Doors and windows
Patio door installation cost
A 6 ft vinyl slider is about $2,200 installed in the opening the old one left — the door is $950 of it. The same slider two feet wider is $5,908, because a wider opening is a new header, the wall opened and closed around it, and a permit. A door where there was a wall is $6,495 in siding and $7,375 in brick. This prices the opening before the door, sliding against French by width and frame, and the sill pan that decides whether the floor rots.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-23 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Patio door installation cost calculator
The door, and the opening it goes in
The door is type, width, frame and glass. The price is mostly the opening: the same size as the old one, wider, or where there was a wall.
One fixed panel, one that slides. The stock 6 ft unit is the cheapest patio door made, the best sealed, and it takes no room to open — which is why most of them are sliders.
The stock size, and the cheapest.
The stock door. Welded frame, no painting, twenty years. It flexes on the widest units, which is why the 12 ft ones are not usually vinyl.
The standard now, and what the energy code asks for in most of the country. Tempered, because it is a door.
The opening
Same size is a morning. Wider is a header. New is a wall.
The old unit comes out, the opening is checked square and the sill flat, a sill pan goes in, the new unit goes in. A morning for two people, and the trim goes back.
A carpenter and a second pair of hands.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
Replacing a door — same size
$2,200
6 ft sliding, vinyl · the door is 43% of it · 10 crew hours
The same door, three openings
replacing a door $2,200 · a wider door $5,313 · a new opening in a wall $6,495. The door is $950 in every one.
Where they fail
At the sill. Ask for the pan by name.
Water gets past every patio door sill eventually — wind, a clogged track, a wet dog. A sill pan sends it back outside; no sill pan sends it into the subfloor, where it is found ten years later by the floor going soft. It is $80 with the flashing, and an installer who does not know the word has installed rotten floors.
This door, each width
| 5 ft | $903 door | $2,153 installed |
| 6 ft | $950 door | $2,200 installed |
| 8 ft | $1,425 door | $2,675 installed |
Same frame, glass and opening. Glass is most of the door, so width scales faster than it looks.
One door, three openings
The door does not change. The wall around it does.
What to buy, and what the days cost
- 6 ft sliding door, vinyl
The standard now, and what the energy code asks for in most of the country. Tempered, because it is a door. The stock door. Welded frame, no painting, twenty years. It flexes on the widest units, which is why the 12 ft ones are not usually vinyl.$950 - Sill pan and flashing
A formed pan under the door that sends any water that gets past the sill back outside. The thirty dollars between a door and a rotten floor. Self-adhered flashing tape lapped to the house wrap, in the order water runs. Free to do right and impossible to fix later.$80 - Trim, inside and out
Casing inside, brickmould or trim outside, caulked.$210 - 10 crew hours
The old unit comes out, the opening is checked square and the sill flat, a sill pan goes in, the new unit goes in. A morning for two people, and the trim goes back.$900 - The old door away
Two hundred pounds of glass and frame.$60
What it costs
National average. A 6 ft sliding door in vinyl, double, low-e, argon, replacing a door — same size. Not included: a screen door if not in the unit, a deck or step outside the new door, moving wiring or plumbing found in the wall, or matching weathered siding.
What the door opens onto is on the deck page, and the windows either side of it — same frames, same glass, priced by united inch — on the window replacement page.
Worth knowing
- The door is $950 of a $2,200 job — 43 per cent, which is as high as that share gets: a same-size replacement is a morning for two people and the unit is most of the bill. Two feet wider, it would be $5,313.
- The sill pan and the flashing are $80 of this total and they are where patio doors fail: water gets past every sill eventually, and a pan sends it back outside while no pan sends it into the subfloor. Ask for both by name; an installer who does not know what a sill pan is has installed rotten floors.
On this page — 5 sections
The opening decides more than the door
The short version
- Same size $2,200. Wider $5,908. New opening $6,495. The 6 ft door is $950 in each.
- Glass is the door, so 8 ft is half as much again as 6 ft, not a third.
- Wider means a header — in a bearing wall, engineered and inspected.
- They fail at the sill. A $80 pan and flashing, asked for by name.
