Back patio door opinions

[SAMI]

We need to replace our back patio door, which is currently a single opening French door. We had gone between doing another French door, or a sliding door, to which we have settled on doing French again.

My question at this point is what brand do you guys trust? ReliaBuilt from Lowes, Jen-Weld from Home Depot, or Masonite from Home Depot?

 

[Slangy]

Not sure of which type but anything has got to be better than a sliding door.

 

[SAMI]

Is a sliding door that bad?

 

[Caleb]

I personally prefer a quality sliding door over ANY french door.

 

[SAMI]

I've been doing a lot of reading up on doors, and I'm hearing endless hatred toward French doors. We are most likely going with a sliding door at this point. French doors are extremely prone to leaking, which ours has done which ruined the floor.

 

[Cascadia]

They're only prone to leaking if installed wrong. Most likely it wasn't flashed or silicones correctly. I've never been called back in 8 years on any French door or sliding glass door we installed. I personally like a French door that has both sides open. A sliding glass door will always have one side closed.

I wouldn't recmmend any of the doors you listed because you will get hosed on price and they're not made exactly for your opening. If you want, pm me and I can get you in touch with my salesman at Burton Lumber and get you a great price and a lot of options. They also do sliding glass doors if you decide to go that route.

 

[Caleb]

Exactly, find the nicest french door you can and in <10 years you can bet it will be leaky. On the other hand, a good sliding door will be leak free many years down the road. Sliding doors usually get a bad wrap because of the days of the aluminum framed doors and the rollers would always break so they wouldn't slide for anything.

 

[Caleb]

They're only prone to leaking if installed wrong. Most likely it wasn't flashed or silicones correctly. I've never been called back in 8 years on any French door or sliding glass door we installed. I personally like a French door that has both sides open. A sliding glass door will always have one side closed.

I wouldn't recmmend any of the doors you listed because you will get hosed on price and they're not made exactly for your opening. If you want, pm me and I can get you in touch with my salesman at Burton Lumber and get you a great price and a lot of options. They also do sliding glass doors if you decide to go that route.

I guess you're the only person that knows how to install them then. Personally, if I had a door installed for me and it started to leak in 5 years, I wouldn't be calling the person that installed it back to fix or replace it. I've seen some installs of some very nice french doors by some very skilled craftsmen and they may not be leaking but they are on the verge of it...and it's only been 5 years or so on one particular set.

 

[Cascadia]

Not saying I'm the best ever. Just saying I haven't had a problem with either. It's all preference. But you can't just say that every French door is either leaking or on the verge of leaking. That's lik saying every Dana 35 is either broken or on the verge of breaking. Oh....wait

 

[SAMI]

Our deck is so small, there is no need or desire for a double opening French door; true French door I suppose. Right now only one side opens, and that's all we really need so a sliding door wouldn't be a change as far as the doorway opening is concerned.

 

[N-Smooth]

most sliding glass doors are ridiculously easy to take out if you ever need more room to move anything in there. mine just lifts right out of the frame iirc. i'm a fan

 

[jedi]

buy therma-tru brand. slider or patio door.

 

[RockMonkey]

buy therma-tru brand. slider or patio door.

This is the brand we got. Double opening French Door. I Lean's father-in-law installed it. I think a quality sliding door would be more efficient, and probably more weather-proof. The true French door just looks a lot nicer, and the easy double opening has been awesome for moving stuff in and out. A slider is probably better, but we are happier with the French.

 

[I Lean]

I have a double-opening french door, my only complaint about it is the blinds I hung on the inside slap around when I open/close the door. It's not at all the door's fault. If I were to do it again, I'd choose the kind with blinds inside the glass, those are pretty neat.

Mine's been in for just over 10 years now, with no problems. 99% of the time only one door gets used, so it wouldn't be too much different than a slider that way. The rare occasion that I use the other side, it's nice to have the huge opening. I think it may be harder to break into than a slider also, but that could be my experience with a crappy sliding door in my old condo talking.

 

[SAMI]

The installer from Lowes just left.. We're going with a slider with internal blinds. Everything looks good to go on the install. We're getting a door that was on sale last week, and another 10% off that with a coupon we have.

 

[jeeper]

IMO -now that you have already ordered your door and probably wont change your mind- Better quality built homes have the french doors, while entry level homes typically have the slider doors. This opinion is gathered from the hundreds of homes I see each year as an appraiser..

 

[SAMI]

Better quality homes? Is that why our French door has been leaking for 5+ years? We haven't ordered anything yet, the slider is more practical for what we need/want so that's what we've decided on.

 

[SAMI]

Our home was half of $300k. The main reason we want a slider is because we want to use the screen door for cross ventalation. We have chosen to finish the basement rather than do central air, so the screen door will help with some air movement upstairs. My wife and I both agree that French doors look better, but we're not in it for looks at the momen; besides the current door is stationary on the left side, and we don't have a need for the double opening. We need to do what will work best for our situation right now. A screen is far more natural to a sliding door, so that's a big factor. Also, I'm not too worried about the appraisal standpoint. Due to the leakage we have to redo the flooring anyways, carpets will get replaced, new countertops, finishing the basement, new front door, and continued yard development will all have a bigger impact than focussing on French doors for the patio door.