Accordion doors: pain in the neck?!1 Any advice?

[UTUSN]

So whoever hung doors in this place had no common sense intuition. In one place with a swinging door, you swing it open and reach for the light switch, no light switch. Where is the light switch, oh where else, but behind the open door.

In a small bathroom, the door, which is smaller size, not full size, bangs into the commode.

So the solution might be accordion doors. But my cursory experience with those scores of years ago was that they are clunky, get hung-up. So the kits have tiny vials of lubricant, eh. They're not up yet. Anybody care to input?

[edgineered]

1. Keep it true and square.

Start by shimming the track to be level.
Trim the fixed side of the accordion to the door frame before fastening it.
Next do the same with the side that moves.
Lastly, install the lock on the door frame.

You can't do any better.

edit: use a plumb bob if needed to see how far out the door is. If its like half an inch or less, the rest is just being a perfectionist.

[UTUSN]

3. Thanks, you make them sound workable. n/t

[CBGLuthier]

2. Not to mention they do not make them very well anymore.

If you go with accordion do not skimp on price because the cheap ones are crap that will tear inside of a week.

Is there room to put a pocket door, the kind that slide into the wall? Those are good but a bit more work to install.

Or you could reverse the molding and make the door open outward instead of inward, assuming clearance outside.

I have a small bathroom also and years ago we swapped the commode and the sink for pretty much the same reason but that is a LOT of work.

[UTUSN]

6. Thanks. Yeah, I got the cheapies, but there shouldn't be much use for now.

I thought about the sliding doors but didn't research enough to figure out how complicated they might be. Reversing the swing, yeah swinging doors take up room. I've taken down a few closet doors. Besides that there're monsters in there.

[JVS]

4. Can you hinge the door another way?

Have it swing out instead of in? Or have it open away from the toilet instead of into the toilet?

The thing with accordion doors is that they take up a lot of the space in the doorway and for a place like a bathroom they don't really feel like a barrier for the person on the toilet (who might feel a lack of privacy while conducting his/her bodily functions)

[UTUSN]

7. Swinging out would put it in the tiny hall. The door would fit, barely, but slap around the hall.

As for the privacy, years ago I took down the door to a small bathroom, and I've been going outside to hang while some other people use the loo.

[JVS]

9. Is this door going to spend enough time open that it would be a big problem in the hall?

And could its motion be limited by one of these things to prevent it from striking things in the hall?

[UTUSN]

10. The widths of door and hall are practically the same. The "hall" is about 6' long

and has nothing in it for the door to hit, nothing would fit in the hall. It's a matter of the swing taking up space and I don't like doors closed all the time. Wow, that's a neat-o hinge stopper thing.

[lunatica]

5. How about something like this?

[UTUSN]

8. Wow, that's stylish, just what I'd expect of you!1 Maybe at the next level of things, thanks!1 n/t

[whistler162]

13. Nice, but needs a 1/2 moon on it.

[lunatica]

14. LOL! There would be no doubt after putting the Moon on it

[taterguy]

11. Drink heavily

One size fits all advice

[whistler162]

12. Contact Weird Al see what he thinks of accordions

The accordion door we had to put in place fro the basement toilet room is a pain. Had the first floor bathroom redone and a new drain pipe was installed, guess what door it blocked so it wouldn't open.

Personally, if the bathroom was some place in a visitors might see it area I would look at a wood accordion door instead of the psuedo plastic/cardboard doors.

[UTUSN]

15. Yeah, I'm cheap n/t

[TorchTheWitch]

16. I actually have one for my bathroom door

These houses are ancient... the bathroom was an after thought. They're so old they used to have outhouses in the back yard. Though the bathroom was there it was more like a "water closet" that had a small sized "sitting" tub and a small sink. There is seriously no room for anything else one toilets were crammed in.

I switched out the door that was on there with the accordion door that was used for the tiny bedroom in the back of the house. Technically it's a bedroom because it has a window, but you couldn't put even a twin bed in there without it either blocking the door, blocking the radiator or blocking the closet door. It's basically a junk room where I keep general crap, all my paperback books and out of season clothes.

The regular door that was previously the bathroom door bashed into the tub, and since the tub is so small (though it's a nice size for me since I'm small, and it's deeper than average American tubs) you can't use the tub or shower without closing the door. And I can't stand to close the bathroom door because I get seriously claustrophobic with it shut, and since there's no air vent it gets really stuffy in there fast. Since I live alone I just use the bathroom with the accordion door folded up, but it's there if I have a guest.

