Standard Sliding Glass Door Sizes, and the Screen Door That Fits

Sliding glass doors are sold in a few standard sizes, given as width by height in inches:

• Height: 80 inches (6 feet 8 inches) on most doors, and 96 inches (8 feet) on some newer homes
• 60 x 80: a 5-foot, two-panel door
• 72 x 80: a 6-foot, two-panel door, the most common size
• 96 x 80: an 8-foot, two-panel door
• Wider openings: three or four panels

These are nominal sizes, the name the door is sold under. The frame itself is usually a little smaller, so a door sold as 72 x 80 will not measure exactly 72 by 80 inches.

Most are 6 feet, or 72 inches, wide. Five-foot and 8-foot doors are the next most common. On a two-panel door, one panel is fixed and the other slides, and that matters for the screen door, because it only has to cover the panel that opens.

A sliding screen door is roughly half the width of a two-panel glass door: about 30 inches on a 5-foot door, about 36 inches on a 6-foot door, and about 48 inches on an 8-foot door.

Its height comes from the space between the screen door's top and bottom tracks, which run outside the glass door's own tracks. Store-bought sliding screen doors are made in a few sizes to suit the common doors, and their rollers allow a little play in height. That is enough when the opening is close to standard, and not enough when it is not.

The usual reasons:

• The door is an older or less common size
• The house has settled and the opening is no longer square, so the gap is wider at one end than the other
• The screen track is bent, worn or damaged, which changes the height the door needs
• The door has three or four panels
• The glass door was replaced at some point, and the new frame's screen track sits differently from the old one

This is why two doors both sold as 72 x 80 can need screen doors of different sizes.

Look for:

• Gaps at the top, bottom or sides that let bugs in
• The door comes off its track when you slide it
• It drags, sticks or rubs against the frame
• It will not close flush against the frame

Some of these can also come from worn rollers or a bent track on a door that is the right size. That is a repair, not a new door, and we can tell you which one you have.

Call us if:

• Your sliding screen door is torn, bent or missing and you are not sure what size you need
• A store-bought screen door did not fit
• Your door is not a standard size, or the opening is out of square
• The screen door keeps coming off its track