Window and sliding door repair and replacement in Bali

A door that needs two hands to open, a window that drips onto the sill every November, a cracked pane taped over since the last storm — owners and villa managers live with these for months because nobody wants a full replacement for a small fault. Most of these jobs are a morning's work once someone has found the actual cause.

We are glazing installers first, so we repair the way we build: the leaf comes off, the rollers and track are checked, the drainage is cleared and tested, and the joint to the wall is cut out and remade with sealant that can take the movement. When a frame has rotted, corroded through or was never right for the opening, we say so, show you the photos and quote the replacement as a separate line.

The faults we fix most often

• Stiff or jumping sliding doors. Flat-spotted or corroded rollers, a worn track, a leaf that has dropped at one corner. New stainless rollers and a track cap usually fix it the same day.
• Leaks in heavy rain. Blocked weep holes, a flat sill, worn brush seals at the interlock, a split perimeter joint or a crack in the render above the frame. The hose test shows which one.
• Locks and handles. Salt-seized cylinders and multi-point locks that no longer engage, replaced with stainless parts.
• Cracked and broken glass. Measured and remade in tempered or laminated glass with new gaskets; made safe the same day in the meantime.
• Draughts and rattles. Shrunken glazing gaskets and missing brushes replaced, so the air conditioning stops leaking out and the leaves stop rattling.
• Rotten timber frames. Termite-eaten or rotted sills and jambs on older villas — repaired where the timber is sound, replaced with aluminium where it is not.

Repair or replace: how we decide

Repair when the frame is straight and sound and the fault is in the parts: rollers, tracks, locks, seals, glass, drainage. Those parts cost a fraction of a new door, and a good repair gives years more service.

Replace when the frame itself is the problem: aluminium corroded through at the corners, a section too light for the leaf so it flexes and leaks whatever you seal it with, timber that is rotten or termite-damaged at the sill, or an opening built out of square. We fit the new frame into the existing opening, flash the sill properly this time and make good the render around it — normally without breaking the wall. Before-and-after photos come to you either way, which matters to owners who live overseas.

Before the rainy season: what to check yourself

Ten minutes in October saves a ceiling in January. Vacuum the bottom tracks, then pour a cup of water into each one and watch it run out through the weep holes — if it pools, the drainage is blocked. Look for split or peeling sealant where frames meet the wall, and for hairline cracks in the render above the window heads. If a sliding leaf needs more than one finger to move, the rollers are already failing. Our guide to why windows and sliding doors leak in Bali walks through the full checklist.