French Doors

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with food or cooking, but the collective knowledge here at NCT is staggering, and I'm sure someone has some sage advice.

I'm thinking about replacing a sliding glass door with a set of French Doors (Christmas present for DW). The job seems pretty straightforward, but after many years of home improvements, I've learned that there is always an "X" factor-that thing, or things you didn't count on, or think about in the planning stage.

Other than lining up help to handle it, are there any "unknowns" I should be aware of? Since winter is right around the corner, I would prefer this to be a one day job, at least closing it up. The trim isn't an issue.

Thoughts? Personal experiences?

We replaced a couple of sliding glass patio doors in our house a few years back. We were thinking about replacing one of them with french doors, but soon found out that the sizes were not compatible for standard units. They do have retro ones for what you're talking about, but they cost a small fortune, so we ended up just putting a new sliding door in instead.

If you are going DIY with this (we hired a pro), it's important that you make sure you can find something that fits into your existing opening, or else you will have to pay extra for a custom size, or have to do quite a bit of work to modify your existing opening to make a standard size fit.

Yeah-you know I just assumed that our sliding door is a "standard"(?)size, but I better take a few measurments and do some checking. A "small fortune" won't work for me! Thanks BS!

Yeah, just make sure your rough opening is the correct size. Keep the doors shut while installing them and be snug on the shims. Pretty straight forward, mind your sealant under the sill and if you use expanding foam use the minimal expanding type so you don't squeeze the jamb.

They replaced a sliding door here with a window and a door. The door had to be custom made which means two doors since it has a summer door and a storm door. I'm not a fan of sliding glass doors especially where snow can build up which isn't the case here.