My two year old Golden Retriever mix decided to do her huge puppy impersonation where she runs around the house like her tail's on fire. Normally one would find this quite cute, but this time she ran herself right through my sliding glass door!
She's fine, but the door is totally distroyed. It was an old aluminum framed 8' slider and the part she broke was the sliding door itself. I called some of the most experienced glass guys in the area. One came out and just shook his head. Seems that because of the way the wash house (attached to the house just outside the sliding glass door), the new kitchen cabinets, and porch roof were built, they impede upon taking out the old door and putting a newer double paned one in.
He said that I would need new construction and have the whole thing reframed.
It was going to be near $1800 to have it replaced with just the type of doors that fit in the existing space. Now, the guy told me it would be closer to $5,000
and that I would have to find a contractor to do it.
I thought about just replacing the glass, but the door is so old that the little wheels on the bottom of it have derteriorated. Don't know if they're replaceable but without them, the door won't slide. If the frame to the door itself is bent from my "puppy's" impact, then they can't even put in a new pane of safety glass (which this was not as it shattered into chards). If they can, the cost of that is about $370, with installation. That still leaves me with a large, drafty door. *burrrrr*
I've already tried to find a used one at the local dump. Seems that each manufacturer makes their door a WEEEEEE bit different, just enough to not have it work, even though the overall size is still 8'x6'8". Guess they didn't want anyone replacing a part of their system with that of a competitor.
Currently the door is covered with plastic wrap (not high in insulating value) with a half sheet of plywood protecting it from a rambunctious puppy attack. *smile*
Any suggestions or ideas? All would be appreciated.
The Perils of Puppies
