Patio door. Sliding or French doors?

[Lonedrake]

My patio door is in need of replacement. Right now it is a sliding door. Its nice as far as not getting in the way...but it seems to me the basic design of a sliding door allows more energy to escape and more wear and tear on it.

I am going to repace it. Any suggestions on going with French doors vs. Sliding? Pros/cons of each? Costs?

[traveler]

Thats the longstanding thinking. I expect it still hold true, but for me the slider wins anyway. I've had both, unless your room is plenty big the french doors tend to intrude. Also, an 8 foot door gives a much nicer opening for going in and out with trays from the B-B-Q, furniture, etc..

[TR21]

Actually, you can get French doors with both doors that open instead of one fixed like a slider. This enables you to get have a greater space for furniture and general movement. As traveler said it does intrude into the interior space but it should give you more flexibility than a slider. I believe Andersen and Marvin build this model among others I'm sure.

[jerkbait]

Another option for a French door is an outswing door. Doesn't intrude to the inside then. I know Marvin builds these.

[Lonedrake]

If I go with French doors it will definetly be the outswing model.

[BoxMN]

When we put one in our place, we wanted French doors, and our contractor talked us out of it. Now we are glad he did. Just for room purposes, but also you can adjust it exactly how you want it for breeze going through, and also kids are not "swinging" them open wildly. Contractor told us the sliding doors made now are also better constructed than ones 10 years ago even. I hated the sliding doors that didn't slide well. Time will tell for us...

Granted, I still like the look of French doors, but overall glad we went sliding. Good luck!

[fishorgolf]

My contractor talked us out of the true double opening french doors also. He said he has never seem one that does not leak no matter what the price. We went with the fake french option were only one side opens.

If I did it again I would go with the slider. I have a Anderson on the lake place and it works great. No leaks, slides great. Just make sure you get a good one

[Huskie]

What brands of patio doors or any entry door would you guys recommend? We need to replace two entry doors and the patio door--looking at a sliding model for that.

[Lonedrake]

Thanks for the info guys. I was on the fence...but now I will just get another slider.

[alwaysonthemove]

One other thing to keep in mind is with a french door the door is either open or shut. With a slider you can crack it open or open it to whatever you desrire. That alone would sell me.

Plus french doors are made for woman in the movies. They don't ever show the husband in the corner on his recliner cause the door swing into it.

[BoxMN]

Plus french doors are made for woman in the movies. They don't ever show the husband in the corner on his recliner cause the door swing into it.

That right there is funny

We put in Marvin Integrity windows and sliders (2). Still only about a year old, so can't say for longevity yet. Our contractor swears by them. So far, no issues at all, and it slides nice and locks nice, and looks great. Good luck.

[traveler]

We put in an Anderson slider with very good results. Go quality.

[Farmboy1]

Another option for a French door is an outswing door. Doesn't intrude to the inside then. I know Marvin builds these.

If you are interested in this, the outside area shoud be covered or you will not be able to use this door in the winter.

[crothmeier]

anderson, marvin, eagle are all good brands for a wood clad door. for all-vinyl thermo-tech makes a good one as well as the anderson perma-sheild.

i'd put any of these in my own place with confidence, as i've sold all of them with minimal problems.

[eyeguy 54]

Anderson makes a Gliding French patio door. I sell them installed for Renewal by Anderson. Heck of a door that slides and you get the french look.

[croixflats]

Another option for a French door is an outswing door. Doesn't intrude to the inside then. I know Marvin builds these.

That's what we did. Actually we went with a fixed window on the left and a out swing on the right. We really like it. You get more open space between the jams than you do with a sliding door, this is why we went this rout because ma is in a wheel chair and sliding doors are limited to there space getting in and out.

One thing with a out swing door you have to keep in mind the wind will take it and slam it open. We have gone through 1 winter and no problems opening though when closing sometimes snow will be pinched at the bottom thus making it hard to close and/or not sealing tight.

[jjohnson5150]

Just do yourself a favor & use a co other than the one heard on the "freindly neighbor" AM station. We made this mistake. Do NOT use the co this station advertises so heavily.

[fishing tech]

Slider all the way. If you have kids running in and out slamming those doors will drive you nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!