Repair sliding door

One of the sliding glass doors appeared to be “crooked”. Either the door wasn’t level or the building wasn’t square, as there was a pretty big gap at the top of the door when it was shut, and no gap at the bottom. I couldn’t see through the gap, but it was letting cold air in big-time. When I had the security screens fitted, the new doors fitted perfectly, so the building was square, it had to be the glass sliding door. I asked the security screen man if he could have a look and he first tried to adjust the height of one of the rollers (screw at base of door, both ends), but it was seized, so no adjustment possible without pulling off the door. In the meantime he adjusted the latch so at least I didn’t have to basically lift the door to make it reach the latch and lock.

So a sunny day in June was the day to pull off the sliding door and have a lookie see what the problem was and why there was no adjustment. Removing a sliding door is just lifting it up and off it’s track. That’s how easy it is for robbers to get in if your door isnt locked securely! Even if its locked, sometimes there can be so much room at the top of the door that a burglar could “lift and jiggle” to get the door off the track and possibly still having your latch hanging on – until they get passed the door or just break the latch once the door is off the tracks at least at one end. Solution – slide a piece of timber or something over the top of the door so that the door still slides but it can’t be lifted without removing the timber (from the inside). There are also security locks (the safer option) you can buy from your favourite hardware store where you install a slide bolt to the top of the door. Only problem with that idea is you have to lock/unlock every time you want it locked securely. With a piece of timber it’s there all the time and no extra locking required.

So back to repairing my unlevel, air leaking sliding door now I have it off… Sure enough, the adjuster’s bracket had broken, and the adjuster screw was seized. No adjustment and the roller had slid into the track therefore dropping the door level at that end. Now the door manufacturer probably had a replacement bracket (guessing circa $35-$60), but I decided to give Bunnings a go. Pick a “universal” fit bracket with the closest dimensions to the one I need, $19ish later and I’m on my way home. These brackets are built to fit pretty much any door, but, you probably will have to trim it down to suit your door perfectly. I filed down the side shim plastic, then trimmed off the back and bottom to fit perfectly into my door. Test that the adjuster works, lift the door back onto its tracks and no more cold air streaming in!

Finally, I adjusted the latch with a hex key, screwing it back in so that when the door closes it latches easily and it’s a snug fit into the frame.