How to Adjust a Sliding Glass Door for a Smoother Slide

Sliding glass doors are ideal exterior doors offering security and protection from the elements while maximizing access for natural sunlight. Their smooth sliding motion also means they provide easy access without taking up the room necessary for a hinged door to swing. But if your sliding door won’t slide easily, or frequently gets stuck or ‘bumps’ along the track, you may want to adjust it for a smoother, easier to open slide.

List of Contents

Step 1: Clean the Tracks

One of the main causes for a stubborn sliding door is dirt, dust, and other debris that builds up and clogging the tracks. By cleaning out the tracks, you can help your sliding doors slide more easily.

Locate the track by observing the bar that runs underneath the border of your door. Take a toothbrush or wire brush and brush the inside of the sliding door track to dislodge dirt and debris. A wire brush that’s used to clean golf clubs can be ideal to scrub packed on dirt.

Once the dirt and dust has been dispersed, removing it by vacuuming in and around the tracks. You can use a brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner to ensure all the particles are swept up and vacuumed away.

Step 2: Lubricate the Door

House with water view. Walkout deck with glass slide doorA smoother glide for your glass sliding door can be obtained by lubricating the track that your door slides on. WD-40 or a silicone-based lubricant like a garage door spray helps to reduce the friction between the track and the door, so that your glass sliding door opens and closes without resistance.

You want to be sure to choose a lubricant that doesn’t attract excess dirt or dust, as this can accelerate the clogging of your door tracks once again. Clean up any lubricant that may have fallen on the floor, as it can be slippery and cause falls.

Step 3: Adjust Door Rollers

Rollers at the bottom of the sliding doors help it to glide seamlessly along the tracks. If cleaning and lubricating your glass sliding doors hasn’t produced the results you want, you can adjust these rollers to help your glass door slide better.

On the side of your glass doors at the bottom, there are holes that contain the adjusting screws for these rollers. These are sometimes concealed with a plastic plug that can be easily removed. Use a Philips head screwdriver to adjust the rollers up or down (which will also adjust your door height). You can see whether adjusting the door higher or lower helps it to glide better. It’s also a good opportunity to spray some lubricant into the adjust screw opening to help the glass doors slide.

Step 4: Replace the Door

Older doors are inevitably going to fail and be outdone by the improved technology in newer sliding doors. If you just can’t manage to get your sliding glass doors to slide more smoothly, talk to your local glass company about a professional inspection, or replacing your glass sliding doors with newer, more advanced models. These can also have the advantage of being more energy efficient and add value to your home.

Follow these steps to keep your glass sliding doors in peak performance by opening and closing effortlessly – offering a great way to allow easy access to your home, while maintain comfort, security and natural lighting.

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