Replacing Sliding Glass Doors: Measurements

Video Transcript

"In this segment we are going to cover the preinspection procedure part two. In the first part we went through and seen basically how the door was mounted, what it was mounted to so we got a good idea how to fasten it. Now we need to get some information about the dimensions of the existing door so we can compare them to the door that we are going to replace it with and look for any changes that need to be made to make sure it will fit. Basically what we want to do is we need to get a width measurement from the outside edge of the door to the outside edge. We need to get a height measurement from the bottom of the outside edge to the top and that gives you your overall door size. This type of door uses a mounting flange. We want to measure the back lash from the outside to the flange, write that down. We want to check at the base and see if we've got the flange mount and let me open the door to give a clearer view. You can see the different elevation changes. In the first segment our stop here holds the sliding screen door assembly and the second main track is what the door slides on. We need to open the base, the height there, and the offset up to the next track up. On the base platform or the threshold, you've got two elevations here, the exterior elevation and the interior elevation and you need to measure those up from the bottom so you don't run into an issue where your elevation changes and you can cause a lip or a rise that needs to be put in. Also in this application you will see that the actual slides are unprotected. When at all possible I try to put in a threshold that will come up to the height of where the runners are so that when somebody steps across it their weight load is distributed between the interior threshold and the exterior threshold and that prevents wear and tear on the tracks for possible damage to the tracks from getting scuffed with feet or other items going in and out of the door. So you want to measure up and get the exterior elevation change from the height of the track from the base and then the interior one and write those measurements down. We'll need to know the inset, the distance between the outside of the frame to the mounting flange, you'll need to write that down and then the interior one, from that mounting flange to where the door jam ends on the inside and the actual width of the door jam. You are going to want to draw you a little picture write down all the measurements you have taken because you can compare that to the new door and make all the comparisons, note any changes and then come back and physically determine what you are going to need to do, how to change the situation so that you can compensate and that everything will work out. Once again a well prepared and laid out plan and addressing all these issues ahead of time will really make for a smooth application. When you get things torn apart and find out they are not the same that is when you get into a crisis management situation and things don't go as well. So once you have gotten all the information, all the variable measurements, anything else that you might see according to specifications you might have from your door or something that may be different in how the door itself is installed, note all those changes so you can make your comparisons and then obtain all the materials ahead of time so you can have them on hand. That should pretty much cover the preparation portion of this. The next thing we need to do is get all the material on the outside and the inside of the door removed so we have complete access to the door to remove it. Watch our next segment and we'll cover removing the exterior siding or molding."