Villarejos French Door

This old 6' glass slider door has seen it's better days. The slider wheels squealed when you opened it and the tempered glass was slipping out of the glazing in the frame.

Mr. Villarejos was ready to have it tore out and replaced with a set of French doors.

Dismantling was made easy with a pry bar and Sawsall.

We removed the sliding door and bent out the frame on the open side. We then cut the frame in half at the middle of the jamb so it can fold down on itself.  The mounting flange was buried in the wall between the brick and sheathing, so we 'peeled' the aluminum jamb out of the wall.

Fortunately, the fasteners that were holding the frame's flange in place had rusted out allowing the frame to easily pop out. Sometimes this procedure is a battle in itself. 














With a little persuasion, we were able to work the door, set glass and all, out of it's niche without breaking any glass.

We delicately chipped off the excess mortar that was protruding off the brick around the hole. The tiled floor extended into the hole a little bit, so we cut it back with a die grinder using a diamond tipped tile blade.

The concrete needed some patch work done to it before we set the new door for it had holes in it under the old door sill.

Mr. Villarejos bought a stock French door from the local lumber supply. He also splurged for the mini blinds that were built into the double glass window.

Note: he said by the time he bought external mini blinds for the window, the total cost of the extras out weighed the cost of the simple  splurge.


 


 





We glued the sill to the floor with construction adhesive, or one can use butyl flex. Butyl flex is more pliable, stays flexible, and literally sticks to everything. This helps seals the gap between the floor and the bottom of the door to help keep out moisture, bugs, and draft.

We still had a little interior finish work to do. We had to miter in the brick mould, the interior door casing, and the base trim to finish all the wood work.

A little sealant and paint finished the job nicely.

The French doors made a big difference in looks to the interior of the room.
Both sides of the French doors open up giving a big entry way into the back yard, and brought the vintage look up to date.











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