Most patio sliding glass doors come with a built-in system to drain water away and prevent it from penetrating your home. During a rainstorm water hits the outside of the glass, dropping to the track system and draining away from the door thru weep holes. Weep holes are small slots in the exterior section of the door track designed to provide drainage when water comes in contact with the glass door. They are a critical door design feature and, to prevent water from breaching your doors, you must maintain them free of obstructions.
When installing new balcony floors, it is strongly recommended to consider the patio doors’ track system design before making the final decision of your flooring product. Contractors often overlook this and, as a result, the weep holes end up covered with mortar, construction adhesive, debris, etc. Other times the new flooring is above door track level and, by gravity, all the water gets dumped into the door tracks and eventually inside your home.
Here are some important things to consider before choosing your new patio flooring product in order to keep water from penetrating your home interior:
- Care is necessary to assure access to weep holes is kept clear. No caulking or other construction materials should be allowed to cover the holes. The opening should always be kept clean. With this said, patio door tracks should always be above floor level. In order to achieve that, it is strongly recommended that the old flooring gets removed prior to installing the new product. This will allow you to choose a tile with similar thickness while keeping the end product below door track level.
- If the flooring product you choose would end up being above door track level, then a channel drain system between the finished floor and the door track should be installed. This drain will prevent the water from dumping inside the track. In this type of system, the weep holes will discharge the water from the track inside the drain as well.
- It is extremely important that the new flooring product slopes away from the balcony walls in order to keep excessive water from reaching the doors.
Maintenance Tip: Check regularly for dirt, dead bugs and other debris that can block drainage. Remove debris promptly to prevent water from backing up into your home and causing damage. Keep your weep holes happy and you will never need to shed a tear about water breaching your sliding glass doors. As with all sliding door repairs, leave these to the professionals! Sliding door experts will get the job done quickly and skillfully.