One of the most desired home improvement projects is to replace those old sliding glass doors with new French Doors. While French or Patio Doors may be at or near the top of the list for many home owners, the ability to actually do so is sometimes much more difficult than originally anticipated. This is not any easy task to tackle yourself and it is highly recommended to avoid trying to go to the box stores to purchase a premade door unit that you would install yourself. -French & Patio Doors
The improvement from getting those heavy, pesky sliding glass doors out and replacing them with French or Patio doors is one of the best things that you could do for your home and here are 4 reasons why.
1. Safety – Hinged, swinging Patio or French Doors are a big time safety improvement from sliding glass doors. Sliding glass doors are on tracks and rollers and can easily be pryed or popped from the outside by a burgler with common tools. The majority of homes that are broken into that are not broken into by the front door, take place when the bad guys pop the sliders out of the tracks and remove the entire panel, gaining access to the home.
French doors that swing out can’t be kicked in or pryed open. The hinges are exposed but are non-removable pin so that someone can’t pop them from the outside. The door also locks with a steel rod at the top and bottom and also gets a deadbolt that latches from the primary door to the stationary door, giving the door a locking mechanism at three points. You can also add a multi point locking system in which the locking system engages at three points automatically when you pull up on the handle.
Sliding glass doors have weak locking mechanisms in most cases as well. The simple push up and down from “locked” to “open” just does not compare to the security that the French Doors add.
The glass is also thicker on french and patio doors in almost any case. Heckard’s Door offers only 1″ – 1 3/4″ thick, double or triple paned, low E door glass in the French and Patio Doors, while most sliding glass doors have between 1/4″ – 5/8″ thick glass.
2. Function – This is easily a good enough reason by itself to make the change and retro fit the doors. If you have a 6′ sliding glass door, you can only get a maximum of 3′ open, while the same width unit in a french door would allow you to open both doors fully to gain nearly the entire 6′ of open space for moving large items in and out. If you have smaller sliding glass doors, such as 5′ wide, the problem can be even worse.
Half of the argument regarding function is the width change increase and the other is the ease of daily use. Sliding glass doors can be very heavy and they function on rollers that often wear out quickly due to weight being forced on them. Combine that with debris getting in the tracks and you may be straining just to open and close them. That gets old fast.
3. Appearance – Another reason that could stand on it’s own for retro fitting sliding glass doors with French Doors. Check out a few before and after pics of some patio doors and see for yourself. Sliding glass doors are often times ratty and dreadful to look at. The old aluminum is either mill finish or dark brown or white and never matches anything. Meanwhile you can customize your French Doors to look just like you want and they can easily be the centerpiece of the room.
Looks are different and vary for each home and home owner, but for the majority, French or Patio Doors are much more visably pleasing than the sliders.
Most things that we buy for the home are for looks and this one can also improve the looks and also hit several other key factors. Nice
4. Energy Efficiency – One of the biggest no brainers is to do the replacement because of the gain on energy savings with the French Doors. In the past, this was up for debate, but not anymore. Today’s French Doors are made of High Performance Fiberglass with glass that is Low E, at least 1″ thick and at least double paned. The U-Factor or solar hear transmission of the French Doors with Low E glass is nearly 4 times better than an average sliding glass door unit.
On top of the solar transmission from the glass and the Fibeglass Door, the hinged, swinging door seals better. French Doors have weatherstrip that tightly seals from outside air and water, while sliding glass doors are often just metal on metal.