New patio doors · Montreal
Replacing a patio door in Montreal, from permit to install
Some patio doors are past saving: the sill is rotted, the frame twisted, the thermos and rollers gone together. Replacing one here is a planned project, because the City requires a permit for every new sliding patio door and your borough may rule on materials and looks. We connect you with an independent local installer who quotes with the permit in mind. If yours might be saved, see sliding door repair first.
- Quotes you can use for the permit
- Borough material rules explained
- RénoPlex and Rénoclimat decoded
Check with your borough first
Why Montreal always requires a permit for a patio door
Most boroughs ask for a permit even to replace a door or window with an identical one. The sliding patio door goes further: the City lists it, with bay windows, among the openings that always need a permit.
The reasons are practical: a wide pane in an outside wall touches rules on distance to the lot line, how much of the façade is glazed, fire spreading next door, and exits. On plexes built close together, those rules bite.
How it goes
From quote to permit to install
Order matters. Buying the door before the permit is the classic way to get stuck.
Describe the door
Send photos, the rough width, the floor and your borough. We pass them to an independent installer who replaces patio doors near you.
Get a written quote
The installer measures and gives you a soumission with taxes, plus the product's technical sheet. The permit file asks for both.
File for the permit
Expect to add numbered façade photos, the certificate of location and, in a condo, each co-owner's letter or a syndicate resolution. The City’s page shows what your borough wants.
Order once it's issued
Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension asks owners to wait for the permit before buying materials, and Le Sud-Ouest strongly recommends getting it before signing.
Install and finish
The old door comes out, the new frame is set level, insulated and sealed, and the trim redone.
Choosing a style
Sliding, French or hinged: choose by the balcony
Start with the space outside the door, not the catalogue. Other doors are listed under doors and screens.
Sliding patio door
It opens without swinging into the room or onto a narrow balcony, so it suits most condos and many plex galleries. People shop by width (five, six or eight feet), but the right one is whatever fits your existing opening: the installer measures it, and going wider is its own permit question.
French door (porte-fenêtre)
A hinged pair that opens full width but needs room to swing. On a shallow balcony, check it clears the railing.
Single hinged door
The classic plex porte de balcon under a transom. See plex balcony doors to repair or match one.
Blinds between the glass
They stay dust-free, but a failed blind can mean a new glass unit. A retractable screen can be quoted alongside.
Materials
Materials and borough rules
Vinyl (PVC), hybrid (PVC inside, aluminum outside), aluminum, fibreglass and wood all appear on Montreal patio doors. Your borough may narrow the choice:
- Le Sud-Ouest bans a PVC exterior finish on windows borough-wide, frames included, but accepts hybrids; its heritage buildings need wood or aluminum. Ask how that applies to your door.
- Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie publishes its own list of accepted replacement doors and windows, and heritage sectors keep the original form on street-visible façades.
The installer knows what they've seen accepted, but the borough decides. Our borough permit guide compares the rules.
What affects the quote
What drives the cost of a new patio door
- Width and configuration: two panels or three, sliding or hinged
- Frame material, and any borough rule that limits it
- Glass: double or triple, low-E coating, blinds between the panes
- The state of the opening, such as a rotted sill
- The floor, and whether the door comes up inside or by the outside stairs
Add the floor, the approximate width and your borough so the installer can quote with the permit in mind.
Subsidies
RénoPlex and Rénoclimat for a patio door
RénoPlex, the City's renovation subsidy, pays a set amount per replaced patio door on eligible buildings of two to five dwellings under its property-value threshold. Approval must come before the work; starting early can cost you the subsidy. It's a City of Montréal program and doesn't apply off-island.
Provincially, Rénoclimat helps with a complete ENERGY STAR certified door, with energy evaluations before and after; new glass alone doesn't qualify. See our subsidy guide.
Upper floors
Getting a door up to the second or third floor
On a plex, the patio door is often a floor or two up, reached by an outside staircase that may be spiral. A frame with its glass is heavy, so the installer plans the route: through the flat, up the outside stairs, or with extra hands. Send a photo of the stairs; in winter, floors also need protecting from snow and salt.
Your rights
A contract signed at home: your rights
In Quebec, a door or window contract concluded at your home is itinerant commerce, even if you made the first call. The Office de la protection du consommateur requires it on paper and in French, gives you ten days to cancel, and bars work in that period, apart from certain urgent repairs. Ask for the installer's RBQ licence number too: licensed contractors must display it. The contract itself is between you and the installer.
Questions
Patio door replacement questions
Explore your options
Before you replace
Independent installers replace patio doors across the island and beyond, including Le Sud-Ouest, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Villeray, West Island and Laval.
Tell us the floor, the width and your borough
Those three details let an independent installer quote with the permit in mind. We pass your request on and follow up so it doesn't stall.