Sliding and patio door replacement in McDonough, GA: the layout decides
A slider keeps everything in the plane of the wall: one panel rolls past a fixed one, so no floor space is lost inside or out. A French pair swings, which buys a wider clear opening and a more traditional look at the cost of the space the panels need to travel through. On a small deck with furniture against the house, that difference decides the answer by itself.
| Sliding | French | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor space needed | None beyond the opening | The swing of each panel |
| Clear opening | Roughly half the unit width | Most of the unit width with both panels open |
| Weather seals | Fewer, and simpler | More, at the meeting stiles and the threshold |
| Hardware to maintain | Rollers, track, latch | Hinges, multipoint lock, astragal |
| Common failure | Rollers and track | Panels dropping on their hinges |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column →
General comparison of the two layouts rather than a specification for any particular product.
What goes wrong, and what it costs to fix
Rollers and track
The classic dragging door. Rollers carry the whole panel weight along a narrow track, and both wear. Grit from a deck or patio accelerates it. Most doors have adjustment screws at the bottom of the panel that lift or lower it on its rollers, and a surprising number of hard-to-open doors come right with a clean and an adjustment rather than new parts.
The sill and the water
A patio door sill sits at the bottom of a large opening, usually under a deck or patio where water collects. Sill drainage channels block, water backs up and finds the subfloor, and the first sign is often a soft spot in the flooring inside rather than anything visible at the door. In a state that averages around 15 inches of rain in summer alone, that detail does real work.
The glass
Patio door glass is a large insulated unit, and it fails the same way a window does: the perimeter seal goes, moisture gets in, and you get the haze you cannot clean off. Repair or replace explains what a failed seal actually is and why defogging is not the same as replacing.
Replacing the whole unit
- Measure the rough opening, not the panel. Patio doors come in standard widths and a frame swap has to suit what is in the wall.
- Decide slider or French before measuring, because the frame differs.
- Check the header above the opening if the width is changing at all.
- Look at the threshold height against the deck or patio outside. A sill that sits too low is how water gets in.
- Plan the screen. Sliders take a sliding screen; French doors need a retractable or hinged one.
- Ask what happens to the interior and exterior trim, the same question as on a window.
Patio doors are priced per unit rather than per square foot, and the number moves with width, material and whether the frame comes out. Entry door pricing is in the front door replacement cost guide, which is the closest published benchmark; a patio door is a larger assembly than any of those.