I have a sliding glass door that goes out to my back patio that's not slliding smoothly at all. It's cathicng something and makes a scraping sound. I assume it's off its track or something. It has been alot worse before, to where I could hardly open the door, but I sorta fixed it by lifiting and pushing it around blindly until it rolled easily. In fact, it was almost as good as new for a wek or so, but now its acting up again. Is there any sort of trick I can use to fix this permantly?
I know that rubbing bar soap on the edges and tracks of a chest of drawers works, maybe for this too. Serious, it works on furniture. btw, the soap is dry.
Time for new rollers! They wear-out if you do not keep the tracks clean and well greased. I would say that you could adjust the roller height but if it is already dragging then the rollers are totally gone. 1. Check adjustment holes at the bottom of the door. Turn adjustment screw to the lowest setting.(We need rollers up to get the door out of the frame} 2. Get mat or some type of floor covering to protect your floor. (The bottom of the door will be geasy and rub on flooring, don't let it stain your carpet) 3. Push door upward to the highest possible point and attempt to pull the bottom of door toward the inside of the house.(Rollers may catch on rails, so have small tools handy to push rollers up and over the rails) 4. Once door is out, inspect bottom of door. It may just need cleaning due to carpeting, dirt, dust or whatever becoming tangled with rollers. But if you are at this point I say replace with new rollers (They are cheap and most of the work is already done} 5. Take apart the bottom of the door. You will have to inspect the door to know how to take apart but I think there are only two screws (two adjustment holes also) that hold the bottom frame the door. 6. Bottom of door frame should now pull off to allow you access to the screws that hold the rollers. Remove rollers and take to local hardware store to buy the same(like). (In Oak Hill I just had to grab the rollers that the store had about 200 to 1 on the shelf). The stores know which door the contracters use so they keep an ample supply. If you have a custom home I guess try to get the door manu. and model number. 7. Revese process and adjsut new rollers and you are done. Much easier than cleaning and greasing the rails every week. I had the same problem with my door and it took me four years to get angry enough to take the door out. After about 1 hour of trying to figure out how to get to the roller screws everything went great. Total cost: Six dollars for rollers and about 2 hours of my time. Thirty minutes of that spent on putting up tools and trying to get the grease out of the carpet.
How about I buy the materials and pay you in beer? Seriously though, thanks for the advice. Looks like I have a weekend project.
The instructions were actually pretty good, hopefully you have a more recently build home so you can find the exact roller you need. I would bet that your roller has "rounded out" where it attaches to the bracket. That's why it worked for a while then probably got a little sideways due to the rounded out hole and was fubared again. I have an 8 foolt wide glass door and it's a *****, as it was installed in the late 70's and of course the exact hardware is no longer available. I actually had to pull apart the rails from the glass to gain access to what I needed. Thy adjusting it with a screw driver first to byuy some time or feel up under the back edge of the door and see if the roller is straight or not. My only good suggestion is to start early on a day it's not supposed to rain! good luck!
I recently had the same problem & was figuring out what all I would need to do to replace the rollers, etc. I decided to spray the track down with some good ol' WD-40 to see if the grinding noise would at least subside. Voila! Door slides like a champ now. Crisis averted for the time being.
