A new sliding patio door, unit included, costs about $635 to $5,270 per opening around Portland, and $2,500 is what a typical one runs, per November 2026 market figures . The door itself is about half. Width, frame material, glass and whatever the old sill has been hiding decide the rest. The work itself is laid out on our sliding and French door page.
What does a new sliding glass door cost around Portland?
Three numbers cover most of the calls I get about a tired slider. One is a repair, one is a straight swap, and one is a swap where the wood under the old door turns out to be soft.
| Job | Lowest | Common | Highest | Unit | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep the old door: new rollers, track work, latch | $200 | $350 | $600 | job | labour only |
| New slider into a dry, sound opening | $635 | $2,500 | $5,270 | door | the unit and labour |
| Fixing a rotted sill and lower jambs | $400 | $800 | $1,600 | job | labour only |
| New slider plus that rot fix (two rows added together) | $1,035 | $3,300 | $6,870 | door | unit, labour, repair |
Figures: Portland-area market, Nov. 2026. The second row is the only one that includes a door. The bottom row is simple addition, not a quote.
On a typical $2,500 job the market data splits the money down the middle: roughly $1,250 for the unit and supplies, and roughly $1,250 for about 10 hours of labour. If your rollers grind but the frame is dry and the glass is clear, the $350 repair is worth trying first .
Why does one slider cost twice as much as another?
No row in our price sheet breaks units out by material or size, so I won't print figures for those. What I can do is say which choices push the price up.
Width and panels. Stock sliders come in 5, 6 and 8 foot widths at 6 ft 8 in tall. A "6-foot" door actually measures a bit under 72 inches, which is why people describe the same opening as a 70 by 80. Two panels are standard. Three or four panels, or an opening that isn't a stock size, means a special order .
Frame. Vinyl is usually the cheapest, aluminum and fiberglass come next, and wood or clad wood costs the most.
Glass. Double pane with low-E is the normal pick, and every new slider ships with tempered safety glass. Triple pane, laminated glass or built-in blinds all add cost.
Hardware. A lock that catches at several points costs more than a single hook latch.
Here, a back slider often opens straight onto an uncovered deck that takes rain from October through spring. Paying for a sill that sheds water, and checking the deck boards right below it, matters more than the brand on the frame.
French doors instead? See what French doors cost.
Is swapping only the glass or one panel cheaper than a new door?
Often, yes. When the frame is still square and dry, and the maker or a glass shop can still supply a matching panel or sealed glass unit, you don't need a whole new door. A twisted frame, a sill that gives under your thumb, or water coming in at the bottom are different stories, and new glass won't fix any of them.
Glass that looks foggy between the panes means the seal between them has failed. That by itself doesn't justify tearing out the door; read more about foggy double-pane glass before you decide.
We have no price row for glass-only or single-panel work, so I'm leaving the number out.
Insert or full frame: which is cheaper, and when does it stop being an option?
An insert, also called a retrofit unit, goes inside the old frame once the panels and track come out. There's less trim and siding to disturb, so the labour is lower, but the glass ends up a little smaller.
Full-frame replacement takes the opening down to the studs. That costs more, and it's the only way to see and fix the sill pan, the flashing and the wood under the sill. It also means patching interior casing and exterior trim, which the $635-$5,270 range already allows for.
The hard limit: an insert cannot go over rot or over a sill that leaks. You'd be sealing the problem in.
What does a rotted sill add to the bill?
Market figures put sill and jamb rot repair between $400 and $1,600 for the labour, $800 being typical (November 2026) . The catch is timing. Rot usually only shows once the old door is out: the sill, the bottoms of the jambs, then sometimes the subfloor and the rim joist below.
A lot of Cedar Mill, and Cedar Hills before it, went up over crawl spaces during the fifties, sixties and seventies. A slider set without a sill pan back then can let a little water into the framing every wet season, and it adds up quietly.
When rot turns up partway through, work should pause. You should get photos and a written price for the extra before anything else is cut . Our page on fixing a rotted door frame covers that work.
What does a handyman charge to put in a sliding glass door?
On the market figures, about $1,250 of a $2,500 replacement is labour, for roughly 10 hours. For a standard two-panel door, expect one full day on site .
Those hours pay for taking the old unit out, checking the opening, putting in a sill pan and flashing, setting the new frame level and square, insulating the gaps, trimming both sides, and adjusting the panels and lock until they run clean. The step-by-step version lives on the service page.
Some homeowners pick up their own slider at Home Depot or Lowe's and only want labour for the install. A made-to-order door adds a wait before the install date.
What else can end up on the bill?
These smaller items come up around a slider job. All are labour only.
| Extra | Range | Usually | Covers | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold or door sweep | $150-$450 | $250 | labour only | only where the old sill stays; a full-frame unit brings its own |
| Screen door, new or re-screened | $150-$500 | $300 | labour only | the old screen is bent or missing |
| Sealing gaps around the opening | $200-$800 | $400 | labour only | drafts around a door that stays |
| Secondary lock, bar or pin | $150-$700 | $350 | labour only | extra security on the sliding panel |
Figures: Portland-area market, Nov. 2026.
Two things have no row. Getting the old door off the property: we don't offer hauling as a service, so ask how the old unit leaves . And permit fees, which only come in if the opening changes, covered next.
Do Oregon rules change what a sliding door costs?
A few do, and the national cost guides skip them.
Permits. The state's Building Codes Division says a door or window swap with no structural change doesn't take a permit, while a brand-new opening or a resized one does. So a same-size slider carries no permit fee, and going from a 6-foot to an 8-foot door with a new header adds one. The city or county building office settles anything in between.
No sales tax. Oregon charges no sales tax at the register, so the door costs what the tag says. National guides that add tax will show a bigger total than you'll pay here.
Written contract. Any construction job above $2,000 needs a written agreement in Oregon, and a typical $2,500 slider lands past that line. After signing an initial residential contract, the homeowner can still cancel it in writing up to midnight on the following business day. More on what an Oregon home-repair contract has to include.
Older houses. Homes built before 1978 fall under Oregon's lead renovation rule, and that covers plenty of the west side. The cutoff for "minor repair" is small: under six square feet of painted surface in any one room, or under twenty on the outside. The state page names window replacement but not doors. On an older house this can add setup, cleanup and time, and it can change who should do the job.
Tax credit. The federal credit for energy-saving home upgrades covered property put in service from 2023 through 2025. Don't count on it for a 2027 install.
How should you compare two sliding door quotes?
Lay both quotes out together and make sure each one spells out, in writing:
- the unit: brand, width, panel count and glass
- insert or full frame
- a sill pan and flashing
- what happens if rot is found, with a written change order and its price
- trim work inside and outside
- how the old door leaves the property
- the start date
A quote that comes in far lower is usually missing one of these lines. And since most replacements top $2,000, all of it belongs in the written contract anyway.