Sliding screen door difficult to open.

by Jim Cronburg
(Brookline, MA)

Question

A friend's sliding patio doors have a wooden framed screen that is difficult slide all the way open. When I pull the side of the frame near the vertical center (at the latch) it wants to tip up the opposite frame edge of the door and so jams at the top (i.e. the frame wracks upward). I can push the door open relatively easily if I hold the frame near the top.

The top of the frame is mounted with wheels that are resting in a continuous track at the head of the opening. The bottom of the frame has just a thin continuous plate or fin that fits down into a slot at the threshold, so there is no support or tension there (as in most slider screen doors I've seen).

I've tried adjusting the top fittings for the rollers, and even taken the whole door off the rollers to check them and the track. The rollers are free to roll perfectly and the slot at the bottom is clean.

I don't see how the original design prevented wracking when pushing to open.

Jim Cronburg

Answer

It sounds like that one or more of the corners that hold the frame together has worked loose with use or broken completely.

Is the door entirely made of wood, or does it have a wood veneer on the inside over top of a conventional aluminum screen door ?

You can stiffen the frame up by rescreening with black aluminum wire but it will eventually loosen up again.

If the door is completely wood, then scrweing steel "L" brackets at all four corners would help stiffen the frame.

Would be great if you could submit digital pictures of this door because it sounds quite unique