Kitchen Patio Door Replacement — Slider or French Door Off the Kitchen

In most Minnesota houses built since the 1960s the patio door is in the kitchen or the eating area, right next to the table, opening onto a deck. That placement decides the door. A slider takes no floor space, which matters when the table is three feet away; a French door swings in and needs that floor, or swings out onto the deck and needs the deck clear. The operating panel on a slider is handed, and the wrong handing means the door opens behind a chair or across the path from the counter. The screen takes more use than any other screen in the house, so the screen track and rollers are worth looking at before the order.

Then there is the grill. A gas or charcoal grill parked next to the patio door is normal, and the heat off it will soften and warp a vinyl frame and discolor a vinyl or fiberglass panel over a few summers. We ask where the grill sits. If it stays near the door, a fiberglass or aluminum-clad frame holds up better than vinyl, and a few feet of distance does more than any material. Options such as Andersen, Pella, ProVia, JELD-WEN or Therma-Tru all offer sliders and hinged patio doors in the common widths; a slider usually replaces a slider in the same opening, and a French door in the same width is a bigger order with a different sill.

The install is the patio door job done for a kitchen: the old unit out, the subfloor at the sill checked because a kitchen door gets mopped and spilled on and the deck splashes it, a sill pan under the new frame, flashing lapped to the housewrap and the deck ledger detail checked, frame set level and plumb, low-expansion foam, sealant, trim inside to match the kitchen casing. Blinds between the glass are an option when the door faces the neighbor. Painting of the trim is quoted as a separate line — or leave it primed and caulked and paint it yourself.