Moving and installing VERY heavy patio door

Nope. I had originally presumed they would be, but the manufacturer has told me that they are supplied fully assembled. They have told me that I should be able to lift out the sliding door, which should split the weight, maybe make the heaviest part 130kg.

 

When I bought timber double glazed sliding doors, they were delivered as frame, not built, and two glazed panels, in frames.

 

These come with one fixed panel already built into the frame, and while the sliding door can be removed it's supplied already fitted so they can test it assembled, then they fix the order to a pallet. I think most customers are large scale builders where they would be getting craned off and into position.

 

Silly question. Could you not deglaze the fixed pane? As you say you should be able to remove the sliding pane. Usually removing a couple of pieces of trim or a ' setting ' block should enable the slider to look for out. And normally the fixed pane will be beaded in...

 

This is an option, and I asked the manufacturer about this, but from the description they gave me it sounds a little more involved than just popping out the beads. In any case, my impression is that it would not significantly reduce the weight as I suspect 80% of the weight will be in the TG units. If, as I believe to be the case, there is a packing piece under the alu threshold, I should be able to carry the frame with the fixed glass section in it using straps or on a dolly, and I suspect this might be easier than trying to carry a ~90kg glass unit.

 

https://www.smartlift.dk/en-gb/products

 

Thanks. I've been looking around for these type of things, and I found someone relatively local that hire out the glass sherpa mentioned previously in the thread. However, it turns out that they won't hire it out unless they are hiring it out to a company with a trained operator, or by hiring it out with a trained operator as an installation contract, and the cost then becomes prohibitive. Will continue to look around, phone some of the hire places in case this type of thing just isn't on their websites.

My plan at the moment is to try to get 4 people together, but to use jacks and rollers to avoid any heavy lifting. As notch suggested I am going to fit angle brackets to each side on the unseen faces to use as handles, but I also plan to use them as jacking points. If I jack up one side at a time I can put some pipe underneath and roll. I tested out some 40mm pipe yesterday with 150kg and was surprised that even one section alone took this weight. Once the doors are located at the opening I will jack them up and support on blocks at the right level, so that I am not removing the packing piece below the alu threshold until its less than 20cm away from being in position. Its this last part that I think will be the trickiest as I wont be able to jack underneath once the packing piece is removed, or use brackets at the sides, so I think this will be where some glass suckers and brute force will come in. This will all be slow and tedious, but rather that than someone gets hurt - back injuries are a nightmare!

For fixing, I am thinking that using brackets pre-fixed to the unseen faces (as opposed to screwing through the frame) would allow me to get a temp fixing on quickly to let me helpers go home, that I can later adjust while I fiddle with level and plumb. I know that this is done, and I can see them online for PVC frames, but I can't find anyone who supplies these for timber frames. Can anyone recommend or paste a link to fixings straps for timber frame windows and doors or do you just use standard metalwork like below?

https://www.toolstation.com/light-duty-flat-strap/p73139?searchstr=Light%20Duty%20Flat%20Strap
https://www.screwfix.com/p/sabrefix...sed-40-x-60mm-25-pack/71671?_requestid=144015

 

Just updating this for anyone who comes along and is trying to do something similar in future.

Ended up collecting these doors myself so that I would be able to collect them on a small flat bed/dropside cab, and keep them on there until I got enough bodies together on the Saturday. They came fixed vertically on a pallet so lots of strapping over the top and over the pallet and a nervous, but thankfully uneventful journey back along the motorway and into the driveway. I built a temporary 'pier' of sorts on the steps you can see in the first picture using block, and had the flatbed reversed up against this so it was a more or less level shunt from the truck to the ground level at the front of the house. This was the most difficult part.

Had 4 guys, and had planned to roll it around on pipes, but what I found was that while the pipes were fine when I tested for the weight they could carry with a plank of wood and bags of concrete, that worked well because of the low centre of gravity. Moving a door that is 230kg and over 2m tall the pipes just made it unstable and liable to tip from the top, and so ended up chucking the pipes and dragging around, with the packing piece under the alu threshold in contact with and flat on the ground.

On install started with levers and jack but again abandoned these for basic grunt and lifting each end a little at a time and placing blocks under until the door was more or less level with the opening. Fortunately the doors were supplied with nylon handles/loops screwed to the side and I used a couple of glass suckers for extra lifting points for the final lift into place. I found that 4 guys were enough to lift short distances, any more would have been too crowded and any less would have been a struggle. I found I was able to lift one end off the ground an inch maybe on my own, and 2 could therefore lift into place, but where you really need extra bodies is to keep the top from tipping. Once in I held in place from the top with some temporary brackets so that I could let everyone off and I was able to shunt adjust the final level myself before putting the screws in, and now just the finish left.

So, 240kg, 3x2 metres, do-able with 4 guys, but I wouldn't be rushing to do this again in a hurry!

 

Thanks for the follow up