Are you tired of aggressively pushing your sliding door to make it budge? Do you miss how smoothly it used to glide when you first installed it? Well, worry no more because your stuck sliding door isn’t damaged beyond repair. In this article, we will give you the perfect tips to make your sliding door run smoothly again.
Advantages of Sliding Doors
Before we discuss the tips for maintaining sliding doors, we would first like to discuss the advantages of sliding doors to help you understand their appeal. Sliding doors are a great addition to the interiors of any home and here are the reasons why.
First of all sliding doors add a touch of modernity to your interior design. Secondly, sliding doors are space-saving as they function without a hinge. A sliding door simply glides along its tracks instead of swinging wide open like an ordinary door. This makes it a perfect option if you want to save space.
In addition, there are composite gaskets in a properly fitted sliding doors that offer great thermal insulation to your house. This means your home will be more energy-efficient if you have sliding doors.
Now that you know some of the advantages of having sliding doors, here are three helpful tips to help you maintain your windows and sliding doors:
1. Clean the Tracks of the Sliding Door
You shouldn’t have to push the weight of your whole body against a sliding door just to open or close it. Sliding doors and windows are designed to be used with minimal effort. The main reason sliding doors begin to show resistance when opening and closing is because over time the tracks become dirty. As the tracks become dirty, it becomes more difficult for the security door rollers to move along the track. You need to clean the tracks if you would like the door to run smoothly.
You can use a wire brush to clean up any dirt which has accumulated on the tracks. If you don’t have one in your house, borrow a wire brush from a friend who loves golf. Alternatively, you can also use a toothbrush but this can significantly slow down the cleaning process.
After you have cleaned all the dirt from the tracks remember to vacuum the area. You want to keep this area clean to prevent the dirt from accumulating back on the tracks.
2. Lubricate the Tracks for Smooth Use
Upon washing the tracks, the next thing to do is to apply some lubricant on them. You can spray WD-40 or any silicon-based lubricant on your tracks to make your sliding door rollers operate smoothly along the tracks. To avoid falling on a slippery floor, remember to wipe off any excess spray that falls on the ground.
3. Adjust the Sliding Door Roller
Your sliding door has adjustable rollers on each side of the door to help it slide on the tracks. These adjustment screws for the rollers are usually hidden with plastic plugs so look for two covered holes to get access to the rollers. Once you have access to the rollers, you can use a screwdriver to adjust the screw on the rollers. This will adjust the height of your sliding door and you can see if it glides better at a lower or higher height.
We hope these tips are helpful for you in maintaining your sliding door. If these tips don’t remedy the situation, then you should start thinking about replacing your sliding door and window rollers.
