[2000cs]

I’m looking for advice, ideas, and humor. Long post so TLDR at the end.

Our house is at the beach in FL so has large hurricane (wind) rated aluminum-frame sliding glass doors. The air is salty of course, so I wash the house about weekly, including rinsing off the doors and tracks. House is 7 years old as are the doors.

One set of doors has mold inside the bottom track. I know this because after I wash down the exterior, if we have a bathroom fan on it draws air through the door sill and I can smell the mold. So for now the bathroom fans aren’t run much. (Obviously the house is very tightly sealed). Mold smell also happens after the doors get rained on (they are under an overhang and rarely get direct rain).

The door set has three panels. The installer said each panel weighs close to 400 pounds and is about 2in thick (frame). There are two weep holes, one at each end of the exterior base track. Each weep hole is about 3/8in tall by 1in wide. Total width of the base is 12 feet.

The innermost track has a removable top (screwed into the base) but cannot be removed without taking out all three doors. That track piece allows water to run down into the base along its length and at both ends, and there is a similar gap for the middle door and third door tracks, but the top of those does not appear to be removable (part of the extrusion).

Taking the three doors out is a half-day job for 3-4 men, as is replacing them. So that is expensive but an option if all else fails.

I have contacted the manufacturer, distributor and installer. The installer suggested pouring beach into the inside track and allowing it to run to and out the weep holes. Then flush with water after 3 hours. This works, temporarily. So I think that is knocking down some of the mold but not killing it all.

Early on I attached a big straw to the end of my shop vac with duct tape and worked it around as best I could in the weep holes to get anything out. I also own a pressure washer and compressor, but I’m not sure if using either with mold is a good idea.

My current thinking is to block the weep holes and fill the track with bleach. Let it sit a few hours, open the weep holes and then flush with a lot of water. And hope it kills any mold in there. I can’t get anything in there to scour or scrub off the mold, I think. But I’m open to ideas and suggestions.


TLDR: The sliding glass door set is three panels, each about 4ft x 8ft x 2in and about 400 pounds. Total door opening is 12ft wide. Two small weep holes, one at each end of the exterior. Mold in the bottom, hollow extrusion/track that is inaccessible without removing all three doors. How to kill mold?