A patio door is a door; the price is the wall. A 6 ft slider replacing a 6 ft slider is the old unit out, the opening checked, a sill pan in, the new unit set and trimmed — a morning for two people, with the door itself most of the bill. The same slider two feet wider is a new header over the opening, the wall opened above and beside it under temporary support, closed again inside and out, and a permit. A door where there was a wall is all of that from nothing.
That is why the question “how much to install a patio door” has three answers a factor of three apart, with the same door in every one.
| 6 ft slider, vinyl | 8 ft slider, vinyl | |
|---|---|---|
| The door | $950 | $1,425 |
| In an opening that already fits | $2,200 | $2,675 |
| Widening a 6 ft opening to fit | — | $5,908 |
| A new opening, siding | $6,495 | $7,090 |
| Crew hours, same size | 10 | 10 |
MaterialsEstimator, Patio door installation price survey · checked 2026-09-23
Wider means a header
Every opening in a wall has a beam over it carrying whatever is above. A 6 ft door has one sized for six feet; an 8 ft door needs one sized for eight, and in a bearing wall — under a ridge, perpendicular to the joists — sized to the actual load, with jack studs under each end and temporary support while the old one comes out. To 8 ft that is doubled lumber; at 12 ft and beyond it is engineered lumber or a steel flitch, and nothing in the code tables spans a multi-slide in ordinary wood.
Somebody has to say what the load is. An engineer’s letter or the code tables, and a permit, which is also the inspection of the header. A header sized by guesswork is a door that will not latch in five years.
$580
Header, 8 ft, bearing
With the engineering
$940
Header, 12 ft
Engineered lumber or steel
$3,233
Widening, over the door
Wall, header, permit, labour
30.7 h
Crew hours, widened
10 for a same-size swap
International Code Council, IRC R602.7 — Headers over openings in bearing walls (2021) · checked 2026-09-23
Glass is the door
Every pane in a patio door is tempered safety glass by law, low-E and argon-filled by sense, and it is two thirds of what the unit costs. That is why width scales faster than it looks — an 8 ft slider is $1,425 against $950 for 6 ft — and why a French door, which has more frame and less glass per foot but two leaves and their hardware, costs what it does.
The frame is the rest. Vinyl for the stock sizes, welded and maintenance-free; fibreglass where the door is wide or the house is keeping it thirty years; aluminium for the thinnest frames and the most glass; wood clad outside for the finish inside a room.
| 6 ft door | Vinyl | Aluminium | Fibreglass | Wood, clad outside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sliding — two panels | $2,200 | $2,500 | $3,050 | $3,950 |
| Hinged French | $3,045 | $3,555 | $4,490 | $6,020 |
| French-style slider | $2,533 | $2,938 | $3,680 | $4,895 |
Installed, same-size opening, double low-E glass. The 12 ft three-panel and the multi-slide are on the calculator; they do not come in vinyl.
International Code Council, IRC R308.4 — Hazardous locations requiring safety glazing, and R612 — Exterior door installation (2021) · checked 2026-09-23
They fail at the sill
Water gets past every patio door sill eventually. Wind drives rain under the panel, the track fills with leaves, the dog comes in wet. A sill pan — a formed tray under the sill, turned up at the back and the ends — sends that water back outside. Without one it goes into the subfloor, and it is found ten years later by the floor going soft in front of the door.
The pan and the flashing tape that laps it to the house wrap are about $80 and an hour, the code requires the door be flashed, and it is the line to ask for by name. An installer who does not know the word has installed rotten floors.
Before the old door comes out
- Measure the rough opening frame to frame at three points. Square and level is the difference between a morning and a day.
- Decide the width from the opening you have, or price the header honestly.
- Order the door with the sill pan, or buy one to fit. They are not in the box.
- Look at the subfloor in front of the old sill. If it is soft, that is repaired before the new door, not under it.
- Choose the direction the panel slides — it is ordered that way and cannot be changed.
- Check the swing room if it is a French door: three feet clear inside or out.
- Screen, handle set and lock are options on some units and included on others. Ask.
What goes wrong
01No sill pan
Water past the sill goes into the subfloor, and the floor is soft in front of the door in ten years.
Instead — A pan and flashing tape, $80, asked for by name.
