Can the fog between the panes be cleaned out?

No. The cloudiness sits inside a sealed insulated unit, between two panes of glass, and there is no way in without destroying the unit. The sealed unit is replaced as a whole.

My door is impact-rated. Does that change the job?

Yes. The replacement glass has to carry the matching product approval, not just be tempered, or the door is no longer an impact door. Tell the technician up front if you believe the door is an impact unit.

Do I need a permit in Jacksonville for glass replacement?

Permits in Florida come from your local city or county building department. Replacing a whole sliding door unit or altering the opening typically requires one and an approved product; glass-only replacement may or may not, depending on the jurisdiction. Your building department can confirm for your address.

The crack is small. Can I wait until after hurricane season?

A crack in tempered glass is not stable, and Jacksonville summers bring near-daily thunderstorms and wind-driven rain against the door. Stop sliding the panel and get it looked at rather than using it in that state.

Are you the company doing the work?

No. One Call Sliding Door Repair is a referral and scheduling service that arranges sliding door service with independent local technicians across all fifty states. We are not the contractor and we do not perform the work ourselves.

Stop using the door

Broken or foggy sliding door glass in Jacksonville, FL

You are looking at a sliding door panel where the glass is cracked, chipped at a corner, or has gone cloudy between the two panes and will not wipe clean from either side. If it is cracked, the glass is tempered, and tempered glass does not stay cracked forever. It can let go all at once into thousands of small pieces. If it is fogged, the seal around the edge of the insulated unit has failed and moisture is now sitting inside, between the panes, where no cloth will reach it.

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A technician in gloves guiding a new clear insulated glass unit into an aluminum sliding door frame with suction cups, a bright lanai behind.

Both are common in Jacksonville. Heat and strong sun work on the seal of an insulated unit year after year until it gives up, and a fogged panel usually shows up on the sunniest side of the house first. Cracks come from impact, from a frame that has bowed or shifted, or from a panel that has been forced in a gritty track. Florida homes lean heavily toward the 1970s onward, with sliders onto patios, screened lanais, pool decks and condo balconies, often more than one set per house, so a single home here can have several panels at different stages of life.

While you wait — please don't

Stop using the door. A cracked panel can release while it is moving, so leave it closed, use another door, and keep children and pets out of the room.
Do not tape it or lean on it. Tape does not hold tempered glass together and pressing on a cracked panel is exactly what sets it off.
Do not try to pull the panel yourself. A sliding glass panel weighs about as much as a person and shatters into the room if it slips, so this is not a do-it-yourself job.
Do not let an impact door be re-glazed with plain glass. If your door is impact-rated, it stops being an impact door the moment it is glazed with glass that does not carry the matching product approval.

What the technician does

The panel and the opening get measuredThe technician measures the glass unit itself, the frame it sits in and the thickness, so the replacement matches what came out. Guessing at size is what turns one visit into two.
Tempered safety glass is specifiedGlass in a door has to be tempered safety glass under code. That is not optional on a patio slider, whatever was in there before.
A fogged insulated unit is replaced wholeOnce the edge seal has failed, the sealed unit is replaced as a unit. The moisture between the panes cannot be cleaned out or dried.
Impact doors are matched to their approvalWhere the door is an impact unit, the replacement glass is sourced with the matching product approval so the door keeps its rating.
The panel is re-glazed and set back inThe glass is glazed into the panel, the panel is set back on the track and checked for square and smooth travel.
The rollers get looked at while it is outWith the panel off, the rollers and the track are easy to inspect. Flat or rusted rollers are worth catching while the door is already apart.

Why this happens in Jacksonville, FL

Jacksonville sits on the Atlantic coast and along the tidal St. Johns River, and salt-laden air reaches well inland. That salt air corrodes steel rollers and bearings and pits aluminum tracks and sills, and a panel that has been fighting a rough track for years takes more force to move, which is hard on glass at the corners. Blown sand and heavy spring pollen pack the track and grind rollers flat, so track and roller condition and glass condition are usually part of the same story.

Then there is the weather calendar. Summer brings near-daily afternoon thunderstorms and the June-through-November hurricane season, with wind-driven rain and wind-borne debris, and demand for door work rises before and after those months. Much of coastal Florida sits in a designated wind-borne debris region where exterior openings such as sliding glass doors must be impact-rated or protected by approved shutters or panels, and replacement units generally need a valid Florida Product Approval. Permits are issued by your local city or county building department, and glass-only replacement may or may not require one depending on the jurisdiction, so confirm at your address before anything is ordered.

Questions people ask

Can the fog between the panes be cleaned out?: No. The cloudiness sits inside a sealed insulated unit, between two panes of glass, and there is no way in without destroying the unit. The sealed unit is replaced as a whole.
My door is impact-rated. Does that change the job?: Yes. The replacement glass has to carry the matching product approval, not just be tempered, or the door is no longer an impact door. Tell the technician up front if you believe the door is an impact unit.
Do I need a permit in Jacksonville for glass replacement?: Permits in Florida come from your local city or county building department. Replacing a whole sliding door unit or altering the opening typically requires one and an approved product; glass-only replacement may or may not, depending on the jurisdiction. Your building department can confirm for your address.
The crack is small. Can I wait until after hurricane season?: A crack in tempered glass is not stable, and Jacksonville summers bring near-daily thunderstorms and wind-driven rain against the door. Stop sliding the panel and get it looked at rather than using it in that state.
Are you the company doing the work?: No. One Call Sliding Door Repair is a referral and scheduling service that arranges sliding door service with independent local technicians across all fifty states. We are not the contractor and we do not perform the work ourselves.

One call

Call (888) 851-3682 or send a request through the form on this site, and we will arrange for an independent technician to look at the door in Jacksonville. The estimate is free, and the technician gives you the price before any work starts, so you approve it first.

Call now · (888) 851-3682

Something else in this area

One Call Sliding Door Repair arranges the visit; the technician does the work and gives you the price.