Patio door recommendations

10 years ago

Per suggestion, I am reposting this from the remodeling forum:

We are planning on replacing our sliding patio door with a hinged french door. We are planning on going with a Fiberglass door due to its lower required maintenance.

I am looking for some feedback on various brands in terms of their durability and customer service when it comes to honoring their warranties.

The brands that I am considering are: Masonite, Jeld-Wen and Feather River.

If we go with either Masonite or Feather River, we would be getting them installed by Home Depot. So, any feedback on Home Depot would also be appreciated. Thanks you.

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Comments (3)

StrongWindows
10 years ago
My choice between Masonite and Feather River would be Masonite. They have a long history of good products and good warranty service which I have personally seen over the years. While I've only installed a couple Feather River doors, the reviews I've read online on Feather River's warranty service are less than flattering. Whether that is a consequence of being sold in a big box store chain I don't know. But, I have had positive experiences with Masonite and companies who use Masonite blanks so that is my recommendation.
As far as Home Depot's installations, that is a crap shoot because of the size of the company and the sheer amount of installers they have nationwide. There are very competent installers who work for them and there are some not-so-great installers there too. Hopefully you will get a good installer. You could always ask for some reference jobs of the installer they are going to assign to your job to get an idea of his quality of workmanship. I'm not sure if they give references for individual installers, but I'd ask.
PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
10 years ago
Have you seen if you can locate a local door installer?

As Strong mentioned, the big box store installs can be a bit of a roll of the dice.

I have seen some really good ones and a quick search of the internet will yield you more than just a few results that should give you pause.
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HomeSealed
10 years ago
I've not been impressed with what I've seen from any of those 3 products, although my experience with Masonite is minimal. If you are stuck on buying from a box store, I'd go to lowes for thermatru. When a door is assembled to tighter specs, it is much easier to install and will perform they way it should for a longer period of time. Thermatru is not a "top" choice, but better than the other box store stuff from what I've seen. Feather river has all of the bells and whistles, but everyone that I've touched has had something wrong with it in terms of assembly.
On box store installs: crap shoot at best. They pay below average to their installers which results in a revolving door of subs in my experience. Certainly you may get lucky and get a quality guy that is just filling in gaps in his schedule, but most true craftsman prefer to work with higher quality product. You definitely need to be of the "quantity over quality" mindset to make good money in that system or that of the bargain window/door companies. Draw your own conclusions on how all of that translates to the quality of the installation.