Sliding Glass Door Repair Services in San Diego

What we repair on a sliding glass door

A sliding patio door is a glass panel on two roller assemblies, riding an aluminum or vinyl track, held shut by a mortise lock that hooks a keeper on the jamb. Almost every complaint comes back to one of those parts.

• Roller replacement: tandem steel ball-bearing rollers, stainless for coastal homes.
• Track repair and stainless track caps over worn or pitted aluminum track.
• Lock and handle replacement: mortise locks, keepers, keyed and non-keyed handle sets.
• Adjustment and realignment for doors that drag, gap or sit off the track.
• Glass replacement for fogged or broken insulated units, measured and quoted on site.
• Screen door repair, weatherstripping and leaks, and sliding closet and mirror doors.

How a repair visit goes

You call, text or send a photo of the door with your city and the number of doors. We tell you the price before we come out, and it does not change at the door.

1. We test the slide, the lock and the gaps, then lower the rollers and lift the sliding panel out of the frame.
2. We clean the track, check it for pitting and grooves, and fit a stainless cap if it needs one.
3. We fit new rollers, re-hang the panel, set the height at the adjustment screws and line up the keeper.
4. You slide it with one finger before we pack up.

A standard roller job runs about 45 to 60 minutes per door. A second door on the same visit costs less than the first.

Repair or replace: how we call it

We repair first and never push a new door. A new patio door installed in San Diego costs several times what a roller and track job does, and most of the doors we see are worth keeping.

Repair makes sense when the frame is square, the glass is clear and uncracked, and the problem is rollers, track, a lock or a gap. That covers most 1970s aluminum doors in Clairemont and most 2000s vinyl doors in Carmel Valley.

Replacement is the honest answer when the frame is racked or rotted, or when the glass, the hardware and the frame have all failed at once. We tell you that on the first visit. We do not install new doors, so there is no upsell in it for us.

The full breakdown is in our guide to repairing or replacing a sliding glass door.

Start with the symptom

If you are not sure which part has failed, start with what the door is doing. Each symptom page tells you the usual cause, what you can safely check yourself, and which repair fixes it.

• Hard to open or close: nearly always worn rollers, often with a grooved track.
• Door off the track: a dropped roller, a missing guide or a bent track edge.
• Will not lock or latch: the hook misses the keeper because the panel dropped, or the mortise lock is worn out.
• Foggy or cloudy glass: the insulated unit seal failed and the unit gets replaced.
• Gaps, drafts and water leaks: weatherstrip, a low panel or blocked weep holes.

The full list is on the sliding door problems hub.

Doors and brands we work on

San Diego has a handful of door families, and we carry rollers and locks for each.

• 1960s to 1980s aluminum doors in the older tracts: single or tandem steel rollers on a thin aluminum track that is usually worn by now.
• Milgard and JELD-WEN vinyl doors from the 1990s onward in Scripps Ranch, Rancho Bernardo and Eastlake.
• Andersen and Pella gliding doors with their own roller designs.
• Fleetwood aluminum doors in coastal custom homes, with heavy panels and stainless hardware.
• Multi-slide and pocket doors, quoted after a photo or a visit because the panels are heavy and the rollers are specialized.

See the door brands and types hub for how to identify yours.

Scope and licensing, in plain words

Roller, track, adjustment, screen and weatherstrip work is minor repair. Minor repairs under $1,000 in labor and materials do not require a California contractor license (Business and Professions Code section 7048). We stay inside that line and tell you when a job is outside it, such as a new door, a new frame or anything that needs a permit.

Lock and handle work is a different trade, and we cover it on the lock and handle page.

Glass is ordered to measure and quoted after we see the door. We never price glass on the site.

We cover all of San Diego County, from the South Bay to North County and out to East County. Find your city or neighborhood on the service areas page, or read how we price everything on the pricing page.

Where we do this

We cover all of San Diego County, usually within the week. Some of the places we work:

• Chula Vista
• Coronado
• Imperial Beach
• La Mesa
• El Cajon
• Santee
• Poway
• Escondido
• North Park
• Clairemont
• Tierrasanta
• Point Loma
• Pacific Beach
• La Jolla
• All service areas

Related guides

• Repair or Replace Your Sliding Glass Door? An Honest Decision Guide – When a $250 to $400 repair brings a 40-year-old aluminum slider back, when the frame, glass or track means replacement, and typical costs for both.
• Signs Your Sliding Door Needs New Rollers (And Two-Minute Checks) – Symptoms of worn sliding door rollers in order of certainty, the two-minute checks you can do safely, and how to tell when the track is the real problem.
• What Does Sliding Door Roller Replacement Cost in San Diego? – What sliding door roller replacement costs in San Diego, why quotes run from $250 to $600 or more per door, what should be included, and how to compare.