We went out this morning to start shopping for the very first part of the kitchen upgrade beyond the new reefer - a new patio door. The price range is unbelievable. A low end, unbranded POS from Home Depot was $399. High end at the lumber yard/builder's supply a few miles up the road was a special Anderson at 'only' $13,999, reduced from something even more outrageous ($18M if I recall correctly). Yeah, it was nice, mahogany, fancy cast bronze hardware and so on but not too many years ago you could buy an entire small 2-3 bed room ranch style home for that price. It does look like we will still need to spend over a thousand for a door with a decent insulationg system - I like the Marvin over the comparable Anderson and a lot better the the Pella. I had Pellas in my last home, triple glazed, and was NOT impressed - in fact the rails on a couple of the several picture windows rotted from sweat plus lost their seals and the patio doors never worked worth a dam'.
There seems to be only a few suppliers locally - Jeld-Wen(their low end only at HD), Anderson(200 & 400 series), Pella, Eagle (very expensive) Masonite (hohummers) and Marvin.
__________________
Dave W (Irelands Child/IC2)
Quando omni flunkus, moritati (When all else fails, play dead - R Green)
Harry - what brand did you end up with? The one I'm probably going to order tomorrow is a Marvin Windows Integrity French slider. That version has a little heavier door frame then a conventional slider. We really would like a swing type but the way our porch is set up has too many obstacles for the doors to swing all the way open (plus is almost 2x the cost of a sliding door regardless of manufacturer)
__________________
Dave W (Irelands Child/IC2)
Quando omni flunkus, moritati (When all else fails, play dead - R Green)
I got my door from a local window/door company....The brand is Northstar, a company in St Thomas Ont. http://www.northstarwindows.com/
The window guy told me that generally, the sliding doors have much better sealing than the swing type doors. With our weather, its something to consider.
I got my door from a local window/door company....The brand is Northstar, a company in St Thomas Ont. http://www.northstarwindows.com/
The window guy told me that generally, the sliding doors have much better sealing than the swing type doors. With our weather, its something to consider.
That looks like a pretty decent sliding door. Unfortunately it's not one I could consider with the closest dealer being in Quebec.
__________________
Dave W (Irelands Child/IC2)
Quando omni flunkus, moritati (When all else fails, play dead - R Green)
OK - update on the kitchen project and my latest installation last week. The patio door is a Marvin Windows 'Integrity' - and a heluva lot more expensive then anticipated - but a very nice door in comparison to some of the Home Depot/Lowe's doors we looked at. Only taken a couple of photos, but this is before and after. I still have to trim it inside and will probably take a couple then. Fairly easy installation, just a lot of steps with wait time. The biggest problem was the sill with a 1/2" hump in the middle that I had to correct. When I say 'sill', it is actually part of the walk out basement wall below it, so it wasn't a cut and replace, but a 1/4" plywood and (many) shim repair: