Bi-Fold Garage Doors

[gtivr4]

Anyone have carriage style garage doors that are bi-fold? Seems like a nice way to add some style, and save a lot of space over traditional carriage doors (I'm not a big fan of overhead doors).

The door I was thinking of would be 16' wide by 8' tall, and would be four sections. The biggest issue would be how they connect in the middle. I don't think a track would be necessary (like a closet door has).

 

[thdewey]

Well if you want to make them. I found these plans.

http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/be9000/be9342.htm

Here is a company that makes horizontal bi-fold doors.

http://www.bifold.com/designer-bifold-doors.php

 

[gtivr4]

Awesome find on the plans. The horizontal approach just seems wrong to me, not to mention its probably expensive.

 

[don-vee]

I'm building a pair of 10x10 bi-fold doors for my garage. I'll post pics very soon if anyone's interested.

 

[Rickenbackerman]

don, I'd love to see pics when you're done. I want to build a pair of 8x7 doors to replace my 16x7.

 

[alberto]

I'm building a pair of 10x10 bi-fold doors for my garage. I'll post pics very soon if anyone's interested.

Definitely, please post them.

alberto

 

[fergus]

I'm building a pair of 10x10 bi-fold doors for my garage. I'll post pics very soon if anyone's interested.

Ditto. I'll be building a door of unknown design for my garage in a few weeks.

 

[gtivr4]

I'm building a pair of 10x10 bi-fold doors for my garage. I'll post pics very soon if anyone's interested.

I'd be interested!

 

[yimbo]

Having problems downloading the bifold door plans and I have adode acrobat reader 10.

 

[sdowney717]

here is a picture of the plan

I am using Ubuntu Linux and also have Adobe 10.

 

[alberto]

I guess I missed this last post. Do you have a picture of the doors in operation?

Thanks for posting the drawing. Definitely something that I'm interested in. Can they be remotely operated, or hand open/close only?

 

[kbs2244]

I have seen doors like the ones in the sdowney717 drawing operated remotely with 2 operators mounted sidways.
Sorry for no PICs. It was long before digital cammeras and they are now far away.
The hook up was home made, but if you can build the doors you are good enough to figure it out.
The only problem was in a real heavy snow, you had to shovel out some swing room.

 

[m.james]

I would be interest to she how they are remote opening. Please post pics.

 

[shirk]

Does anyone have pictures of diy bi-fold doors?

I am considering replacing the door on my shop with a set of bi-fold.

The current door is a single panel that swings as a whole unit.

 

[keithwwalker]

If you want ideas for bifold designs, look at the Richards Wilcox vintage catalogs here:
https://archive.org/browse.php?field=subject&mediatype=texts&collection=buildingtechnologyheritagelibrary
btw, they are still in business and you can still buy similar hardware.

 

[John in OH]

Co-incidentally, I just responded to a similar post regarding horizontal swinging doors and I think the snow problem would also apply to bi-fold garage doors:

"I've got two sets of double, side-hinged, horizontal swinging doors on an old shop that my grandfather built in the 1920's. Never installed an opener and each pair is slightly less than 8' total width so the two openings are a little narrow for modern vehicles ... but that could be corrected on a new build by making the door openings wider.

Biggest problem with the horizontal swinging doors is snow! You don't give your location so don't know if this could be a problem or not for you. But when we get an Ohio snow fall greater than about 4" the snow prevents the doors from swinging open. The doors "bulldoze" the snow into piles as you try to swing the doors open; thus, requiring some snow shovel work to get the doors fully open. If the snow fall is 1' or more it's essentially impossible to get the doors open without first shoveling nearly all of the snow from the arc of the door swing."

 

[upndown]

Sealing them may be a challenge, especially in Vermont..

 

[shirk]

Thank you for the link to the Richards Wilcox catalogs.

They show a set of the doors that I want to re-create.

I have also found Kristrack here in BC that does the hardware needed. I have not contacted them yet to see what the price is.

http://www.kristrack.com/FDE0FE19-843E-41E2-AA82-2F36AF2D5927.html

Snow won't be an issue as we only get a tiny bit each winter here in Vancouver BC.

The main reason I want a sliding folding door is that we park our car parallel in front of the door pictured above. We don't have enough room to park and still open the door. I don't want to loose the interior space with a regular style roll up.

If this works I plan to replace the back wall with a similar style set of doors so the garage would open onto our patio. We entertain frequently and use the garage for parties.

 

[keithwwalker]

What is interesting is that the old Richards Wilcox doors favored interior opening doors for this reason, but with small garages, this is a disadvantage.

I myself am in the Pacific NW, at sea level, so it only snows once or twice a year.

Biggest problem with the horizontal swinging doors is snow! You don't give your location so don't know if this could be a problem or not for you

 

[blkbry]

I am very interested. I am trying to figure out what carriage style DIY door I want for my 10x10 garage opening

 

[bgarrett]

I am going to make horizontal bi-fold doors for mine. I'd like to see details