02Pricing a wider door as a bigger door
The 8 ft door is $475 more than the 6 ft; the widened opening is $3,708 more. The header, the wall and the permit are the price.
Instead — Price the opening first, the door second.
03A header sized by the installer's eye
In a bearing wall it carries the roof. Undersized, the door stops latching in five years and the ceiling sags.
Instead — Sized to the load — the code tables or an engineer — and inspected under the permit.
04French doors in a tight room
Three feet of swing, inside or out, and a threshold two leaves meet on.
Instead — A French-style slider — the look on a sliding frame, $2,533 against $3,045.
05Ordinary glass in a patio door
Every pane must be tempered or laminated safety glass. It is the law, and ordinary glass in a door is a guillotine.
Instead — A tempered panel, marked in the corner. A patio door is reglazed with a panel, not a pane.
06Vinyl at 12 ft
The frame flexes at that width and the panels bind on the track.
Instead — Fibreglass or aluminium for the three-panel and multi-slide units.
07Setting the door on an out-of-level sill
The panel runs downhill, the lock misses, and the seals never meet evenly.
Instead — Shim the sill dead level before the unit goes in. That is the morning's most important ten minutes.
08Cutting a new opening without finding what is in the wall
Outlets, sometimes a vent or a pipe, and in a bearing wall a load path. Each is a day nobody priced.
Instead — Open the drywall first. It is the cheapest part of the job to do twice.
- 01Measure the opening you haveFrame to frame, width and height, at three points each. A stock 6 ft slider fits a 72 × 80 rough opening, and if that is what is there, this is the cheap job.
- 02Decide whether the opening changesSame size is a morning. Wider is a header, a permit and the wall opened around it. A new opening is all of that from nothing.
- 03Find out if the wall is bearingUnder a ridge or perpendicular to the joists, assume it is. The header is then sized to the load, and somebody has to say what the load is.
- 04Choose the door by width and frameGlass is most of a patio door, so 8 ft is half as much again as 6 ft, not a third. Vinyl for the stock sizes; fibreglass where it is wide or staying thirty years.
- 05Ask for the sill pan and the flashing by nameIt is where patio doors fail, and it is thirty dollars.
- 06Price the outside of the wallSiding is an afternoon; stucco is three coats; brick is a mason and a lintel.
A new patio door usually wants a deck or a step outside it, and that is priced as its own job — by the square foot, with the ledger the door sits above.
What it opens onto- Rough opening
- The framed hole in the wall the door unit sits in, an inch or so bigger than the frame each way. What 'same size' means: the new unit fits the old rough opening.
- Header
- The beam over an opening that carries the wall and roof above it. Longer opening, bigger header; in a bearing wall, sized to the load and inspected.
- Bearing wall
- A wall that carries floor or roof load from above. Widening a door in one is structural work; a wall parallel to the joists usually is not bearing, and a wall under a ridge always is.
- Jack stud
- The stud under each end of a header that carries it to the floor. Two per side at wide spans.
- Sill pan
- A formed tray under the door sill that sends any water that gets past the door back outside instead of into the subfloor. The thirty dollars between a door and a rotten floor.
- Flashing
- Self-adhered tape lapped to the house wrap around the opening, in the order water runs: sill, sides, head. Free to do right; impossible to fix later.
- Tempered glass
- Safety glass required in every patio door pane, marked in a corner. It cannot be cut, so a patio door is reglazed with a new panel, not a piece of glass.
- Low-E
- A microscopic metal coating that reflects heat back to the side it came from. Standard on patio doors now, with argon between the panes.
- Astragal
- The vertical strip where two French door leaves meet. Where a French door leaks, if it leaks.
- French-style slider
- A sliding door with the wide stiles and rails of a French door. The look without the swing room or the astragal.
- Multi-slide
- Three or more panels that slide and stack to open most of a wall. A wall of glass with an engineered header over it.
- Brickmould
- The exterior trim around a door frame, covering the gap between frame and wall. Caulked to the siding, and the last line of defence before the flashing.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to install a patio door?
