swimmer_spe
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I have a bi-fold door in my entrance way. It won't stay closed. How do I adjust it?
The pivots at both the top and bottom are adjustable.
If they were painted/finished after they were assembled and hung, they may be hinge bound.
Single or double door?
Stand back and look at the gap on the outside edges, they should be the same from to bottom.
There's a phillips head screw at the top for making adjustments, the bottom can be adjusted by lifting the whole door enough to disengage the bottom pivot and moving in or out as needed.
It's only going to take a tiny amount of adjustment.
They have been painted. What is hinge bound?
Bi-fold doors are generally assembled laying flat and the hinges installed. If care is not taken the doors can be forced together, causing them to become bound. If there are numerous coats of paint added without sanding the door edges, they can become bound.
The hinges go on with a little gap between the doors so when you close them they go just past center. If the screws have come loose or there is paint on the meeting edges you can loose that.How do I fix that?
How do I fix that?
You have a spring loaded slider on the upper track with missing springs?
I think we could help you better if you described the problem more clearly. Are you saying that the door will not STAY closed, or are you saying you cannot close it for some reason?
If you close it and it opens by itself, my guess is that it it not hanging plumb. That would be cured by lifting the door to disengage the bottom pivot pin from the bracket. If you look at that bracket (it is screwed to your floor under the door, near the jamb)it has 5 or 6 holes in it. Move the door and pivot pin to the next hole to try and get the door hanging plumb.
If the door will not close at all, please tell us why. Is the hinge side door rubbing against the jamb when you try to close it? If so, again, lift the door to disengage the bottom pivot pin and move the door and pin one hole farther away from the jamb.
If the door will not close because of paint buildup where the two halves meet, do as someone described above.
Good luck!
There are a couple of ways to address that.
I'd dismount the doors, fold them and remove the screws from one side of the hinges, lay them flat, fill the screw holes with tooth picks, glued, reattach the hinges and rehang and adjust the doors in the opening.
Or, if you have a sander, open the doors and clamp or block them so they hold open, and sand and reseal both of the mating surfaces.
In my practice I mortise the hinges, which makes the adjustment little more than a folded piece of paper places under the hinge leaf.
I have a very similar problem, and I think I didn't install the hinges (3 leaf flag hinges) correctly.
I bought two pairs of 30" bifold closet doors, which were slightly bigger for my 59 3/4" opening. So I took hinges off and saw off 1/4" each side.
That makes a whole lot of sense. I've never used Block plane, but I'll try. Thanks a bunch.When you trimmed the hinge sides you should have a slight angle (2º) cut to allow the doors to close fully and not bind on the hinges (hinge bound). Set the saw to 88º instead of the normal 90º. You can fix this now by using a block plane and create that angle now along the full length edge of each door. Just remember that the angle has to be towards the side of the door that is NOT on the hinge pivot side.
Can I cut the edge with a slight angle with a block plane?A block plane is an essential tool for anyone doing home repairs. Practice a little and watch the You Tube videos and it will be your go to tool for all minor wood adjustments.
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