Replacing a French Door, lift and glide vs outswing french door
replacing an inswing 72×80 french door the previous owners installed into a ~74×83 opening. they literally did not put an ounce of caulking or spray foam, and just added on some pine boards to the outside… without mitering them or anything, just overlapping on a corner lol. no water damage from what I can tell. i hope these pictures will at least give someone a laugh. i laughed when i took off the crown molding being used as door trim.
another reason is due to the limited interior space thanks to plants and the dining room table. i already replaced a window in my house with a tilt and turn window, and i will never go back to a regular window again(like 9 more to go) — simply because of the nice locking mechanism.
i know that its a very loaded question to compare two products like this, since it depends on the quality of the product itself. but what would be the downsides to going with an out swing french door? its not actually a tilting version, but it does have the exact same locking mechanism as a tilt and turn window/door.
from my life experience with cheap doors, a french doors standard latching/locking mechanism is what really makes the air sealing bad. but if it latches like a tilt/turn window, life would be good?
my patio is just a basic 12×12 slab, and the covering is part of the house. i’ve lived here about 2 years and even during heavy rains, not too much water will hit the door. the lift and glide door will inherently air seal better since one side is fixed, but the extra large opening would never hurt. our fridge barely fit through the front door :\
any input is appreciated.
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Replies
cs55,
I have two out-swing french doors. I can count on one hand the times we have had both sides over over the last 25 years. I think the biggest drawback to outs-wings is that they are susceptible to wind when open.
Someone here recently posted this door. I like the asymmetric opening. Don't know if they make an out-swing version, but with this configuration you might not need one.
https://logicwd.com/swing-door/
thank you for that idea. you have me beat, 2 years into this house and i've never even tried to open up both sides..
i didn't really consider that since its a hinged door and not sliding, that an opening can be as wide as the entire door frame -- technically anyways, as opposed to a sliding door being about half the width. no need for it to be symmetrical. for something like that, maybe a 36-40" outswing door with the remaining width being a fixed piece of glass. at least that would give better air sealing and a larger opening than the front door for that once in a lifetime situation for getting something large into the house..
we do have some crazy gusts of wind occasionally, not that we ever use the back door anyways. but it would suck to have it rip open.
tyty
cs55,
I sometimes contemplate driving a couple of screws through the less operable door into the frame to keep it better sealed. For the rare occasion I needed to open it, I'd just remove them.
I created something conceptually similar to this recently. I bought two 36"-wide door slabs, both mostly just one massive pane of glass with a thin frame around it. I then installed one of the door slabs permanently into the door frame as if it was a 36"-wide side-lite. The other slab was installed like a normal single operable 36" door. At a quick glance, it looks like a normal french door setup... until you notice that there is only one door knob and it's not in the center of the two "doors".
I went that way because I wanted the light from 6ft wide glass but didn't want to have to deal with air sealing in an astragal and I don't need a 6ft opening anyway.
kurt,
Why I don't just take that extra step and do what you did eludes me.
A door mulled to a fixed window seems to be a pretty common retrofit from a double French or a sliding door. We got quotes for those along with our other windows, and it seemed like a good option to keep the amount of light but move to a stronger and better sealing option (less seals = better sealing...).
Same with windows; we hardly ever open more than a few windows in our house, so why have an entire house of operable windows instead of a mixture of operable and fixed units?