What we install · Sliding Glass Doors
The Largest Opening in the House
A large sliding door is the biggest single opening in most homes and the one with the highest loads.
Your address and a list of openings. We will tell you what each one actually has to resist before anybody quotes a product.
Not HVHZ
Tampa Bay is outside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone
FL approval
Statewide Product Approval is the path here
Design pressure
Set by your address and your opening, not by a brand
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Large openings need structural attention
A wide sliding door imposes substantial load on the header and the anchoring around it. Replacing an old aluminum slider with a heavier impact unit changes both the weight and the loads transferred to the structure, and that is a question for the opening rather than an assumption.
Weight is the part homeowners underestimate. An impact slider can be several times the weight of the aluminum unit it replaces, which affects not only the header but the rollers, the track and how the door behaves over its life. A door that is heavy and slightly out of adjustment becomes a daily irritation.
What matters
- Calculated design pressure, which is high on a large opening.
- Header and structural capacity for the new unit.
- Anchoring per the approval, into an adequate substrate.
- Sill detailing and drainage, which is where sliders leak.
- Operation, since a heavy impact slider is a different door.
Why sills leak and what stops it
A sliding door sill is a horizontal joint at the bottom of a large opening, sitting where water collects. The system is designed to admit some water and drain it back out, which means the drainage path through the sill has to be clear and has to discharge somewhere.
The common failure is a sill bedded solidly in sealant, which blocks the very path the system relies on. Water then has nowhere to go but inward, and the harder the installation is sealed the worse it gets.
How we handle it
- 01Calculate the pressure for the actual opening size.
- 02Verify structural capacity before ordering.
- 03Anchor to the approval, into verified substrate.
- 04Detail the sill and drainage properly.
- 05Adjust and demonstrate operation on completion.
Detail the sill and its drainage properly. Sliding doors leak at the sill more than anywhere else, an impact unit does not change that, and a sill installed without its drainage path is a leak that appears in the first heavy rain.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Where a header cannot take the new unit, structural work comes first. We will identify that before ordering rather than at installation.
FAQ
Common questions
- Is a large slider different?
- Higher loads, and a heavier unit than what it replaces. Structure has to be checked.
- Where do sliders leak?
- The sill, more than anywhere else. The drainage path has to be detailed.
- Do impact sliders operate differently?
- They are heavier. Adjustment on completion matters.
- What if the header is inadequate?
- Structural work first, identified before ordering.
Tampa Bay specifics
Tampa Bay Is Not HVHZ
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The Wind Zone
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Surge & Water
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Older Housing Stock
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How We Work Here
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.