If you are tired of your old bi-fold doors or just maybe they have become rundown through heavy use, then you might decide to go the route of complete replacement. With bi-fold doors this choice should not be difficult choice to follow. Just make sure that your pair of replacement doors are designed to fit in the same sized opening of the original doors. Since bi-fold doors have very specific size requirements it is highly likely that you will be able to find a set that will fit the same opening. Continue to find out take down the old doors and put up new ones. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Take down the old doors. Do this by loosening the screws that hold the hinges to the door frames, while the bi-fold door is fully extended. Take one screw out at a time and work from the bottom up to the top. Since bi-fold doors are almost always lightweight, taking the doors down should not be a problem.
2. Unscrew the top tract and set it aside. Usually there is no bottom tract, but, if there is, remove that too.
3. Set the new pair of doors in the opening and make sure they fit. Also make sure the hinges are on the inside of the opening, so that the doors fold towards you when you are standing on the outside.
4. Take a pencil and mark the inside edge of the front side of the folding door. Each door usually comes as a pair of louver panels held together at the center with a pair of brass butt hinges. Often an opening will have one pair of folding panels hinged to each side, so that the two doors meet in the middle when fully extended. But sometimes only one set of panels is installed, if the opening is small.
5. Place the one pair of doors on saw horses with the front side face up. Hold a hinge against the front side of the door so that the hinge pin is facing up and the center of the hinge plate is flush with the inside edge of the door. Now, with a pencil, mark the 3 holes for the screws. Then mark the 3 holes for the bottom hinge in the same manner. Make sure both sets of marks are located the same distance from the top and bottom of the doors. The marks should fall in the first several inches of the front face of the bi-fold door.
6. Pre-drill the 3 holes and insert the screws through the hinge plate with an electric screwdriver. Then do the same for the other bi-fold door. Now you have two bi-fold doors with a pair of hinges located on the front face of each set.
7. Drill a hole with a speed bore bit in the top side of the door and then insert the guide (a small metal protruding device) into the hole. Consult the instructions for exact size and location of the hole. In some doors this piece may already be installed.
8. Have a helper hold one door in place while you mark the location of the top hole in the top hinge. The outside edge of the hinge should be flush with the front edge of the vertical jamb and there should be enough of a gap between the top of the door and the jamb to allow the door to slide through the track that will be placed on the horizontal piece of jamb. Consult the instructions for the correct distance between the top of the door and the horizontal jamb piece.
9. Pull the door down and drill a hole at the center of the mark. Put the door back up and insert the first screw through the hinge plate and into the jamb.
10. Line up the door so the lower hinge is set into place. Again the edge of the hinge plate should be flush with the front of the vertical jamb. Make a mark with a pencil and then drill a pilot hole in the center of the mark.
11. Set the top screw of the bottom hinge with an electric screwdriver.
12. Drill the remaining pilot holes and insert screws into each one. Now one bi-fold door is hung. Repeat the same process to hang the other bi-fold door.
13. Slide the top track together (it should slide like a trombone at least for a short distance) and push it against the top of the jamb. Now extend the track until it meets each track guide that sits on top of each pair of doors. Keep extending both ends until both track guides (one on each door) is enclosed within the track. Finally, drill pilot holes through the track and into the wood. There should pre-existing holes in the track. Just take your drill and put at least 4 holes into the top jamb, then insert screws into each hole.
Tags: bi-fold door, bi-fold doors, hinge plate, doors this, flush with, front side, insert screws