How Much Do Sliding Patio Doors Cost in 2024? What to Budget for Sliding Door Options & Installation

Type ‘how much do sliding patio door cost?’ into to your favourite search engine, and you’ll be greeted with all manner of articles purporting to share accurate information on what you’ll pay for sliding doors. Trouble is, most of these rely on readily-available price lists from DIY stores and other entry-level suppliers. Many of these companies sell based exclusively on price, and offer only the most basic of sliding door designs, built with cheaper materials.

If you’re self building, extending or renovating your own home, chances are you’re looking for good quality products that support your ambitions in terms of energy performance, aesthetics, durability, security and more. In other words, the bottom-end products won’t cut it – and price guides based on them won’t help you plan your budget effectively.

In this article, we want to help you understand what it will really cost to install a good-quality sliding patio door system – the kind you’ll actually want to live with if you’re doing a project for yourself. Here’s how much sliding patio doors cost in the UK – from frame materials to the glazing spec, ironmongery and more.

How Does Frame Material Influence the Cost of Sliding Patio Doors?

Materials matter with sliding patio doors. There’s a good reason most quality products are either aluminium or composite (such as alu-clad timber or PVCu-clad aluminium). These sliding door systems offer superior strength and rigidity, so can cope comfortably with the big spans and panel sizes most people are looking for in sliding patio doors. What’s more, they do so in relatively slim profiles, giving you the best views out.

When it comes to windows, good plastic units offer a cost-effective, low-maintenance choice – especially for replacements – and modern versions can look impressive. But doors are a different kettle of fish. They’re much larger, so it stands to reason they need to be more rigid and robust to ensure good service over their lifetime.

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This project features a double-glazed Uberslide door from Kloeber, as part of a corner system alongside a fixed panel. The specification included PAS 24 and solar control glass, but trickle vents weren’t required. On a similar project, the Uberslide might cost around £10,130 + VAT, and the fixed panel approx £3,490 + VAT

“It’s not just that PVCu isn’t as aesthetically pleasing for doors, with thicker sightlines,” says Matt Higgs, managing director at Kloeber. “Plastic sliding patio doors are more susceptible to movement and expansion/contraction – they’re not as stable as aluminium or composite designs.” It’s a similar story for timber; even engineered softwood versions can’t match the spanning capabilities, slender sightlines and ultra robustness of aluminium and composite products.

“For most homeowners, the two biggest factors are sightliness and energy performance,” says Craig Luff, managing director at Ecohaus. “The slimmest sliders look fantastic, with profiles of just 20mm-25mm, but they might not suit a really low-energy build.” Ecohaus’ ultra-slim Visiline thermally-broken aluminium sliding patio doors can achieve a U-value of around 1.1-1.2 W/m²K, for example, which will suit many projects. Meanwhile, its composite lift-and-slide Internorm products get down to 0.7 W/m²K (ie Passivhaus levels of efficiency), but with thicker frame profiles.

Visit showrooms or past projects to see and use doors you like in person. Scrutinise the quality of the jointing systems and ask to see certifications to verify, for instance, how airtight and weathertight the sliding doors are. Lift-and-slide doors press down into a gasket when closed, as opposed to sliding into a channel fitted with brush gaskets, which can offer an edge in airtightness. Ask about warranties, too, and what happens if the doors are damaged – how easy would the glass be to replace, for instance?

The quality of the running gear that enables you to slide the door back and forth is another key aspect to interrogate. What are the rolling mechanisms made of, for instance? Steel is generally more hardwearing than nylon, but the latter may be appropriate depending on the size and type of door.

Ultimately, you shouldn’t expect to get a good quality, stylish sliding patio door at a bargain price. If the cost seems low, there’s likely to be a reason for it – and you should be particularly wary when it comes to super-slim doors “When you’re going to really narrow profiles, at the cheaper end of the market you could be risking the quality and rigidity of the door,” says Matt.

How Does Size Impact the Price of Sliding Patio Doors?

The biggest factor in the price of a sliding patio door system is size. “We’re currently doing anything from 3m wide up to 15m or more,” says Matt. “But I’d say an average sliding door might be 4m or 5m wide, and 2.1m or 2.2m tall.” This is probably a sweet spot for many extension projects and would most likely lead you towards a two-panel door, which will offer optimum balance between performance and sightlines.

Some homeowners may prefer a three-panel sliding door at this kind of size – perhaps to match the frames up with another architectural feature, or to enable more of the aperture to be opened. A twin-panel sliding door will give you a 50% open aperture, while a three-panel system will achieve 66%. “But if you have too many doors, you may as well switch to a bifold, which can open even wider,” says Matt. And from a cost perspective, bear in mind three doors means more tracks and more mechanism – so it will inevitably be pricier.

