Is this a leak or just condensation?

In Orlando's humidity you can get moisture on cold glass, but water sitting in the track or running onto the floor after a storm is a drainage or seal problem. Water that appears only during or right after rain points to the sill, the weep holes or the interlock.

Do I need a permit for this in Orlando?

Permits in Florida are issued by your local city or county building department. Like-for-like repairs such as weatherstrip, roller, track, handle or lock replacement normally require no permit, while replacing the whole door unit or altering the opening typically does. Thresholds differ by jurisdiction, so confirm with your building department.

My door is supposed to be impact-rated. Does that change anything?

Florida enforces a statewide building code with wind-load requirements, and replacement doors generally must carry a valid Florida Product Approval. If your door is impact-rated or protected, do not attempt work on it yourself — tell the technician, and your local building department can confirm what applies at your address.

Can new weatherstrip fix a leak, or will I need a whole new door?

Often the fix is weatherstrip, an interlock adjustment and clearing the sill drainage. The technician looks at the door first and tells you what it needs and what it costs before anything starts.

Who actually comes out?

One Call Sliding Door Repair is a referral and scheduling service. We arrange the visit with an independent local technician who does the work; we are not the contractor. Licensing is the technician's own, and in Florida requirements vary by the scope of the work and by locality.

Drafts and leaks in Orlando, FL

You feel air along the edge of the panel, and after a hard rain there is water on the floor inside the track. In almost every case the seal has stopped doing its job. The fuzzy pile weatherstrip on the stiles has gone flat or fallen out, the interlock where the two panels meet no longer closes tight, or the weep holes in the sill are packed with grit so rain has nowhere to drain and comes over the track instead.

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Hands pressing new pile weatherstrip into the interlock groove of a sliding door that is open a few inches, the sill clean and dry.

Orlando is hard on those parts. Summer afternoon thunderstorms from June through September push rain sideways into the sill, and hurricane and tropical-storm season runs June 1 to November 30 with wind-driven rain that finds every gap. Constant humidity and strong sun shrink and crumble old weatherstrip and vinyl parts and corrode steel and aluminum hardware. Florida homes often have two or more sliders onto a patio, lanai or pool deck, and the older aluminum-framed units still in service around here were never built to hold back that much water on their own.

While you wait — please don't

Do not ignore standing water at the sill. Water that gets under a sill rots the subfloor and the framing out of sight, and you will not see the damage until it is large.
Do not seal the weep holes. Those small slots in the sill are the drain path, and caulking or taping them shut traps water inside the frame instead of letting it out.
Do not lift or remove the panel to work on the seal. A sliding glass panel weighs about as much as a person and shatters into the room if it slips, so leave the panel in place for a technician.
Do not keep using a door with cracked glass or a panel off its track. Stop using it, keep people away from it, and do not try the repair yourself — that is not a do-it-yourself job.
Do not wait for hurricane season to test it. A door that leaks in an ordinary summer storm will leak badly in a storm with real wind behind it.

What the technician does

The leak is traced firstThe technician looks at where the water actually enters — the sill, the interlock, the head or the frame perimeter — before changing any parts. Air and water usually come in at different spots on the same door.
Pile weatherstrip is replacedThe worn pile on the stiles and at the interlock is pulled and new weatherstrip is fitted into the same channels. This is what stops the draft you feel along the edge.
The interlock is checked for alignmentWhere the two panels overlap, they have to meet evenly top to bottom. If the panel sits crooked, the technician adjusts it so it closes square and the seal makes contact along the whole height.
The sill and weep holes are clearedGrit, pollen and debris are cleaned out of the track and the weep holes are opened so rain drains back outside. The technician then checks that water actually moves through them.
Caulking and flashing are inspectedThe joint between the door frame and the wall is looked over for gaps and failed sealant, since water at the frame edge can show up inside and look like a sill leak.
The seal is tested with waterAfter the work, the door is run and wetted down to confirm the seal holds and the sill drains. You can stand there and watch it.

Why this happens in Orlando, FL

Most Orlando houses sit on a slab, with concrete block and stucco walls and a slider onto the patio. A slab means the sill is close to grade, so a blocked weep hole and a few inches of rain off the patio is all it takes for water to come over the track and onto the floor inside. Downtown-adjacent neighborhoods like College Park, Lake Eola Heights and Thornton Park have older homes with older aluminum sliders, while the 1970s–2000s subdivisions and newer builds out toward Lake Nona and the south and east sides tend to have the same door and the same seals aging out across a whole street at once.

Timing matters here. Demand rises ahead of and during hurricane season, and that is the same stretch — June through November — when wind-driven rain shows you exactly where your door leaks. Orlando sits inland with no salt spray, but humidity, UV and heavy rain still do the damage: they corrode tracks and lock cylinders and dry out weatherstrip until a draft appears. If you are in an HOA or gated community, which is common in Orlando subdivisions built after about 1985, check whether they have rules about exterior door work before anything is replaced.

Questions people ask

Is this a leak or just condensation?: In Orlando's humidity you can get moisture on cold glass, but water sitting in the track or running onto the floor after a storm is a drainage or seal problem. Water that appears only during or right after rain points to the sill, the weep holes or the interlock.
Do I need a permit for this in Orlando?: Permits in Florida are issued by your local city or county building department. Like-for-like repairs such as weatherstrip, roller, track, handle or lock replacement normally require no permit, while replacing the whole door unit or altering the opening typically does. Thresholds differ by jurisdiction, so confirm with your building department.
My door is supposed to be impact-rated. Does that change anything?: Florida enforces a statewide building code with wind-load requirements, and replacement doors generally must carry a valid Florida Product Approval. If your door is impact-rated or protected, do not attempt work on it yourself — tell the technician, and your local building department can confirm what applies at your address.
Can new weatherstrip fix a leak, or will I need a whole new door?: Often the fix is weatherstrip, an interlock adjustment and clearing the sill drainage. The technician looks at the door first and tells you what it needs and what it costs before anything starts.
Who actually comes out?: One Call Sliding Door Repair is a referral and scheduling service. We arrange the visit with an independent local technician who does the work; we are not the contractor. Licensing is the technician's own, and in Florida requirements vary by the scope of the work and by locality.

One call

Call (888) 851-3682 or send a request through the form on this site, and we will arrange a sliding door technician for your Orlando home. The estimate is free, and the technician looks at the door and gives you the price before any work starts — you approve it first.

Call now · (888) 851-3682

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