Restoring Water Damage From Sliding Doors

Even though you never want to sacrifice the picturesque views provided by your sliding glass doors, heavy rainfall and strong winds can pose serious water intrusion problems. Water sitting in the base track may occur due to debris blocking the drainage holes. Leakage from the corners can cause moisture damage to your hardwood floors. Trapped water can get into the wood framing behind brick, siding or stucco. If the door was installed directly on the concrete slab, water could be seeping under the doorframe.  

Other Common Causes Of Water Intrusion 

A few other reasons you may have moisture entering your sliding doors:

• A bent track can be hammered out  or replaced  
• Broken glass, which can be sealed or replaced depending on the extent of the damage
• Worn flashing or caulking around the door, which are located both on top and on the bottom of the door
• Poor runoff  allows water to pool around the base or drip down your door

Possible Solutions

Adjust your wheels and rollers If your sliding door’s wheels are off-balance. The door will move more smoothly along the track, plus shut more tightly. Sometimes your sliding track needs more than a clean. If it’s worn down from years of opening and closing, rusted, or broken, have the ICC team repair or replace it. 

Caulk is not a permanent solution no matter what the warranty on the label states. Weather stripping installed between sliding doors reduces energy loss and helps to weatherproof sliding glass doors. Both brush fin and fin seal use synthetic brush filaments to restrict air flow in gaps between the sliding doors. Consider installing an extra precautionary layer of weather stripping to prevent the leaks caused by driving rain. 

If you love the light, consider changing out the existing doors for something else. Some  practical alternatives to sliding glass doors are:

• Shoji sliding screens.
• Pivot doors.
• French doors.
• Center swing doors.
• Dutch doors.
• Bi-fold doors.
• Glass roll-up doors.
• Sliding barn doors.

The best solution will start with a phone call to ICC. Experienced technicians can investigate both the cause of and the extent of water damage to your home. They will offer solutions, solve all the problems, and restore all the materials to the highest quality. 

Will Insurance Pay?

The ICC staff has a lot of experience with helping homeowners with insurance claims. In general a sliding glass door is covered as part of the home, but it also has the same conditional treatment as, say, the roof. If the sliding glass door needs to be replaced because of normal wear and tear, then it is not an insurance claim. 

Water Damage Restoration Experts in Minnesota 

With ICC, you can be sure that the team will find, correct and restore any signs of winter water damage. Years of experience drying hardwood floors, plaster walls, tile and concrete ensure your items will be well cared for.