One thing I hate about these old houses is nothing is standard. Windows and doors ways are all kinds of sizes. Though there was space at the bottom of the accordion door when it was used for the back bedroom even allowing room for the carpet on the bathroom doorway is barely fits, so you have to fuss with it to get it to open and close because it scrapes along the floor, and there isn't even any carpet there. But I can't even recall the last time I used it which must have been a few years ago, so I really don't care. I've never had any problem running it along the track. It's dragging along the floor that's a bit of a pain. When it was on the back bedroom doorway it worked just fine because it had that little gap between the floor and the bottom of the accordion door.

I'd trade my ugly gray plastic accordion door for that nice one in the photo in a heartbeat. Mine looks really cheap and ugly.

[UTUSN]

17. Your post resonates totally with me, so many points

"... no room for anything else .... blocking...blocking .... bashed into the tub .... can't stand to close the door .... it's there if I have a guest .... nothing is standard. Doors and windows .... "



SOLUTION for "dragging on the floor" : The "manual" instructions (yes, there are actual instructions) say that these things can be trimmed/cut using a hack saw or other fine cutting saw. I can see that it would be a hassle for me to take the darned thing down and reinstall.

As for your trading yours for the one in the pic, it's an internet graphic, not mine, which are the cheapest vinyl around.

You really zeroed in on my topic in so many ways, thanks!1

[TorchTheWitch]

18. from your posts it really sounds like you live at my house

yet somehow I haven't noticed you.

I thought about cutting the accordion door at the bottom so it would open and close easier but then it would have a huge gap once it goes back on the back bedroom door whenever I move. Since I'm a renter, I really can't be hacking up any of the doors.

It works fine for me since I just never seem to have a need to close the bathroom door anyway as it's just me and the dog here, and I just never seem to have any guests. Whatever kind of door I had I'd still hate to close it because of the room having no air vent and that horrible claustrophobia effect. I even put in three big mirrors on the bathroom walls to give the illusion of a lot more space. I wouldn't be able to stand it if it wasn't for the mirrors.

Forgot to mention... since my bathroom is more like a "water closet" being so tiny there's nowhere to store girlie bathroom stuff (make up, hairbrush, hair gunk, razors, lotions, powders, various other potions, etc.) so I use one of those over the toilet tank shelving units I got for like $12 decades ago. It looks something like this, but it's faux brass and has three shelves...



Truthfully, mine looks nicer than this one. Good thing I already had it where I used to live since in this tiny bathroom there's just no where else to put shelves, and without shelves nowhere to put various bathroom stuff.

Not such a good idea if you tend to leave the toilet lid up a lot, but I always leave mine shut since I'm used to having a dog that wants to stick his head in the toilet bowl for a drink and dribble water all over the seat, and I don't like looking into an open toilet bowl when I'm doing other things in the bathroom that don't involve the potty.

[UTUSN]

20. O.K., this is getting SPOOKY!1 *I* use mirrors for "illusion of space", too!1

And maybe it's claustrophobia that I hadn't labeled for myself, but too many doors irritate me and I've taken down quite a few in my time, which I thought I attributed to monsters in there (instead of the claustrophobia)!1 Holy Zeus, every specific and detail you add has the Shock of Recognition for me!1

[TorchTheWitch]

23. well, strictly speaking there ARE monsters in there

They're under the bed, too, which is why I tell everyone I have to have the mattress directly on the floor. Truthfully, I've always been a really restless sleeper and will roll right off te bed and hit the floor all the time. I feel safer with the mattress directly on the floor... and many a time I wake up to discover that half of me in on the mattress and the other half on the floor, so if I didn't have the mattress directly on the floor I would have fallen out all those times. I've gotten plenty of eggs on my skull from falling out of a bed that's up in the air.

Still, I admit I also feel better knowing there can't be any monsters under the bed since i have no under to my bed.

Mirrors are a Godsend for really giving the illusion of twice as much space. I swear I'd rather live in one enormous room than a rabbit warren of narrow hallways with a lot of small rooms.

Thunderstorm approaching. Must turn off the computer and go hide under the mattress... I really hate thunderstorms.

[Skittles]

19. boring

how about a bamboo beaded door?

[UTUSN]

21. Pretty!1 I didn't see your graphic at first glance and was going to attempt my usual

non-hip snark, something like, "bamboo beaded door?!1 Impractical for asskicking in!1"

[Sherman A1]

22. I think I would go with mirrored sliding doors

They are not anymore difficult to install than accordion doors and give the illusion of space to which you referred upthread.

Just my 2 cents!