Glide In or Out of Your Home with Sliding Glass Patio Doors

Did you know that sliding glass patio doors were once only available to aristocracy? Of course, that was in the days when the doors were created from handcrafted wood and hand-blown glass. Though once solely seen in homes of the wealthy, the advent of modern manufacturing made sliding glass doors available to the masses. These lovely doors are available in a variety of materials, styles, and set-ups; they also possess several benefits to other types of patio doors. This gives you many choices for achieving the look you want in your beautiful home.

It’s been said that sliding glass patio doors (also known as gliding patio doors) are more than just doors—they are a design element. In addition to once being reserved for the rich, sliding doors were previously made of heavier materials and were infamous for skipping off their tracks or becoming stuck in a certain spot along their tracks. These days, sliding glass patio doors are made of lighter, slimmer materials, usually with frames made of wood, fiberglass, or vinyl. Another plus of these lighter materials is that they allow for slimmer doors, thus allowing for increased sunlight to your home and better access to a view of your patio.

Sliding doors come in a variety of styles to suite whatever aesthetics you’re going for, ranging contemporary to traditional to every style between. There are doors that are made from all one sheet of glass to a mix of large and smaller glass panes to the often seen French style, equally sized panes of glass. Sliders often consist of at least two doors with a standard 5 to 6 foot width (sliding doors with more doors are available and can reach 8 to 10 feet or more in width). In addition to being a great source of natural light for your living space, those wide, welcoming doors provide easy, free-flowing access to your patio or backyard area.

Other benefits of sliding glass patio doors reveal themselves the more you research. With modern materials like weather stripping and heavy-duty insulated glass, these doors are more highly energy efficient than ever. This is a great bonus for those who are cautious with their energy consumption for either financial or environmental reasons. That heavy-duty insulated glass also enhances the security of the sliding doors. Another plus of sliding doors is their space saving quality; because they slide vertically along a single track, they are big in the space saving department—rather than having to leave clearance room for the opening of the often used pull-open doors, that space in your home is returned to you when you use sliding glass patio doors to access your outdoor areas.

The choices for sliding glass patio doors are nearly endless! So, regardless of whether you are currently building a home, conducting a remodel, or simply considering a replacement for your current patio doors, sliding glass patio doors are well worth a second look.