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Design Dilemma Windows Home Repair

Recommendations for affordable exterior patio doors.

last year

We are selling our house and need to replace three sets of center hinged French doors. The interior needs to be stainable. One door is a triple panel. I am not opposed to sliders either. Any brand recommendations are more than welcomed. Also is there a way to use a slab glass door beside a double and make it look like a triple? Saving money with an acceptable appearance is key. Our wood stain is colonial maple and we are not changing that.

Comments (7)

millworkman
last year
Can you price the house accordingly and not replace the doors? In my opinion your better off doing that than using low end doors disguised as "affordable".
Miranda33
last year
I was going to say the same thing. Let the new buyer pick their own patio doors that they would like. Also, I don't know what your timeline is, but anything to do with windows seems to have long lead times. Rather than going through the time and aggravation of choosing the doors, finding a contractor, and waiting for the installation, just give a credit to the buyer or make the price of the home slightly lower.

While the real estate market has slowed a bit, it's still a seller's market, so your giving a credit/decrease isn't going to stop the sale of your home.
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I assume you mean single point locks? A french unit such as Marvin will probably come with a 3 point lock, which is specialty item tailored to that door. Try a good Schlage dealer, or check them online. Baldwin also has an economy line that might also fit your needs.
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Pchow, I considered Pella, Andersen, Therma-Tru, and Jeld-Wen. Rejected T-T because the interior was vinyl. Rejected J-W for being all wood (we live in a humid climate and have lots of trees). Both Andersen & Pella have wooden interiors and clad exteriors. Both look solid and open and close with ease. Ended up picking the Andersen over the Pella because it came in a 9'9" four panel model, where the middle two panels open. That seemed more convenient than the Pella's three panel door.
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To be clear, I am not doing the work myself. I am working with a contractor I have used before who is a great craftsman, but my arrangement with him means I source, plan and pay for stuff like this, and he installs it at a very reasonable price. This means I have to do the research on the products, but I kind of like that :-) I don't really understand pricing on windows and doors. In a previous remodel, I bought three sets of French doors at HomeDepot, Atrium Pro line, the epitome of a big box buy. They are wood with aluminum cladding, grills inside and out, pre-hung with effective weather stripping (at least effective enough for our mild NorCal climate). After six years, they have never been painted and still look great. They cost about $700 each. I love them and would definitely use them again, but Home Depot no longer carries them. Anybody have experience with imported mahogany doors like this: http://www.buywooddoors.com/shop/product/21 I have had something similar on the main house for about three years and it is performing well. I painted it out white, so I expect more maintenance over the long run than with the Atrium doors, but this is looking like it might be my most economical option.
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Comments (5)
I like something that looks like a glass walls, I mean huge windows with glass doors. You would get an amazing view to the lake
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
last modified: last year
I have to agree. What is exactly wrong with the doors you have ?
Jennifer Hogan
last year
I am replacing a large double sliding glass door. The difference in price from a cheap vinyl door with bad reviews and the lower end Anderson was not that much of a difference. $6k or$8k.

Ironically, the most expensive quote I got was for the exact same Anderson door ($16k). I also had quotes for other no name vinyl doors that were higher than the 8k Anderson.

Finding the right installer (in my case a GC rather than a windows and door company) seemed to make the largest price difference. To find the GC I called a local lumber yard / building supply company that carries a bunch of different doors and asked them who could help me select and install the door. They gave me the names of 2 General Contractors. I was happy enough with the first one I didn't call the other.

There was a 16 week lead time quoted by Anderson when my door was ordered.
PRO
Beth H. :
last year
last modified: last year
post pics.

If you're selling the home, leaving what's there may be better than getting cheap replacements.

3 sets of french doors (at 5' or 6') will run about $650 or so each? those are the home depot basic models. Now tack on install and demo of the current doors (unless you can do all of this yourselves?) and you're looking at a total of about 7K, give or take. plus staining, molding, etc. And that's for cheap doors.

cheap vinyl sliders would be similar, but probably look worse

If the current doors are that bad, offer a 10K credit to the buyers and call it a day.
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
last year
She has another thread from a week ago where many of the same people posted the same suggestion, price the house accordingly. OP has your realtor said you have to replace the doors in order to get the right buyer and they understand the three month delay this will cause?
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Why do people do this ? Duplicate posts are just a PITA for us and honestly for the OPs too.

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