Porches & Decks Remodeling Design Dilemma

Are sliding doors for a front porch tacky?

11 months ago

We need to replace our French doors + windows that are on the porch. The French Doors are original to the house and painted shut and not weatherproof at all so we need new ones. We have almost 10' width to fill.

We got a quote for hinged French Doors (3x5 grilles) with sidelites (2x5 grilles) slightly smaller than what we wanted, and a quote for gliding doors that have all 4 panels the same width (all panels are 3x5 grilles) so the set is 10 feet wide. Gliding doors are significantly cheaper and are closer to the symmetrical look I was going for and the added benefit of saving space that a hinged door would need in the house.

My question is: are gliding doors tacky for a front porch? Inspo shot below of the exact gliding doors I'd be getting installed (or super close match). The rendering isn't 100% accurate but it gives the final exterior colors of our home.

Rendering of our house (ignore that giant front door squeezed in the space, ours is one door only)

Inspo pic of the sliding doors I am considering purchasing:

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Comments (6)

Susie .
11 months ago
Not sure about tacky, but it’s unexpected. How much is the price difference? I like to think about big purchases in terms of over how many years I will be enjoying the purchase? For example, $xxxxx divided by 20 years. It may be easier to swallow when you think of it that way.
Sigrid
11 months ago
I'd look into the cost of getting a storm door and the original doors unpainted shut. It can't be that tough to deal with the paint because our window guy casually commented that lots of windows are painted shut, when discussing rehabbing them. It did not sound like he thought this was a problem. You can also add weather stripping to the original door. Fixing the existing door strikes me as cheaper and easier. than replacing it.

Sliding doors went out of style not for being tacky, but for being difficult and not that weather-proof.

Can you add screens to the sliders?
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I looked into the nana wall and several other options as well --- They are really cool, but in the end, we determined that our house location and set up didn't warrant the expense of these. Now, if we had an awesome view, we might have done this. My recollection of this in terms of pricing for Nana Wall and some of the other brands: I believe it was about $800 a foot for this --- so for a 12' opening, it worked out to about $9600 --- I looked at several manufacturers and the pricing was all in that ballpark. Will your doors open to a patio, a screened porch? This was a concern for us in this decision. We ended up putting a screened porch, so the Nana concept would have been great, because opening the doors wide would still be within the screen.... thus no bugs, etc invading the house. If not, you might want to consider with lights on in the house and the doors wide open, you might get every moth in town visiting! Another consideration is how to stack the panels. In our plan it was working out to be awkward --- and the "stack" would have been in the way. Just make sure that if you go with these, you have that planned carefully... some of them can stack inside a wall, which is pretty neat. Another consideration to think about..... look back at your pictures linked.... the transition from inside to outside.... if you are trying to make a very open space, be careful of that little half step transition.... it looks like a tripping hazard to me. I would want either a full step down, or preferably a level transition there to open up the space. The top picture has a small step, which can be an ankle breaker! Finally, if you are trying to maximize your view through the house straight out the back, maybe consider an odd number of doors so the exact center is glass, not the door frames meeting in the middle (your bottom picture does this glass in the middle way). If you think about your set of 4 doors concept, the dead center part will be about 8" of door frame, vs. glass. If you use 3 or 5 panels, the center view would be glass. This is why in the first few pictures they show the doors open, because it looks way better open than closed. But in the last picture, the view is great regardless. And.... while I think the standard is to have the center 2 panels open on french doors, it makes furniture placement more difficult, so just make sure you've thought about it! Good luck would love to see pics of the view, etc! Rachel
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I do custom designed lean to greenhouses every day. I keep looking at these pictures of the "before" and "after" on this. I think I am understanding what you are looking for. The picture of the "after" seems to be attached to the fascia board. I wouldn't ever attempt to do this in that manner. The water runoff at the back of the greenhouse above the fascia will ultimately cause leaks. Maybe rot out your roof. I can't tell for sure, but maybe the other roof line is going to be in your way as well. The only way to do this correctly would be to build a dormer off your existing roof and do a gable end attached greenhouse to this. This would be an extremely expensive project. If you want to close in the porch why don't you just put glass sliding doors under your existing roof? Honestly, and please don't take this the wrong way, if I got to your house to give you an estimate on something like this I would recommend that you not do it. Sometimes the angles and measurements are just not right for a project. I also think you should just buy or build a freestanding greenhouse. Or, if you have your heart totally set on this, hire a professional. This is not a do it yourself project.
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I dont mind the white storm door. It does make your door color recede a bit, but, it depends upon which you like the best. Your planters are way too small, or maybe I should say too short. I dont like the white light. A darker color would look nicer, and same with the mail box. Pick a color from your brick, and your stone, for the planters. Right now, they do not really go with anything. Put some bright color plants in the planters, and make sure they are full, not skimpy. Remove the home from the door. Thats just tacky. Your house looks nice. and it looks like its well maintained. Keep the color of your roof in mind, when you redo or replace the planters. Maybe use the color of your door, on mailbox and light.
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Hillary
Original Author
11 months ago
@Susie almost twice as much and not the same size/style I was going for other than the hinges lol
Hillary
Original Author
11 months ago
last modified: 11 months ago
@Sigrid the original french doors are a custom size, and the glass panes coming loose, frame itself has gaps, the threshold has gaps it would basically require rebuilding it. The glass is also not tempered, so rehabbing it means having to replace each of the glass panes to pass inspection.
palimpsest
11 months ago
If they look like the sliders you show in the bottom picture, I think they will look good and many people will "see" them as french doors anyway. I am imagining you will use them like floor length windows anyway and not go in and out so much, since you have the front door right there.

I am all for historic preservation, but I had three pairs of french doors that opened into my LR with storm doors on them and it was pretty ugly. With those doors they opened in, taking up a lot of room inside. If you opened them there were still storm/screen doors that were closed over them on the outside. Mine happened to be a potential security issue as well.

I had a set of three, so I put a french door in the middle and a matching slider on each side. We go in and out the french door and use the sliders, which do have screens, as ventilation. And they could potentially be left open a few inches at night with a stop put in the track to prevent them from being opened further.
la_la Girl
11 months ago
we have a set of sliders that look almost identical to a nearby French door - I wasnt sure about them and they are lovely, easy to open, nice screens, and seem to fit with the home — plus not having the clearance considerations make it much easier to furnish outside and inside

Are sliding doors for a front porch tacky?

Comments (6)

Susie .

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Are sliding doors for a front porch tacky?

Comments (6)

Susie .

Sigrid

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palimpsest

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