sliding glass door jams in winter

[Jamie]

We have a sliding glass door in our kitchen that opens from left to right. The last two/three winters, we noticed it started to stick/rub at the top when about 12-15 inches open, eventually in the winter it would not open past that point, not good in an emergency.

In the spring, it would start to open more readily, but I had to drop the sliding door down a notch on its rollers. Eventually this will not be an option anymore.

I was thinking maybe something/water was getting into the top of the door and forcing it down. There is an inside bathroom fan exhaust that comes out about 2 feet above the door, more to the opening side.

I went outside and took off the vinyl siding but did not see any evidence of water problems or anything like that.

We do get water/ice sometimes at the bottom where the two door meets from cold air coming in thru a small opening that leads to the outside. Maybe ice is builing up under the track and forcing that up, instead of the top being forced down ?

Any advice appreciated ...

[donald girod]

Actually, it sounds to me like the house is moving in the winter. The ice explanation is not likely to be the answer since apparently there was a permanent change (you had to adjust the door to get it to work in the spring.) Though I suppose the ice or whatever could permanently bend the (probably aluminum) head of the door.

Houses do move in the winter sometimes, due to frost in the ground, shifting water tables, and so on. Also, snow load on the roof may cause the header over the door to deflect (depending on where the door is and so on). You don't say if this is a new house--they are more prone to move around until they find their preferred position and stay there.

If the house is moving so much that your door ends up jammed solid, you will probably have other problems as well--one hopes this is not the case, but there are hundreds of houses in the town of Amherst (near Buffalo) which have shifting and sinking foundations due to development on soil that was not really suitable for construction, or at least not the construction practices used.

You could try to fix the problem which causes ice buildup at the bottom--you really don't want this anyway. And when the door starts to stick, you should determine what the head of the door is doing--is it bowed in the middle (this suggests something forcing the middle of the door down) or is it going out of square (this suggests the house is shifting). Another source for ice is warm moist air from inside the house getting into the space above the door and condensing on cold metal, or getting under the door. This shouldn't really be possible, but it could happen. I have seen a lot of ice buildup on aluminum sliding doors; my mother-in-laws door made enough ice to rot out the wood trim at the bottom of the door. I ended up putting a "storm door" on the sliding door; this cured the problem. They make these things, and they really do cut heat loss.

[Jamie]

The house is 9 years old, so this started happenning when it was 7 to

8 years old. There is a 2nd floor so I don't think its a snow load problem. Also, the door unit is at least wood trimmed, not sure if it is aluminum behind the wood (probably).

I also was wondering if it was inside humidity causing it. We have central heat with humidifier added, we do get consendation on the windows, etc, so a storm door for the sliding door sounds like a possibility .. as long as we can still get out in an emergency, we dn;t use the door oftne in winter .. but just in case ...

thanks, Jamie