Replacing Your Sliding Glass Door Rollers

If the sliding glass doors in your home are more than 10 years old, you may notice that they are becoming increasingly difficult to open. This problem is even more common on aluminum framed double panel doors. The reason is that the doors are heavy due to the double pane of glass, but many of the aluminum units did not use stainless steel rollers. So, in many cases, the rollers rust from moisture and start to jam.

To replace the rollers, you must remove the sliding panel from the opening. In most cases, the fixed panel must be removed in order for the sliding panel to come out. There is an easy way to determine if your fixed panel should also come out or not. If the slider is on the inner rail and the fixed panel is on the outer rail, both panels must be removed, because the slider will only come out. There is a border at the bottom of the track inside your house. That lip prevents water from entering. Unfortunately, that lip is also too high to lift the sliding panel. Therefore, you must first remove the fixed panel, then lift and rotate the slider from the outside. If you are one of the few people who has a slider on the outer rail, you can lift it without removing the fixed panel.

But let’s say you need to remove the fixed panel first. This is what you need to do: remove the screen door if you have one. The screen door will have two rollers at the bottom. Lift one end of the door frame with one hand while using a flathead screwdriver to pry the roller off the track. Do this on both sides, then remove the screen door and set it aside. Now look for a piece of metal on the bottom rail that runs from the bottom corner of the fixed panel to the bottom of the side jamb that has the door lock. If your door is very old, that piece may be missing. If you have one, you can lift it off the track. It’s snapped into place even though it looks like it’s part of the track. Once you’ve removed that piece, you’ll want to look inside the house where the fixed panel is against the wall jam. Look for the screws holding the frame to the jam. They usually have one near the top and bottom corners and one near the center. Remove these screws and place them where you won’t lose them. Now, you should be able to pull the fixed panel out of the side jam. There is a big chance that it will get stuck. If so, grab the center rail near the bottom and lift it up as hard as you can. If you feel the panel go up, pull it down. Do this a couple of times, then try to get it out of the side jam again. This usually loosens it up enough to pull it out. If it still won’t come out, you will need to place a thin screwdriver between the fixed panel frame and the side jam and pry while a helper pulls the panel out of the jam. Once you free it from the side jam, grab the fixed panel side rail and have a helper grab the other rail. Lift the panel up to the top rail and remove the bottom of the bottom rail. Remove the top rail panel and set it aside with the screen door.

Now, you can try lifting the slider up and out, just like you did with the fixed panel. If the slider doesn’t clear the bottom track, you need to do a couple of things. First, look to see if it’s the old rollers sticking out the bottom that are preventing the door from coming out, or if the bottom of the door frame is hitting the track. In almost all cases, it will be the old rollers. But, if the opening is 8′ wide, sometimes the wood header across the opening has sunk enough that it is squeezed into the center of the opening. If it’s the rollers, you need to fit them all the way in toward the door. Find a hole in the bottom where you can fit a Phillips screwdriver and find the set screw. Then turn that screw counterclockwise as far as it will go. Do that on both sides, then try to lift the door. If you still get stuck, have your helper lift one side and pull it out as you try to pry the frame off and roll onto the rail. If you pull one side out, have your helper support that side with their foot to keep it from going back in while you lift the other side up for leverage.

Once you take the slider out, almost all of the rollers are held in place by the same screw that holds the corners of the frame together. So you need to put the panel on one side, remove the screw from the corner, turn the panel over and remove the screw from the other lower corner. Now, you can take a rubber mallet or the wooden handle of a hammer and tap on the bottom frame of the glass. This will give you access to your skates. Take a close look at how they insert into the door frame. In fact, it’s a good idea to remove just one roller to take with you to match the new ones. Then, when you get back home, you can use the roller that’s still in place as a guide to install the new ones.

Places like Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace Hardware sell 80-90% of the rollers. So, you should be able to find them. However, let’s just say this is not your lucky day and you can’t find your rollers anywhere. You’re going to have to have them sorted. Take the roller to your local glass store. If you’re lucky, they’ll have them in stock. If not, they can order the rollers, but you won’t receive them for another week. Do not panic. Just go home and tap the bottom frame back into the door panel, but leave the corner screws out. You can even leave out the roller you removed. Lift the door into place, install the fixed panel but do not replace the bottom piece and do not install the internal screws. Then, from inside the house, lift the slider and close it. You don’t want to drag it if you left the roller out. It will scrape the bottom track. Just lift it up enough to take the pressure off, close it and lock it.

When your new rollers come in, remove everything and install the new rollers. Fit the new rollers all the way up before replacing the door. That way the new rollers won’t interfere with your lift instead. Adjust the new rollers down until the door slides smoothly and locks. You want to make sure there is equal clearance at the top and bottom when the door is within an inch of closing on the side frame. You can adjust the rollers so that this dimension is uniform. If you can get a professional to do the job for $50 or $60, including parts, it might be worth hiring someone to do it for you. But, in high-population areas like Los Angeles, it’s common to pay $100 just for labor. They then increase the cost of the rollers and you could end up spending $130 for a job you can do yourself for around $20. Next week I’m going to tell you how to repair your broken or faulty window glass.