# Bi-folding Wardrobes Doors?



## BrandonB (10 Jan 2022)

Hi,

I have an idea for an install I fitted in my starter/earlier days of planning and making wardrobes, if I were to do it now I would of done alot of things differently! 

The issue I have is the opening width of my wardrobe is 1270 W x 2255 H which is fairly large and makes for some very wide doors - around 630mm x 2250mm which is fine if you have a large room and would easily work given the doors will be constructed using 22mm MRMDF with 6mm MRMDF panels for a shaker style door, constructed using a 5 piece method and definitely would not be the plant on/stuck on faker shakers. If I can I would like to reduce them down slightly so the opening width isn't so large. I cannot add a middle divider as they're drawers below.

With that said, my last resort would be to make up the doors to the size listed above and just add an addtional hinge but after some head scratching I thought I could do something else. My idea is to have 3 doors in the space and to have a pair of doors, bi-fold into each other and the single door to function as a standard door. If the doors are made using 22mm MRMDF and 6mm MRMDF at roughly 420mm W x 2250mm H they'll most likely weigh around 10kg - 15kg?. If the pair were hinged using heavy duty overlay hinges on to the carcass (which support 40kg) and hinged in the middle by a concealed 'soss' hinges I think it could work. I'm aware you can get a Blum hinge that would do the same job the concealed 'soss' hinge would but i'm not exactly sure. 

*No I do not want a rail system bi-fold.

Would be great to hear from anyone who has done something similar or has experiance. 

Thanks all.


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## TheTiddles (11 Jan 2022)

You could make them thicker and hollow like pressboard doors, then use standard door hinges


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## Chippyjoe (11 Jan 2022)

Can not help on the bi-fold aspect, but I would use 9mm MRMDF for the panels personally.
I have done this on numerous wardrobe doors as I think it gives you a bit more rigidity.


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## Jones (24 Jan 2022)

Piano hinge ? It would definitely hold it ridgid and would be unobtrusive on the inside.


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## Stevekane (9 Jun 2022)

Wouldn't Piano hinge have fixings uncomfortably close to the edges? I would use those Soss type hinges because I think from memory they have the really beefy routered in euro type fixings?
Steve


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## scholar (10 Jun 2022)

BrandonB said:


> …Would be great to hear from anyone who has done something similar or has experiance.



I think the following might be relevant to your project. This involved wardrobes for three bedrooms built into the eaves of an old building being converted - the sloping ceilings precluded doors opening towards the outside walls and there was restricted swing space for the wide doors required. Hopefully the pictures show what I did:































The doors are constructed as a sandwich of 2 x 6mm MRMDF over a “ladder frame’ of battens (these were domino-jointed), then lipped with [12mm] hardwood - overall door thickness is 36mm - they still come out heavy enough! (I have made many doors this way - these I think were vacuum-bagged, but I have made others by just cramping to my workbench - it is effectively a torsion box construction and so maintains its flatness (assuming you build it on a flat substrate, of course). I installed a block in the sandwich for the fitting of the (recessed) handles. 

I used Soss hinges as you can see and projection hinges for the fixing to the jamb (the main frame was pretty beefy at approx 70mm x 70mm) - I drew out the dimensions and the projection carefully to ensure that I could fold the folded pair back fully. It was a job that required considerable accuracy (eg depthing the router bit for hinge recesses to 0.1mm), but the setup does work very well. The Soss hinges require careful fitting - you can get a dedicated jig for about £650, but I made my own which was good enough for the 30 odd recesses I had to make.

The door fronts received a V-groove pattern and everything was then spray-painted.

I needed recessed handles to achieve the full fold back. I haven‘t yet fitted catches and may get round to fitting some concealed rare-earth magnet ones, but haven‘t fully thought this through (each leaf requires its own catch, so that the two leaves are opened in turn, rather than the pair swinging out fully extended).

Hope that all helps.


Cheers


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## scholar (10 Jun 2022)

One other point I think I recall correctly is that I made up each pair of doors with the Soss hinges fitted before fitting to the frame (and routing the V-groove pattern). I don’t actually remember the detail, but I think I probably made a template (using my usual method of hot-glued strips of 6mm ply/mdf) to fit each opening.

The super-accuracy point about depthing the hinges relates to the main hinges fixed to the frame - however straight it started out*, there were some small deflections in the jambs by the time the doors were fitted and you need the knuckles of each of the 4 hinges to be absolutely in line to avoid introducing tensions when the door is opened - I cannot quite remember my technique, but involved a straight edge and feeler gauges (which obviously seems a bit OTT for a door-hanging, but it worked!)

[* it was decent timber, I think, but if I do anything similar, I would laminate some timber for added stability]


Cheers


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