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!
I 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.
The joints are just duct taped together. This is a temporary structure, so it’s fine by me.
I 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.
I 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**
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.
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.
On 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.
