If you are thinking about changing out your home's closet doors, consider bifold doors. Bifold doors are useful for closets because they open wide, exposing the closet's entire width. Each bifold door has two panels, one of which remains in place and the other of which slides along a track. They are easy to install and can be painted or stained to match the other wood in your home. Bifold doors are available for purchase at your local builder's supply store. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Measure the closet opening's width. If the width is 36 inches or less, use a two-panel bifold door. If the width is greater than 36 inches, a four-panel bifold door is needed.
2. Subtract 1/4 inch from the closet's width. If you are installing a four-panel bifold door, divide the answer by two. Transfer this number to the upper sliding track. Cut the sliding track to the appropriate length using a hacksaw.
3. Find the center of the closet opening. Place a mark on the center with a pencil. Connect the two sliding tracks using the provided connecting plate. Slide the plate halfway into one track and slide the second track on the plate's other half. Line up the plate's holes with the track's holes. Skip this step if you are installing a two-panel bifold door.
4. Hold up the sliding track to the closet opening's top edge. Use the supplied screws to secure the track in place.
5. Hammer the pivot pins into the hole on the sliding door's top edge. The pivot pin goes into the door that is fixed, not the door that slides along the track. If you have a two-panel bifold door you have one pivot pin. Four-panel bifold doors have two.
6. Insert the guide pivot into the hole on the door's top edge. This is inserted into the door that slides along the track. Use a hammer to gently tap the guide pivot in place. Two-panel bifold doors have one guide pivot, and four-panel doors have two.
7. Tap the bottom pivot into the hole on the door's bottom edge. The bottom pivot goes on the same panel as the pivot pin.
8. Hang a plumb bob from the sliding track's pivot bracket, which is above the fixed side of the bifold door. Center the jamb bracket underneath the plumb bob. Secure it to the jamb with the provided screws.
9. Lift the bifold door into the opening. Position the pivot pin into the hole in the track's pivot bracket. Lift the door and move the bottom so the bottom pivot rests in the jamb bracket. Repeat on the opening's other side if you are installing a four-panel bifold door.
10. Push the snugger guide into the track's center if you are installing a four-panel bifold door. Skip this step if you are installing a two-panel bifold door.
11. Push the guide pivot down. Line it up underneath the sliding track and release it so the door is held in place.
12. Close the bifold door and check how it fits in the door opening. To raise the door, lift the bottom pivot out of the jamb bracket. Use your fingers to spin the pivot's head to either raise or lower the bifold door.
13. Measure the gap between the bifold door's edge and the jamb. If the gap is not even from top to bottom, either adjust the bottom pivot's placement in the jamb bracket or loosen the pivot bracket's screw and slide the bracket back or forth. Tighten the screw to hold the pivot bracket in place.
14. Measure 36 inches up the bifold door's face and centered in the bifold door's sliding panel. Drill a hole through this mark using a drill bit wide enough for your door pull's pin to get through. Push the pin through the back of the bifold door and screw the knob onto it. Repeat if you have a four-panel bifold door.
15. Go inside the closet and close the doors. Measure up 12 inches and draw a line across where the doors touch. Position one aligner on each door at this line. Secure them in place with screws. Skip this step if you are installing a two-panel bifold door.
Tags: bifold door, bottom pivot, four-panel bifold door, sliding track, two-panel bifold door, guide pivot, into hole
