Problems we fix every day

Start with the symptom, not the part

Most people call about a door that is hard to slide, has come off its track, will not lock, or has gone cloudy between the panes. Those are symptoms, and each one has a small number of likely causes. Working backward from what you can see is faster and cheaper than guessing at parts, because the visible problem and the failed component are often not the same thing.

A door that drags is the clearest example. The rollers are the usual cause, but by the time the drag is bad enough to notice, the flattened roller has often already scored the track it runs in. Replace only the rollers and the new ones wear against the damaged track. That is why diagnosis matters more than the part number.

One symptom does need urgency rather than patience: a door that will not lock is a security problem tonight, not a maintenance item for next month.