Replacing Patio Door Rollers

Tired of that squeaky sound and difficulty while opening and closing your sliding patio doors? If you've already gone through a zillion bottles of WD-40, then perhaps it's time to replace the patio door rollers altogether. It's really not as difficult a project as you may be imagining, and can really add to the use of your patio doors, but making them truly useable again!

Sometimes you can remove the sliding door from the inside, if the inner bottom lip does not prevent you from lifting the door over it. In fact, this should not be the case if optimal security is important to you, but since we're talking about replacing patio door rollers, I'll have to assume you'll take care of patio door security another time. Actually, once you're finished replacing your patio door rollers, this would be a great time to check on security vulnerabilities.

In order to add more space to the clearance on the existing patio door rollers, you may need to adjust the roller screws. To do this, locate the adjustment screws at either the bottom of the sliding unit's frame, or in the sides of the sliding portion's frame. You may not recognize the screws if they are covered with plugs, so be sure to look for these. Turn the screws clockwise to move the patio door rollers up, giving you more room with which to maneuver the patio door out of its track.

There are nearly always two sets of patio door rollers that must be adjusted. Once you have adjusted both sets of patio door rollers, you should be able to lift the sliding unit out of the bottom tracks and gain access to the roller assemblies for replacement purposes.

Usually, the same screw that holds the roller assembly in place will be the same screw that holds the frame together. The frame will have to be removed in order to gain full access to the patio door rollers. Once you remove the screws, you should be able to remove the bottom portion of the frame.

If you still have trouble removing the frame section from the bottom of the sliding door, it may help you to use a rubber mallet or similar device to convince said frame portion to come loose. Now you can see your patio door rollers up close.

Chances are you will need to remove the existing patio door rollers in order to determine which replacement patio door rollers to get. Once you have a roller assembly freed from the sliding door, use it to match up rollers at your local hardware store or online.

When it's time to put in the new patio door rollers, simply install according to the provided directions, or follow your own common sense. Since you just took out the old rollers, you should have little or no difficulty in figuring out the best way to install new rollers. Then just follow the above directions in reverse order to put your patio doors back together again.