DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

hi all, i have a broken upvc patio door. the door is a sliding door about 5' wide and about 6'6" high. the door is part of a unit that runs the whole width of my living room about 15' in all, two permanent panels and the sliding door in the middle , all double glazed with upvc frame. the problem started a few days ago when i pushed down the door handle which operates the mechanism around the door, when pushed down the door should move forward from the frame then allowing you to slide it open. when i pushed the handle down something in the mechanism snapped ! the door will now not shut and i am struggling to open door when needed. i had a chap around today who told me door was ready for patio heaven an i would need to replace the whole 15' unit and he would phone me with a quote. ( he hasn't yet) i'm no expert but i would have thought it possible to repair the door and not hve to replace the whole of the back of my house at a cost of thousands of pounds!
anyone know if the door can be repaired or is this door salesman correct in what he says?
HELP..........................PLEASE!

Noone can tell you remotely if the door can be repaired or not. If the cost of repair is greater than the cost of new then its a no-brainer. This guy you had round sounds like a chancer though. Get another couple (DG specialists I mean not chancers LoL) round to have a look at the problem for you.

Cheers

It sounds as if you have a Fuhr Infront patio mechanism, if it has a large (300mm long ) handle then it is, otherwise it will probably be a Siegenia.
These are over complicated pieces of hardware that are just waiting to go wrong. It will almost certainly be the Gearbox that has gone, but all parts are available for these, but you really need someone who knows what they are doing to fit it. A complete set of gearing will be about £400 plus fitting, a gearbox about £150. A 15 foot patio door will however as you say be thousands so it is worth a bit of hassle to make the saving. If you do end up replacing it get an inline slider (cheaper and more robust) or better still a pair of french doors with sideflags