Read More: Glazed Door Guide: Patio Door Styles, Costs & Considerations

A three-panel set of IDSystems’ theEDGE2.0 ultra-slim sliders in RAL anthracite grey, with laminated glass and PAS 24 locks, installed into an extension and renovation in South London. The system measures 3,223mm (W) x 2,617mm (H), with each panel approximately 1,074mm wide, and all three doors can slide. An equivalent system would start at around £6,650 + VAT (including installation). Photo: Selencky Parsons Architects / Siobhan Doran Photography

Many premium sliding patio doors offer a max individual panel width of around 2.5m to 3m (though some can be bigger). “How wide the system can go is a good indicator of build quality,” says Craig, who recommends checking what the doors look like when closed before selecting the best configuration. “If you’re going with a slimline aluminium product, a triple track might suit you, even on a 4m or 5m door, because there’s still relatively little frame on show.” Three panels means a triple track and extra mechanism, pushing the price up, but if it fits your project goals, then it’ll be worth the money.

Those of you self building a new house might be looking for a mix of sliding patio door sizes. Perhaps a small system for the bedroom, leading out onto a balcony, but a much bigger set across the back of the house to capture views and provide access to the garden. Clearly, one of these will cost considerably more than the other. Purchasing them together (perhaps as a package alongside your windows) may well be the most cost-effective route both for the products and installation.

Perhaps surprisingly, the glass isn’t the most expensive part of good-quality sliding patio doors. “Much of the cost is in the mechanisms and frame,” says Matt. “Generally, if there’s less framework, less rolling mechanism and the door is simpler looking, then it’s likely to be more cost-effective.” So, for an average-sized sliding door, it will usually be cheaper to go for fewer panels. The exception comes when you’re dealing with bigger glass panels, which can be quite pricey and heavy – meaning you need a stronger system to take the weight.

How Much Do Double-Glazed Sliding Doors Cost vs Triple-Glazed Models?

Quality double glazed sliding patio doors offer very good performance out of the box, so you don’t need triple glazing to meet Building Regs standards. But if you want to go beyond that, what’s the cost uplift between double and triple glazing?

“It’s difficult to provide an exact figure, but with our KustomSlide system you might be looking at paying another £100 per m² of glass for triple glazing, as we just need a different-size glass bead,” says Matt. The price increase would be bigger on Kloeber’s ultra-slim sliders, however. Like many narrow-profile doors, these use a bonded construction for the glass and aluminium framework.

Ecohaus’s slimline doors are also bonded. “A double-glazed pane might be 200kg, but triple glazing 300kg or more,” says Craig. “Our Visiline 2 and Visiline 3 are therefore completely different doors; the wheels we use for a triple-glazed system are completely different, for instance. So, it’s more of an uplift than just paying for an extra pane of glass.”

Kevin Adams and Lucy Miller gutted an old stone building on their family’s farmland to transform it into a beautiful new home. The cottage has been transformed into an open-plan kitchen-living-dining space, with rooflights and glazed sliding doors bringing in ample natural light. Photo: David Barbour

“Size is the key factor when pricing up sliding patio doors, but within that are subtle factors like the weight of the glass and any need for lifting equipment to enable installation,” says David Clarke, marketing manager at IDSystems. “This can be a significant hidden cost, particularly with triple glazing.” Bear in mind, too, that if a door needs triple glazing simply to meet the Regs, chances are it’s not as good a product overall as a double-glazed system that already achieves that standard.

Again, quality is crucial in enabling the spec you want; in general, the better engineered sliding patio door systems can achieve much larger sizes when triple-glazed. “If you’re looking at a product that can only go 1.5m-wide, then it’s probably not the most robust option,” says Matt. “But if it can go up to 4m wide in one panel, you can be confident it’s strong and has a high weight-bearing capacity.” Note that some systems are only available triple glazed.

How Much Should You Budget for Different Sliding Door Glass Types?

The spec for your sliding patio doors goes beyond simply double or triple panes. “For security, on new build homes, the Building Regs require laminated glass on at least one pane for any door or window that’s deemed to be accessible,” says Matt. That will mean anything on the ground floor, plus units on the first floor that could be reached via a flat roof or suchlike.

The rules are more relaxed for extensions and home renovations, though you’ll at least need to install toughened glass. As a benchmark, for Kloeber’s doors, laminated glass costs around £20 per m² more than toughened. Given the relatively small price difference, some people do go for laminated even where it’s not a requirement.

A newer Building Regulation – Part O for overheating – may have a bigger impact on how much your sliding doors cost. It currently only applies to new houses, but the principles are worth considering on renovation and extension projects, too. “If your designer comes up with a big glass box and there’s no overhanging roof or other forms of solar shading, we might need to specify solar control glass to reduce the g-value and avoid overheating,” says Craig. “Solar glass would typically add about 6% to the total door cost.”

Learn More: Solar Shading: What Are the Benefits and How Can You Get it Right?