Aluminium patio door repair?

omnipeta

Our 30 year old aluminium sliding patio door is in need of repair or replacement. Issue is that the 'runners' are worn and making it difficult to open/close.
I've used numerous cans of WD40 etc but I know it needs looking at. My question is, can it be repaired? Any advice appreciated, thank you.

grumbler

Everything can be repaired. The only question is at what cost.

With my sliding patio door I found out that

• nobody wanted to repair and all wanted to replace the entire door
• the way it was designed made it next to impossible to take it out to repair.

I did manage to replace the rollers, but I'm good at DIY and I found some knowledgeable handyman willing to help.

ETA: the door was UPVC, not aluminium. There are videos on Youtube for some aluminium doors.

Jeepers_Creepers

Do you know the make of the door? If so, check them for spare parts such as rollers - the most likely bit to have failed. 

Also fair chance that these parts are 'standard', so if you can get access to the worn bits to ID them (size, fitting-type, etc), then a reasonable chance you can get the parts and sort it. 

The most tricky bit will likely be removing the door! I can't help you with this, but I bet there's a YouTube vid that will :-)

ka7e

The runners had gone on the sliding door on the house we purchased last year - I nearly had a nasty accident when it stuck, rocked and came right off the track. It fell out towards me and they are surprisingly heavy! Luckily I had a builder on site who took the weight and managed to get it back in the track, but I was too scared to try using it again. My husband has dementia and could not remember not to use it, even with a sign taped to the frame, so it has been replaced with new double UPVC doors that give us a much bigger opening and are better insulated

twopenny

I was very reluctant to replace the 20yr aliminum patio doors in the house I bought, as they gave a wider view and doorway.

But I'm so pleased with the UVC ones. The original ones had lost a lot of the draftproofing and now I'm toasty on bad days.

My front sliding door sticks, probably the 'wheels' are damaged, rusty for sure and full of dirt. I'm told that would be difficult to fix. I do clean with kitchen roll and wipe with washing up liquid. It keeps them moving nicely for a while. Which reminds me it's about time.....

grumbler

twopenny said:

I do clean with kitchen roll and wipe with washing up liquid. It keeps them moving nicely for a while.

Your rollers don't roll and just start sliding better after you clean the rail.