Patio Door Options for San Diego Homes

Glass patio doors are extremely common in San Diego. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a San Diego home that didn’t have one. They’re pretty much staples in homes located in areas with nice weather, where convenient access to the outdoors is a must.

When you have a smaller home, or a small living area, a patio door can help expand your living and entertaining space by creating one large indoor-outdoor room. You’ve probably been to parties where the patio door is just left open the whole time, and guests seamlessly move from indoors to outdoors throughout the day or evening. We are very fortunate to live in an area where we can do that—with our mild temperatures and our limited numbers of bugs here in San Diego.

However, coming and going through a glass patio door can start to get difficult when the patio door stops functioning as it should. Maybe the door starts to frequently go off the track, or it makes a horrible noise when you open or close it, or perhaps you need to use every ounce of muscle to use it. When these things start to happen, having a patio door becomes less of a perk and more of an annoyance in your home. Some problems can be fixed, but over time, parts just start to wear out or become damaged to a point where they are beyond repair. When this happens, it’s time to start looking into replacement patio doors.

What to Look for in a Sliding Patio Door for Your San Diego Home

If you’ve never shopped for replacement patio doors before, be prepared to be presented with a lot of options. One of the first things you should decide is what material you want the frames to be made out of. There are basically three options here: vinyl, aluminum, and fiberglass.

At BM Windows, we highly recommend vinyl patio doors. They are a great choice for many reasons. High-quality vinyl is durable, energy efficient, and budget friendly, making it a great material choice for patio door frames. Fiberglass is also durable and energy efficient, but you will pay a lot more for patio doors made with fiberglass frames, with very little additional benefits. Aluminum frames can be budget friendly, but they are less durable and energy efficient. In our opinion, vinyl patio doors are the best choice in almost every circumstance.

Another thing to look for in patio doors is good protection from the sun’s heat and UV rays. Patio doors have a lot of glass, so you want to purchase doors that come with a quality glass package that blocks out most UV rays and has a low-e coating for better energy efficiency. A good patio door will block out 95-99% of UV rays and will help keep your home from heating up in the summer.

Decorative Features and Other Options for Patio Doors

After you decide on the options mentioned above for your patio door, you have a few more things to think about. For example, with many vinyl patio doors, you can get frames in different colors. Most San Diego homeowners go with white or tan frames, but you can also choose from colors like black, espresso, gray, red, or forest green.

In addition, you can get grids on the glass portion of the patio doors in a variety of patterns and styles. This adds a decorative element to your doors that can complement the style of your home. You also have several hardware options—ranging from traditional to contemporary—in various types of materials, such as bronze, nickel, or polished brass.

Finally, if you have pets, you have the option to include an in-glass pet door in your new patio door. In-glass pet doors come in several sizes, so you can choose the size that’s right for your dog or cat.

More than Just Sliding Patio Doors

While sliding patio doors are definitely the most popular type of patio doors in San Diego homes, there are other options as well. French hinged doors are a great option if you’re looking for a more traditional look. French hinged patio doors give you a wider opening to the outdoors, since both doors can be opened at once. (With sliding patio doors, only one side is operable, while the other is fixed.) However, with French doors, you compromise a little bit when it comes to the view of the outdoors because the frames on French doors are a bit thicker than the frames on sliding doors.

If you like the look of French hinged doors, but the operation of sliding doors, we have another great option for you: French sliding patio doors.

French doors (both hinged and sliding) are considered upgrades in a home, according to real estate agents, so if you’re looking to sell your home down the road, you may get a better return on your investment if you have them installed.

Patio Doors for Large Openings

You aren’t limited to patio doors with only two panels of glass. At BM Windows, we sell patio doors with up to four panels of glass, allowing you to create a large opening to the outdoors. Three- and four-panel patio doors are great for homes where a lot of indoor-outdoor entertaining happens. They are also a great choice for San Diego homeowners who like to let in a ton of fresh air or who want to maximize their view of the outdoors.

Contact BM Windows for Patio Doors in San Diego

We realize we just threw a lot of information at you about patio doors, but shopping for patio doors doesn’t have to be overwhelming! When you work with BM Windows, we make the process simple. We help you decide which type of patio doors are right for your San Diego home and walk you through all the other decisions that need to be made. We offer great prices year-round (no coupons needed) and never try to upsell you on features or upgrades that you don’t really need.

Contact us to set up an appointment to have someone from BM Windows come to your home for a free consultation. During that consultation, we can answer all your questions and provide you with a no-obligation quote on new patio doors for your San Diego home. We hope to hear from you soon!