You might be familiar with the concept of window weep holes—those small openings on the bottom exterior of a window that allows water pooling against the window frame to drain out so you don’t have puddles sitting in your window all day. Sliding glass doors also have their own door weep holes to let water flow out of them when it starts pooling during heavy rainstorms, hurricanes, and floods.
Keeping your door’s weep holes clear of dirt and debris can be crucial for preventing standing water in the door track and keeping excess water from leaking into your home following a major storm.
Let’s go over some door weep maintenance steps and tips to help you keep your new sliding glass doors rolling smoothly and avoid some of the potential consequences of blocked weeps.
Door Weep Hole Maintenance Key Steps
Door weep holes are relatively easy to maintain once you know what you’re doing and what to look for.
Step 1: Prepare Your Tools
First thing first, let’s gather some basic tools for the job:
- Vacuum cleaner.
- Rags/towels.
- Pipe cleaner, toothpicks, or compressed air can.
- Several cups of water, water mixed with non-abrasive dish soap, or a water/vinegar mix.
- You may also want to prepare insect nest poison if there is a nest in the door track.
You’ll need each of these tools or suitable equivalents to complete your cleaning project.
Step 2: Clear Out the Dry Debris
Take your vacuum’s hose with a brush attachment (or the extension nozzle if you’re using a handheld vacuum) and run it through the tracks to break up any loose dirt and debris in the track and get it out of there.
This is important for helping keep the track clean in general, removing loose debris that might otherwise catch on your sliding door’s wheels and keep them from rolling smoothly. This should also be done before applying water or cleaning solutions to your door track to avoid creating hard-to-remove mud clumps.
Once the loose dirt is removed, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Step 3: Clearing the Door Weep Holes and Loosening Stuck-On Debris
Look at the door track to find the small drainage slots (the eponymous door weep holes) running along the bottom of the track. They might be a little hard to spot if you don’t know what to look for or if they’ve been clogged with debris.
Once you’ve found the holes or any sizable dirt deposits that might be covering them up, get out your pipe cleaner tool. If you don’t have a pipe cleaner, a sturdy toothpick or a can of compressed air may be able to do the job.
If there’s an insect nest in the track, such as a wasp/hornet nest, DO NOT POKE IT WITH A TOOL. Instead, grab your can of bug spray formulated for clearing nests and point it at the offending insect hive, and spray it down.
Then, wait for a few moments for any signs of escaping insects and for the spray to take full effect as the hive is soaked through with the poison. After the hive is fully soaked and any bugs or larvae are fully neutralized, then you can break it up with your brush or other tools and vacuum up the remains.
Step 4: Flush with Water
Take a cup full of water and pour it into the track on the exterior side of the doorway and see if it drains easily.
Try to see if the water flows easily out of the door weep holes in the track, or if it gathers and pools in one or two spots instead. If the water flows out smoothly and easily, great! Your door weeps are functioning perfectly!
If the water doesn’t flow back out, however, you may have a problem.
- The weep may still be blocked, in which case you’ll need to try to clear it again.
- If the door weep holes are unobstructed, but a lot of the water isn’t reaching them, then you may have a door that isn’t set level within the door opening or the track itself may have a minor, hard-to-see bend to it.
- This may require more drastic solutions to fix. Up to and including sliding glass door replacement.
Step 5: Clean and Disinfect the Door Track
Once you’ve confirmed that your door weep holes are unobstructed and water can flow freely out of your door track, you may want to take some water/vinegar or water/dish soap solution and work it into the tracks, scrub them clean with a rag or a set of paper towels, and re-flush the track to remove the excess cleaning solution.
This can be an important step for preventing mold growth that can rot away weatherstripping or gum up your door’s wheels. Preventing mold can also help prevent foul odors and keep your door weep holes clear for longer.
How Often Should I Clean My Door Weep Holes?
Outside of times where your home experiences a major storm, a check of your sliding glass door weep holes should be done at least two or three times a year, but most especially right before hurricane season starts and right after it ends.
If your home is subjected to flooding or hurricane conditions, perform an additional check of your sliding door tracks after the storm ends. Try to see if there is any built-up debris or dirt in the track and clear it.
What Are Some Big Don’ts of Door Weep Hole Maintenance?
Some common door weep hole maintenance mistakes that people might make include:
- Painting Over the Weep Holes. With sliding glass door weeps, you want to ensure that the weep holes are as clear and unobstructed as possible. Adding layers of paint to the door track over the weep hole can slightly constrict it. Also, dirt and debris can adhere to wet paint, further working to block the hole.
- Caulking Over or Plugging Door Weep Holes. The holes in the bottom of the track are supposed to be there and are necessary for preventing water buildup in your track that can rust sliding door wheels and track rails. Please do NOT put caulk over or plug up the weep holes to seal them.
- Using a Power Washer. Even top-rated hurricane impact doors have a limit to how much extreme water pressure they can take. Do NOT use a power washer to clean out sliding door tracks, as this can result in damage to the door frame, the tracks, and the weep holes. A power washer puts out, on average, 1,300 to 2,800 psi of water pressure. A Cat 5 hurricane with a wind speed of 157 mph exerts a psi of 0.43775… and that’s applied roughly evenly to the whole sliding door surface, not focused on a single point. So, your power washer applies between 2969 to 6,396 times as much force as a hurricane can on a single, focused area. This can result in cracked glass, damaged tracks, and accidental removal of weatherstripping.
- Applying Corrosive Cleaning Chemicals. Some homeowners may use harsh chemicals in an effort to clear out especially stubborn dirt buildups or stains in their door tracks. However, this should be avoided, as some corrosive compounds can cause door components to rust or even damage the vinyl, weakening it. Even the best doors will fail if subjected to acidic solutions multiple times.
These are a few of the more common maintenance mistakes that we’ve seen homeowners make when trying to maintain their impact doors and clear the door weep holes.
Need New Impact Sliding Glass Doors? Contact Karoly!
If you have an old sliding glass door that is suffering from issues caused by door weep hole-related problems (or any other issue) and want a new impact-rated door that will last you a proverbial lifetime, reach out to Karoly Windows & Doors!
We have decades of experience installing impact-rated doors for homeowners throughout the Tampa Bay area. Get the know-how and expertise you need to ensure that your new doors are installed flawlessly and that you know everything you need to know about them!
