How can I winterize my sliding glass door in my living room?

Do you have good thermal drapes?

The fuller your drapery, the more insulative value. Ideally, draperies should be 2.5 to 3x the window rod's width, plus returns, where appropriate.

Hang the drapery rod at least 4"- 6" beyond each side of window frame, and close to ceiling level, or at least 4"-6" above door's framing. Insure the lower hem "kisses" the floor at all points. Weighting the hems adds heft.

Naomie's suggestion re: thermal lining is excellent, for use in a living room sliding glass door.

Use thermal lined drapery. Also helps in summer!

The best answer would be a new door. To reduce energy loss caused by sliding glass doors, you could replace doors with low-emissivity (low-E) doors, which have a special coating that prevents energy from radiating through the glass.

Adhesive-backed rubber compression strips are effective weatherproofing tools. Commonly made of neoprene rubber, these strips can be cut to fit the length of the sliding door channel. The strips are moisture- and chemical-resistant, don't contract with cold temperatures and add an air-proof seal in channels and around the sliding glass door sash.

Weather stripping sliding glass doors weatherproofs and prevents energy leaks. Brush fin or fin seal type weather stripping installed between sliding doors reduces energy loss and helps to weatherproof sliding glass doors. Both brush fin and fin seal use synthetic brush filaments to restrict air flow in gaps between the sliding doors. The fin seal adds a Mylar ridge, embedded in the brush, that forms an additional seal.

Hi Betty. I put a draft door stopper at the bottom of mine and then put up thermal curtains. It helps a ton. The only issue is that I also had to put towels down from the condensation that was being created in between the curtains and glass.

Hi, Betty,

if you have the space between the doors when opened, install large-bubble bubble wrap against the glass to reduce air infiltration. If you have double paned glass, the savings will not be as great, but bubble wrap will improve the situation.

If your door is framed with metal or vinyl, rather than fiberglass or wood, you will have more cold air infiltration. Older doors most likely had much less insulation in the walls, when then were installed.

Try keeping the thermally draperies tightly closed and touching the floor, across the entire width. Additionally, if multi fold draperies are kept 12" away from the glass surface, you should significantly reduce condensation, caused by room heat escaping against cold glass surfaces.