A Preview of Next Month’s Article in Paradise News: Business is on a ROLL!

When we last caught up with Lizette LaForge and her crew from Beacon Windows, they were just finishing up on repairing 112 sliding glass doors at the Alden Beach Resort. We felt that their dedication to helping people salvage their sliders in this economy was uncommon. We thought we would check back with Lizette and some of her clients over the past year and see just how successful their repair work has been.

Alden Maintenance Manager Olaf Coletti continues to have great success with his door repairs. He stated, “Our doors have given us ZERO complaints in the past year versus 400+ the year before. This has been a huge savings for us in terms of manpower hours. Lizette and her crew did exceptional work and she regularly checks in on me to see if all is well as well as brings me names of other quality referral partners we might use in the future. We are thrilled to have her as one of our valued vendor partners in keeping our resort in tip-top shape.”

The Dolphin Beach Resort owner Mr. Nizar Lakhani heard about the success at the Alden and called Beacon Windows for some of his more problematic doors. He noted, “We were impressed with the depth of effort Beacon Windows went through to salvage some of our doors. Due to high winds, excessive salt and sand, we had several doors that were experiencing tremendous corrosion issues. Lizette’s crews came in and just cleaned up everything, replaced components in the door systems with stainless and left our place spotless. Timely, professional and courteous, we found them to be a joy to work with. Overall, due to their ability to fix these difficult and challenging doors, we were able to save $32,000 over the cost of replacement. I can’t recommend them enough. If you have doors that are experiencing trouble… give Beacon Windows a call.”

In addition to exceptional repair work, Beacon Windows also specializes in quality window and door installations. Most recently, they just completed work at the Twins Apartments on Treasure Island. Owner Sylvia Stratos saw our article last year and called them when she was ready for replacement of some of her windows. She observed, “Beacon Windows thoroughly exceeded my expectations. They went beyond the line of duty, arriving on time, communicating well with all of my tenants, and providing an excellent window installation. Not only did they clean the windows, but also they re-installed and thoroughly cleaned the blinds and vacuumed the floor and baseboards! I have never seen one of my vendors work that hard before in all my years of owning Twins Apartments. They were truly a pleasure to work with!”

As a service dedicated to excellence ourselves, we were thrilled to be able to highlight to our Paradise NEWS readers a quality, local, family owned business they could depend upon to solve some of the beaches most common problems… doors facing sand, salt, and corrosion. We have had Beacon Windows work on our doors at our home and we were similarly “WOWed” by their expertise and hard work in getting it just perfect. So if you have a stubborn sliding glass door, need to look at replacing any windows and doors or are in need of storm protection for your home or your condominium complex, do yourself a favor and give Lizette LaForge a call directly at 727-641-8106 or email her at Lizette@Beacon-Windows.com.

Thanks for stopping by and reading a preview of next month’s article that will be published in Paradise News. In the meantime, we will look forward to having you back here at http://sliderrepair.blogspot.com in the days, weeks, and months ahead, as we continue to provide honest advice and opinions on some of the things that are not easily understood when it comes to sliding glass door repair and service.

THINK GREEN- THINK CLEAN for your sliding glass doors that is!

 

Ever find yourself struggling like the lady in the picture? Think green by seeing if you can salvage your doors, and save yourself a lot of green in the process! Here are a couple of tips you can use to help yourself get a handle on the problem. First you need to determine if you actually have a problem. Here’s a simple test you can perform yourself to see if your door is in need of assistance.

Problem # 1 “Crack Attack”. Open your door just a little bit, so you can see a crack to the outside. Now look very carefully at this crack. Is it even from top to bottom? The one pictured in the example has a larger crack at the top than the bottom. This indicates that either the wheels are broken, or possibly if new, are out of alignment. Different wheels align using various methods, but it is important that they do line up. This is in part because the operating door forms a seal against the non-operating or additional operating panel(s). A door out of alignment will leak in a lot more hot air during the summer, or cold air in the winter.

If the reason it is out of alignment is a broken wheel, then it would be prudent to replace those wheels as soon as possible. Broken wheels can wreak havoc with not only the operation of the door, but also can gouge up and destroy the track that the wheels roll on. Although there are a few solutions available to assist with damaged tracks, it’s always better to fix the problem before it gets to that advanced state. We recommend using higher quality stainless steel rollers which have sealed bearings.

This will add years of life to your door and will NOT need to be greased or lubricated. Stay away from the oil based lubricants like WD-40, which are fine for a lot of things but should never be used on your door. If you must lubricate, use a dry lube like a Teflon spray.
 
Problem # 2 “Pregnant Door Syndrome”. This problem typically occurs along the shoreline where the door gets a lot of sand, salt, water and wind. Over years, and especially in the NON-operating door portions (Surprise! Non-operating or seldom used doors usually have wheels in them too even though you aren’t typically opening them). The wind drives in the salt and other debris into the door, settling in the wheel systems. As this builds up, the salt and debris begin to press along the bottom rail, both inside and outside (as pictured in our example). This is a VERY UNHEALTHY scenario for the door system as eventually this corrosion will not only push apart the bottom rail, but it can actually eat away at the aluminum causing it to burst forth like a bad case of door acne. Once this happens, the door’s life is dramatically impacted. Repairs must be made in a relatively short period of time to keep the corrosion from continuing to eat away at the aluminum. Is it fixable… yes, sometimes. But it’s always better to avoid the problem with proper maintenance before the corrosion sets in.

TIP: Regularly clean out your door tracks to avoid the corrosion building up in the first place. Use a wire brush and give the tracks a good scrubbing, vacuuming out any debris. You might want to use a de-greaser after that and really get those tracks clean and dry. If you are lubricating them, use a dry lube along the tracks and run the wheels over it a few times after you have completed the process. Do this quarterly throughout the year and you should have many years of trouble-free service from your sliding glass doors. Should your issues be more advanced or you prefer not to fix it yourself, feel free to call at 727-641-8106 or visit Lizette  online for a consultation on the problem.