- About $2,200 for a 6 ft vinyl slider replacing one the same size — $950 of door, a sill pan and trim, and a morning for two people. The same door two feet wider, which needs a new header, is about $5,908. A new opening cut in a wall is $6,495 in siding and $7,375 in brick. French doors in fibreglass, same size, about $4,490.
- How much does it cost to replace a sliding glass door?
- About $2,200 for a 6 ft vinyl unit in the existing opening, including a sill pan, flashing, trim and taking the old one away. Fibreglass is about $3,050, wood-clad $3,950. It is a same-size replacement — a morning for two people — as long as the new unit fits the old rough opening, which a stock 6 ft slider does in most houses built since the sixties.
- Why does an 8 ft door cost so much more than a 6 ft one?
- Two reasons. The door itself is about half as much again — $1,425 against $950 — because glass is most of a patio door and each panel is a foot wider. And if the opening is 6 ft now, going to 8 ft is a new header in the wall, the wall opened and closed around it, and a permit: $5,908 against $2,200 all in. In an opening that is already 8 ft, the door alone makes the difference: $2,675.
- Sliding or French doors?
- A slider seals better, costs less and takes no room to open; a hinged French door looks the part and needs about three feet of clear floor for its swing, and its two leaves meet on an astragal that is where it leaks if it leaks. Same 6 ft opening in vinyl: $2,200 for the slider, $3,045 for the French door, $2,533 for a French-style slider that has the wide stiles and rails on a sliding frame — the look without the swing.
- Do I need a permit to replace a patio door?
- For a same-size replacement, usually not — it is a like-for-like swap in many jurisdictions, though some ask for one for any exterior door. For a wider door or a new opening, yes, almost everywhere: it is structural work, and the permit is also the inspection of the header, which is the part you want somebody to look at.
- What does the header cost?
- Doubled lumber to 8 ft, engineered lumber or steel beyond: $580 for an 8 ft opening in a bearing wall including the engineering, $940 for 12 ft. The header itself is not the expensive part; the wall opened above it under temporary support, closed again inside and out, and the permit are, and together they are why a wider door is $3,233 more than the same door in an opening that already fits it.
- How much does a 12 ft sliding door cost?
- A three-panel 12 ft slider in fibreglass — vinyl flexes at that width — is about $4,496 for the door and $9,699 installed in a widened bearing-wall opening. A 12 ft multi-slide, where the panels stack to open the whole wall, is about $10,206 for the door and $16,489 installed. Both are a three-person carry and an engineered header.
- Which frame material is best for a patio door?
- Vinyl for the stock 6 ft slider — $2,200 installed, welded, no maintenance, twenty years. Fibreglass where the door is wide or staying thirty years: $3,050. Wood clad outside for the finish inside a room: $3,950. Aluminium for the most glass in the opening, thermally broken or it is cold. Vinyl: $950; Aluminium: $1250; Fibreglass: $1800; Wood, clad outside: $2700 for a 6 ft slider.
- What is a sill pan and do I need one?
- A formed tray under the door sill that sends any water that gets past the door back outside. Water gets past every sill eventually — wind, a clogged track, a wet dog — and without the pan it goes into the subfloor, where it is found ten years later by the floor going soft. It is about $80 with the flashing tape, the code requires the door be flashed to the house wrap, and an installer who does not know the word has installed rotten floors.
- Can I install a patio door myself?
- A same-size replacement, with a helper: about $1,240 of door and parts. The old unit out, the opening checked square and the sill level — that is when there is time to fix either — the sill pan in, the unit set and shimmed plumb, the flashing lapped in the order water runs, the trim back. It is a two-person lift and a morning. A new header in a bearing wall is not a first job.
- How much does it cost to put a patio door where there is a wall?
- About $6,495 in a sided wall and $7,375 in brick, for a 6 ft vinyl slider. It is the header and the permit of a widened opening plus cutting a wall that had no door, moving whatever is in it, and finishing both faces — and outside, the finish depends on the wall: lap or panel siding $320, stucco $650, brick $1200.
- Is blinds-between-the-glass worth it?
- They are never dusted and never bent, and they are sealed inside the unit — so if the mechanism fails, the whole glass panel is replaced. About a quarter more on the door. Worth knowing before choosing them over a curtain.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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