Included, and what it is not
- ✓ Confirm whether the job is a patio slider or an internal pocket
- ✓ Set the frame or cassette square
- ✓ Hang the leaf and adjust the rollers
- ✓ Fit locks and, on external doors, the threshold seals
- ✓ Check the door runs without lifting
Ways this job is specified
Patio sliders
uPVC or aluminium, in-line or lifting. The frame and the threshold are the weather seal. The opening must already be formed.
Internal pocket doors
The leaf slides into a cassette in a stud wall. There has to be a cavity. A solid brick wall is not a pocket.
Surface sliding barn doors
A track on the face of the wall. Easier than a pocket, and they do not seal sound or fire unless the set is built for that.
Corner and multi-track
More frame to set square. A twist shows as a panel that will not pick up the next one.
On the day
01
Decide the type
A patio slider fails if it leaks. A pocket door fails if the cassette is twisted in the stud. They are not adjusted the same way.
02
Set the track
External thresholds fall to the outside. Pocket cassettes need a stud wall that is actually hollow and wide enough.
03
Rollers and lock
The door should run on the rollers, not on the floor. The lock hook has to meet the keep without the panel being lifted.
What changes the price
An internal pocket or barn slider is the smaller job if the wall is already prepared: the track, the leaf and the lining. A patio slider supplied and fitted is priced more like an external door set, and wide aluminium sliders cost more than a single room door. The quote depends on which system it is, the width, and whether we are fitting into a finished opening or waiting on a builder. We do not give one price for “a sliding door”.
Symptoms people search
A patio door that is heavy to slide has dirty rollers or a threshold that has dipped. Water inside means the threshold or the frame seal, not the handle. A pocket door that scrapes has a twisted cassette or a stud that has bowed into the cavity. A barn door that swings off the wall has loose track fixings into plasterboard only.
Before and after the hang
For a pocket door, the stud cavity has to exist before we fit the cassette. For a patio slider, the opening and lintel are already in. Keep grit out of external tracks afterwards, and do not paint over patio drain holes. Pocket doors need the cavity kept clear of cables and noggin offcuts.
What fails later
Rollers wear and tracks fill with grit. A patio threshold seal flattens. A pocket door lasts if the cassette was set square; if the stud bows, the door will scrape until the wall is opened. Barn-door gear lasts if it is fixed into the structure, not into board alone.
Doing it yourself
A surface barn track on a straight wall is the realistic DIY sliding job. Pocket cassettes are easy to twist, and patio sliders leak if the threshold is wrong. We fit both types into openings that are ready. We do not build the cavity or the lintel.
Outside this job
- We do not cut a brick wall out to invent a pocket cavity
- We do not fit the lintel for a new patio opening
- A barn-door track is not a fire door
- Bi-folds are a different system and a different page
Questions about sliding door systems
Not unless a stud cavity is built first. We fit the cassette into a stud wall. We do not cut a structural brick wall out to make a slot.
A slider runs on a track and overlaps the next panel. A bi-fold folds and stacks. They are different frames.
Rollers are worn or full of grit, or the threshold has dipped so the door is dragging. Forcing it wears the lock.
They do when the threshold and the frame seals are set to the system. A door dropped into an opening with no fall will leak.
No. A surface track leaves a gap around the leaf. Use a side-hung door if the room needs to be shut tight.
Often, if the frame is square and the rollers and lock are available for that set. A twisted frame is a replacement.
Other door jobs
Quote for sliding door systems
Say how many doors, whether you have already bought them, and the town. We reply with a written quote.