LESLIE: Lotus in California is on the line with a sliding-door question. How can we help you today?
LOTUS: Well, I’m very interested in finding out how to make my sliding-glass door – we have two of them but one of them gets a lot of usage. And all of a sudden, it’s just almost impossible to open and close.
TOM: OK.
LOTUS: So rather than replacing it, is there a way that I can fix it and not spend the money in replacing the door?
TOM: Well, why is it hard to open and close it? Is it dragging on the bottom?
LOTUS: It seems to be dragging on the bottom and it’s the last 4 or 5 inches when I try to close it that is really hard to push.
TOM: So, if you look along the bottom of the sliding part of the door, there’s usually some pegs or plastic buttons that cover the wheel mechanism that’s under the door. And if you pop those out, sometimes you can stick in a screwdriver or an Allen wrench and adjust the height of the wheels. The wheels under the door move up and down and with a couple of clicks of a screwdriver or an Allen wrench, you could move those wheels.
If those are accessible, you may try raising the door a bit to get it up off the ground. Because they may have worn and now the door bottom is actually dragging across the aluminum sill. But if you make the wheels a little deeper, you’ll get that clearance again. That’s the first thing I would try.
LOTUS: I see, I see. So it’s a matter of pushing those up so that the door sits up higher, is what you’re telling me.
TOM: Correct. That’s it.
LOTUS: OK. I got it. Good. Well, thank you for your help.
TOM: Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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