Los Angeles County, California
Sliding door repair in Los Angeles
A patio door that drags or jumps its track usually has worn rollers or a dirty track, and the door itself is fine. Tell us what it is doing and roughly how old it is, and you get a price for the visit before anything is scheduled. The glass is not part of this job.
The price in writingAgreed before anything is scheduled
One visit, several jobsThe drive costs the same either way
No surprise when we arriveThe number holds unless the wall says otherwise
Across Los Angeles CountyFrom the Valley to the South Bay
What the job looks like
Sliding door repair, close up
New rollers go in with the panel out of the frame and laid flat on padding, not with the door propped in its track. 
A cracked wheel or a seized bearing drags at the same spot on every pass. The new one is matched to the old one by size and housing. 
It should roll with one hand and latch without a shove.
A sliding patio door is a heavy glass panel riding on two small wheels in an aluminum channel. When it starts to drag, the wheels have usually worn flat or the channel has filled with grit, and the door gets pushed harder every day until a roller cracks. This page is about the rollers and the track, and about getting the door to sit straight and lock again. The glass is not part of it.
What the door is telling you
It takes two hands, or it grinds
The fault we see most on these doors is worn or seized rollers. A door that has gotten heavier to push over months is nearly always the rollers. There is one near each end of the bottom rail, and on most doors each can be raised or lowered through a small hole at the bottom corner. Sometimes an adjustment is all it needs. Once a wheel has a flat spot or a cracked housing, raising it only lifts the problem higher, and the pair gets replaced.
It catches at the same spot every time
That points at the track. Aluminum sill track dents where people step on it and where furniture gets dragged across it, and a dent in the rail catches the wheel at the same place on every pass. Small dents can be dressed back. A rail worn to a groove along its length takes a stainless cap that fits over the old one, which is quicker and cheaper than cutting the sill out.
It jumps the track or rattles in the wind
A door that lifts off its rail has rollers set too low or a top guide that has worked loose, and a panel left like that can come out of the frame. Keep it closed and tell us. A door that rattles or lets in dust along its edges usually has worn weatherstripping, and that can be replaced on the same visit.
It will not lock, or the handle is loose
When the latch misses its keeper, the door is usually sitting a little low, and raising the rollers brings the two back into line. A worn latch or a loose handle set gets swapped for a matching one. A foot lock or a bar for the track can go in on the same visit.
Sliding doors in Los Angeles houses
A lot of the patio sliders here are aluminum or vinyl doors from the 1960s to the 1990s, in apartment buildings and in the ranch and tract houses, and they run on bottom rollers. Their tracks sit at the edge of a patio or a balcony, where sand and leaves blow straight in, and that grit is what wears the rollers down. In an older house that has settled, the opening can move out of square around the door. A door that binds in one part of its travel and runs fine in the rest is showing you that, and the rollers can take up some of it.
Sliding closet doors are on the door repair page, and sliding screen doors are on windows and screens. Put them on the same list as the patio door.
What is not part of it
The glass. A cracked or fogged pane, or a panel that needs new glass, is glazing work and not part of this job, and we say so when you describe it. Replacing the whole door and its frame is not a repair either, and it goes past what a handyman visit covers. You hear that before anything is booked.
What it costs
A glass patio door is priced per door once we know roughly how wide and how old it is. A maker’s name stamped on the frame helps too, because the rollers are matched to the door. The visit minimum of roughly $95 to $200 applies, and the rest of your list shares the trip. You get a firm price before anything is scheduled.
Jobs that often go on the same visit:
- Sliding screen door rollers and track adjustment$110–$250per door
- New sliding screen door, made to order and installed$190–$450per door
- Bifold or closet door realignment or hardware swap$120–$300
These are estimates, and the price guide has the rest of the list.
Who needs a license
A roller change or a new lock on one door usually comes in well under $1,000. A set of doors through a whole house, or a job that turns into framing around the opening, is a different job, and you hear that up front.
Send the doors as one list
Tell us which doors, from the patio slider to the screen door that keeps coming off, and say in plain words what each one is doing. Roughly how wide each door is helps. So does a maker’s name, if one is stamped on the frame or the handle. Keep a photo of the bottom corner handy for when we call. Send it as one list, and the whole visit gets one price.
Where we work
Across Los Angeles County
What the walls are made of changes street by street in this city, and it changes the job.
Send us the list
However long it is. You get a price for the visit before anything is booked.