There are several major negatives to outswinging exterior doors: --Outswinging doors become exposed to the elements, often leading to premature deterioration, particularly along the door bottom if not primed and finished like the other door surfaces. Outswinging doors also bring into the interior all of the rain, snow and debris that may collect on the door while open, causing puddling and debris on the floor material (which usually is not able to withstand such treatment for long). In many cases, the exterior face of doors may be finished for exterior exposure, but the interior face and edges may or may not be. --Wind gusts may cause the door to swing and rack against the hinges unless a limiting mechanical hold-open is installed. --Security may be a greater challenge for outswinging doors both in terms of passive security (depending on how the door jamb is designed and constructed) and actively closing a widely open door quickly, if needed, may be more challenging. For these reasons it is not common to use outswinging exterior doors in residences. Of course, it's your house and your decision. If it were my house I'd never do it.

I just looked at my Pella patio door (currently in the garage awaiting install. Yes, it appears you'll want to cut the tile; I'd hold off till the door arrives. You'll want to insure the heigth of your R.O. will be correct and think about the heigth of the tile as it butts up to the threshold - I will be installing the door on top of 1/2" Durarock to insure a clean tile/threshold mate. Yes; you can order jambs in virtually any reasonable width to accomodate a clean casing job inside. Pay atention to the install and flashing and enjoy your new door.

I hear you on the weather. I don't have extreme weather but my slider roller froze and the unit was so difficult to get out (frame was overshimmed on top or header sagged) that I damaged the track. The moral of the story here is to ALWAYS specify full stainless roller assemblies. If i could pick your brain on a couple of install questions - My current slider is installed w/o using a nailing fin and there is a stucco bumpout. based on what you see in the picture, would you specify a replacement unit the same size (~96"Hx71.5"W)? Some stucco damage is inevitable and that fine but if I have to rip off lots of stucco I may rethink this. The "jamb" on the current unit is proud of the drywall about 1/2" and the casing trim butts against it. Obviously this is not standard for interior doors/windows. I suppose you can specify the jamb to be whatever width you want so if the jamb is flush with the drywall a standard casing placement (1/4" jamb reveal) could be used? As you can see from the pic the bottom track is much narrower than the jamb. A french door will have a threshold more like a standard door. Would you expect that the tile would have to be cut to allow for a wider threshold? Thanks

qbryant, thanks for considering Integrity All Ultrex fiberglass sliding patio doors for your project! You're absolutely right that All Ultrex doors offer incredible durability -they also resist sagging and misalignment issues that can be troublesome with vinyl patio doors. We've put Ultrex to the test to show just how tough it is (and had a little fun along the way): As you continue to consider your patio door options, please let us know if we can help with any additional questions. And thanks for getting this conversation started!