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Sliding Door Repair

Name: sanjay  City:

Question: It seems I mistakingly unscrewed the screws at the both bottom sides of my sliding patio door thinking that they were there to somehow hold the door in place. I did this becuase I thought of saving some money by replacing door seals (those brush like strips on the edges of most sliding door and seal the outside air from coming in). After doing this my door is almost jammed and extremelyy hard to slide open. It is a quite durable old door unlike todays light ones which I think I can slide open without the rollers even. Anyway after reading around I found that I might have freed the rollers below the door which were attched to the bottom of the sliding door by those crucial screws I unscrewed while experimenting on this door. Does anyone have experinec how to dismantle the sliding door, remove it and screw the rollers below it and then put it back. Frm my inspection I dont find any way this can be done except I need to pry open the moulding inside my room and do a amjor harm to inside of the room to fix it. The repair man without a avisal inspection is estimating it a 3 hrs job making me short of some 250 bucks. Any sugestion would be appreciated. Replies can either be posted here or mailed to katiyar_sanjay@hotmail.com THANKS ! :)

Name: Rick | Date: October 1, 2005, 16:16
Answer: Well, Sanjay, you've done the wrong thing for sure. You mst lift the door up and angle it out of the framing to gain access to the adjustable rollers & the screws that you have removed or looosened. There are many different types of rollers on the market, but you can usually get them if need at a local door specialty store or shop. Check and make sure the rollers are free-wheeling and not worn critically and the mechanism isn't rusted or appears not to be fully intact. They are subject to abuse, dirt and wear, so you may even be able to reuse them if not worn badly. Oil the rollers up before reinstalling and you will find that one of the screws (usually on the end of the frame) actually raises the roller and the door up and down to a sliding height just off the door rail or channel that the door rides in. Good luck.