistant or protected with an impact resistant covering. Garage Doors Garage doors are particularly vulnerable to high winds, because of the long span of opening they cover and the relatively lightweight material they are made of. Two options are available for strengthening garage doors. Replace the door and track with a system that is designed to withstand high winds and wind-borne debris. The second option is to protect the garage door with a tested and approved impact resistant covering.

Hanging Double Doors

The tricky part of hanging double doors is that they have to meet in the middle. After hanging each door, check to see how they come together. It's seldom perfect the first time. If they overlap by more than an eighth of an inch, you'll need to plane some off of both doors; for smaller overlaps, only one door needs to be planed and sanded until you get a perfect fit.

New Insulated Garage Doors

The garage doors are being replaced on the Norwell house. Although the project primarily involves adding an in-law suite to the home, homeowner Howard Brickman is replacing the original garage doors and installing two doors on the new garage. Bob talks with Brickman, who built this home 25 years ago on a fairly tight budget. Brickman estimated that construction costs probably ran about $50 per square foot, a figure that would not be possible today. The existing garage doors are fiberboard in a wood frame, with no insulating value. Bob talks with Robert Rainey of PJ Overhead Door about the installation of the new doors. All the hardware has been removed from old door so the sections can be taken out. The hardware is worn and the track is outdated so it will all be replaced with new hardware and operating mechanisms. The new door is a two-sided steel door with a 24-gauge exterior and a 27-gauge interior. The door features two inches of polyurethane insulation, which gives it an R-value of 13 �a vast improvement over the existing doors. The interior side of the door has an embossed wood-grain finish while the exterior has an embossed panel with a carriage-door design. This Amarr Classica 3000 door has the appearance of a wood door and the performance of factory-finished metal. A rubber gasket on the door will act as a seal to prevent air and water from entering the garage. The first panel is put in place and then the track is assembled.