French Door Styles and Configurations
Inswing French Doors
The traditional pair opens into the room. That keeps both leaves clear of a deck railing, a grill or a storm door outside, and it puts the hinge pins on the inside, where nobody can pull them. You pay for it in floor space: two leaves sweep a wide arc, and the dining table has to live somewhere else. The threshold also faces the weather head-on, so an inswing door depends on a raised interior stop, tight sweeps and a sill pan that sends water back out instead of into the subfloor.
Outswing French Doors
An outswing pair opens onto the patio. Wind presses the leaves into their weatherstripping rather than away from it, which helps in a sideways summer downpour, and the room keeps its floor space. HomeGuide's buying guide suggests outswing doors for small rooms for exactly that reason. The trade-offs sit outside: the hinges are exposed, so ask for security hinges with non-removable pins, and you need clear deck or patio space past the swing. A hinged screen door can't hang outside an outswing pair, so most people add a retractable screen on the inside. Screen options are on our window screen replacement page.
Single French Door with Sidelites
When the opening is too narrow for a pair, or you'd rather have one door to open, a single full-glass leaf with a fixed sidelite on one or both sides gives the same look. One leaf means one latch, no astragal and no flush bolts, so there are fewer places to leak or sag. HomeGuide lists a single in-swing french door at $300 to $1,000 for the door alone, nationally. Sidelites are glass beside a door, so they're covered by the same safety glazing rules as the door itself.
Sliding French-Style Doors
A sliding patio door built with the wide stiles and rails of a hinged french door. It needs no swing room at all, which makes it the answer for a tight patio or a small breakfast nook. Underneath the styling it's a slider, with rollers and a track, so it wears like one. The full range of sliders is on the sliding glass doors and patio doors page.
Multipoint Locks, Astragals and Sills
On a pair, one leaf is active and the other is passive, held shut by flush bolts at the head and sill. The astragal is the vertical strip that covers the gap where the two meet. A multipoint lock throws bolts at the top, middle and bottom from one handle, which pulls a tall door tight along its whole height instead of at one latch. On a door that swells and shrinks through a humid summer, that full-height grip is what keeps the weatherstripping in contact.
Why Columbia homeowners call Columbia Window Co.
- Your request goes to one independent local window installer, not a list of callers
- The installer measures each opening in person before any price
- Ask for a written quote naming the frame, glass package and install method
- Free to homeowners: no fee for the referral or the estimate
French Door Cost: National Ranges
There's no published Columbia price list, so these are HomeGuide's national figures:
Exterior french doors, installed
$1,300 to $5,500.Replacing an existing pair
$2,500 to $7,000, including removal and disposal of the old door.Labor alone
$300 to $500 for a french door, more for large, heavy units.Framing a new opening
$150 to $250 on average, if there's no opening or the old one is too small.Custom doors
$3,000 to $15,000 with decorative glass or elaborate frames.
The door material moves the number most. HomeGuide puts fiberglass french doors at $850 to $4,500 and clad wood at $2,500 to $5,000 before installation, with vinyl at $500 to $2,000. It also says vinyl french doors are commonly used indoors because the material can warp in high temperatures. That's worth remembering for a dark door on a west wall that bakes all afternoon.
Turning a window or a slider into french doors costs more than a like-for-like swap. A wider opening needs a new header, and the brick, siding and interior trim around it have to be patched. Ask for that work as its own line on the quote.
French Door Glass and Energy Ratings
ENERGY STAR rates doors by how much glass they have. Nearly every french door is more than half glass, and for that category in the South-Central zone, which covers Columbia, the certified door tops out at 0.28 on U-factor and 0.23 on solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC). Those match the window targets here; how windows reach them is on the energy-efficient windows page.
The air leakage limit tells you more about french doors specifically. ENERGY STAR allows swinging doors up to 0.5 cubic feet per minute per square foot, against 0.3 for sliding doors. A hinged pair has more edges to seal: two leaves, an astragal, a threshold, and weatherstripping along all of it. Those edges are where a french door leaks air, so look at the weatherstripping and astragal on the sample, not just the glass.
Code requirements for glass in and beside doors are covered on the sliding glass doors page, along with the sill pan detail every patio door needs.
How long a door lasts depends on what it's made of. HomeGuide puts exterior french doors at 15 to 30 years and says vinyl doors typically don't last as long as fiberglass, metal or clad-wood ones.
French Door Quote Checklist
Before you sign, the written quote should pin down:
Swing and handing
In or out, and which leaf is active, as seen from outside.Opening work
Same-size swap, or a widened opening with a new header, and who patches the brick, siding and drywall.Sill and flashing
A sloped sill pan, flashing tape at the jambs, and an adjustable threshold.Glass
U-factor and SHGC from the NFRC label, the tempered mark on each lite, and the grille type (simulated divided lites or grilles between the glass).Hardware
Multipoint lock, flush bolts on the passive leaf, and security hinges on an outswing pair.Screen
Retractable or sliding, and whether it's in the price.Finish
Factory-finished or painted on site, and the exterior cladding color.
If the opening needs a new header, ask the installer to check the framing above the old door before quoting.