Sliding Glass Door Insulation

I have a leaky sliding glass door. No, water doesn’t poor in every time it rains, cold air comes in. I don’t know why, by my apartment sucks – it pulls air in from the outside.

So, I decided to insulate my sliding glass door. I looked at the sliding glass door insulation kits for $13, but that renders the door useless. I thought about doing just the glass, but that doesn’t really stop the leaks, just reduces the cold air falling off the window from being in contact with such a large, cold surface.

So, I build a double pain, plastic door.

Using my favorite stuff… Duct tape!

temporary wooden frameI used a bit of scrap lumber I had to build the frame. I had kept a bundle of edge that got trimmed of some one-by at some point in the past.


duct tape joints in a temporary wooden frameThe joints are just duct taped together. This is a temporary structure, so it’s fine by me.

duct tape hinge in a temporary wooden frameI created a duct tape hinge by leaving a gap in the wood when I taped it together. This allows the joint to hinge. Clever, I think.


double sided tape weather strippingI have moved this messed up roll of double sided tape, foam weather stripping from WI, to FL, to IL. I am such a packrat. It is a sickness. I can make cool things by scrounging around in a closet. **grin**


winter insulated sliding glass door Here, I have the whole set up installed. The window isn’t usable for looking out anymore, but that’s not a big deal, the drainage ditch in the yard and street aren’t that grand of a vista anyhow.


hooks used to hold the frame to the wall I used some small hooks to hold my contraption to the wall. I just screw them down until I can twist them and they will hold the frame snug. I used the weather stripping for both sealing and also shimming the frame out so the hooks would hold it snuggly. I put these around the right hand half, including on top.


hooks used to hold the frame to the wallOn the left hand side, by the slider, I put just a single hook. I use this as the ‘latch’ as I can give it a quick twist, and the frame can open up on my duct-tape hinges. I can now use the sliding glass door, even though it’s covered in 2 layers of plastic sheeting.

How cool is that? (ugly as sin, too, isn’t it?)

The blinds close to hide the whole thing, so it look just fine from the inside.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux