Sliding Glass Doors {Noise/Friction}

All,

I was surprised to find little about this topic searching the internet, but as a first floor condo owner my upstairs neighbors drive me crazy with their opening and closing of their sliding glass door. My one neighbor directly above me smokes and every 10 minutes I hear their sliding glass door noise reverberating throughout my apartment. It almost sounds like somone dragging a wooden crate across pavement just above my head no matter where I am in the unit.

The harder/faster they open and close door the more noise it makes. I've asked them to do it slower and the one upstairs neighbor replaced the wheels on the door but it still makes that sound. I think the sound I hear is the friction from the heavy weight of the door being dragged. I also hear the unit above and to the right of my unit.

Are there any solutions to this? Any suggestions/ideas I can make to my neighbors? I am surprised sliding glass doors are so poorly designed as some type of system to stabilize the weight against the ground could counteract this and create a "smooth and quiet" sliding experience. I have not found anything like this in my searches.

Please help.

Annoyed in Florida...

Reply to
johnrolitz
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For a better gliding door, tracks and rollers should be thoroughly cleaned. I use a small amount of "armour all" on the tracks, felt on the door and rollers.

Some adjustment to the door, may also be in order.

Getting the guy next door to clean tracks? Good luck.

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

Clearly you are not well suited to living in an apartment complex. Get over it, or move.

Reply to
Goedjn

Any reference available on how to adjust doors? Mine haven't worked properly for years (they bind...) but I don't know what they need.

Reply to
Toller

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote: : All,

: I was surprised to find little about this topic searching the internet, : but as a first floor condo owner my upstairs neighbors drive me crazy : with their opening and closing of their sliding glass door. My one : neighbor directly above me smokes and every 10 minutes I hear their : sliding glass door noise reverberating throughout my apartment. It : almost sounds like somone dragging a wooden crate across pavement just : above my head no matter where I am in the unit.

: The harder/faster they open and close door the more noise it makes. : I've asked them to do it slower and the one upstairs neighbor replaced : the wheels on the door but it still makes that sound. I think the : sound I hear is the friction from the heavy weight of the door being : dragged. I also hear the unit above and to the right of my unit.

: Are there any solutions to this? Any suggestions/ideas I can make to : my neighbors? I am surprised sliding glass doors are so poorly : designed as some type of system to stabilize the weight against the : ground could counteract this and create a "smooth and quiet" sliding : experience. I have not found anything like this in my searches.

: Please help.

: Annoyed in Florida...

it's a recurrent, endless, wear-out problem! We have 6 such doors in the house. PAM or other cooking spray works nicely (better than WD40) try it!

Reply to
AND Books

On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 13:34:52 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com broke out their crayolas and scribbled:

Our sliding glass doors used to take two hands to slide open and shut and were noisy as hell. The house was built in '59 and the rollers had wore out a couple of times, but the track was the real problem. Replacement roller kits are available at HD & Lowes. Remove the old rollers and take them with you because there are different size and style of rollers available. The last time I repaired the doors I drew a profile of the bottom track the door rides on and was able to find a new piece of track. The track being damaged was the problem with the rollers failing every couple of years. once the track was replaced the doors can be slid open with a finger and is almost silent. Finding the right aluminum track extrusion is the main problem.

I lucked out and found a piece that matched what I had at a place that salvages windows, doors, plumbing, what have you. Paid $8.00 for a six foot piece a year ago, that was "new old stock" that I was able to match to the profile of the track I already had on the floor. The place is in Pinellas County Florida where I bought the track and I had to rummage through the yard to find it. I was just lucky that day.

I believe the big box stores carry some extrusions for the brands of doors that they carry or can still order it. Your condo is probibly newer than '59 and they might have the profile you would need. They didn't have the profile I needed though and were unable to ID or didn't know where to look up the profile or didn't figure it was worth their time or were due for break, you understand....

I understand this is your neighbors problem but maybe the offer to help would yield better results. Many people move to condos because they are not so handy with tools.

Good luck!

Reply to
none

Yes. This is why I choose to live in a suburb. Take that, Al Gore.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

On Thu, 01 Jun 2006 22:03:42 +0000, Toller broke out their crayolas and scribbled:

Most of the adjusters I've seen are screws that are located at the bottom edge or through a hole in the bottom edge of the door to move the roller up and down by some fashion of a cam action. You usually have to back off this cam screw to lower the door in order to pick up the door and remove it from the track to replace the rollers. After replacing the rollers you adjust the door height so the door can't be lifted up and removed.

Hope this is of some help!

Reply to
none

I haven't had to replace rollers, but to adjust them, a flat blade screwdriver an inch above the bottom of the door, in each end of the door, and iirc tighten to lift the door. It made a world of difference when the house was about 13 years old. I guess the door gets lower as the wheel wears, but maybe it was never as high as it should have been.

I did for some reason, remove the moveable pane of both sliding glass doors and all I had to do was lift the door up (another indication that maybe it should have been higher, but I never made it higher to keep it from being removeable. Instead I put a piece of brook stick above the doors. The story is that this keeps a thief from lifting the door out. It is certainly the simplest easiest way to keep the door from being lifted out. BTW, when you do lift the doors out, they are very heavy. You have to have developed techniques for doing things yourself to not drop one, or have the bottom edge kick out and get away from you. Thermopane is especially heavy I suppose, and wood frames.

Whether the broom stick idea is the best idea or not, I'm pretty sure a lot of people do it, so before trying to remove a slg, check above to see if there is a piece of wood or something stuffed in there.

>
Reply to
mm

As mentioned, recessed screws located on side of the door at the bottom. Turning the screw will move the rollers up and down.

I also check the track, some times they can become loose and heave up causing a hump and the door binds as it slides on the track. The track should be level. Shims can be used to adjust a track that is not level.

Oren

"My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."

Reply to
Oren

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