Has anyone ever heard of a sliding glass door being installed backwards? I just bought a house, went out and bought a security lock for sliding glass doors (basically a metal pole to prevent the door from being opened)...only to find that the door that slides is on the outside!! Wouldn't make much sense to put the pole on the exterior now would it??

 

That's OK.....there's a heck of a lot of them with the sliding panel on the INSIDE that the "cut off broomstick" deal does no good either......

The "fixed" panel can be pried over pretty easy on a lot of doors.......I let a gal in her own locked house once that way by simply placing both my hands flat on the glass and applying a sideward "umph" and slid the "fixed" panel over.......doesn't slide as well as the rolling panel since there are no rollers, but it does slide.

........and THEN advised her NOT to trip over the fool broomstick on the way in............oh, yeah, and QUIT locking the fool front door when you go out to get your paper in your bathrobe.

 

It probably wasn't installed backwards -- it was probably made that way!! I've run into about 30 or 40 of them like that.

BEST thing you could do would be to replace it with a new door with an "Energy Star" rating (probably a vinyl frame, dual pane, at least Low-E glass, ...), and you might even be able to get a rebate from your local utility company for doing it.

Of the ones I have run into, 3 folks wanted me to turn it around so that the sash was on the inside. After looking at them, and the way the frame was made, I determined that that was not possible. Yours may be different.