If you are interested in interior accordion doors, with equal success you can be either an orientalist aesthete, passionate about the Sino-Japanese interior style, or the owner of a small apartment. In the first case, folding doors-accordion - a tribute to preferences, decorative lyrics, in the second - a forced urgent need.
Accordion doors are a type of folding structure consisting of panels (lamellas) connected by hinges or hinges. Such doors do not open wide open, but thanks to the roller mechanism they fold in one or both directions.
Benefits of folding doors
Agree, an accordion door is a non-standard solution. Therefore, the advantages of such a choice should be clear and undeniable.
So, the advantages of sliding doors are as follows:
- Space saving. To open an accordion door, no additional space is required, while a conventional swing door, when opened, takes up space equal to the width of the leaf.
- The function of a decorative delimiter of living space. Separate the kitchen area, mark the limits of the pantry or dressing room, serve as a shower screen, decorate any thematic niche - sliding interior doors will perfectly solve these problems.
- Noiselessness. If you have purchased high-quality components for the manufacture of folding doors, you can be sure that they will serve you quietly and discreetly.
- Low cost. Sometimes in the “affordable price-quality” ratio, it is the quality of the goods that is modestly silent on the sidelines. Sliding accordion doors refute this fact: purchased from a decent manufacturer and of decent quality, even their not the cheapest options will still cost less than traditional doors made of solid canvas. Of course, you should avoid buying cheap Chinese analogues, in which only the price is their only advantage.
- Ease of installation. With your own hands, you can not only easily install accordion doors, but even completely make them.
- Structural regulation. If necessary, you can change the width of the door leaves with your own hands, add or remove panels.
Flaws
Alas, not only some advantages are undeniable. The disadvantages of sliding doors are also obvious:
- fragility. Like any prefabricated structure with movable elements, a sliding door has a shorter service life than a swing door. But if you reduce the operational load on such doors and install high-quality fittings with your own hands, you can somewhat extend their life.
- Insufficient sound and heat insulation. Through the docking slots of the panels, noise penetrates more easily than through a solid door leaf. Sliding doors also hold heat worse. If you install them in the kitchen, they are unlikely to fully prevent the penetration of odors from it into the living area. But it is still possible to symbolically separate the kitchen area with the help of folding doors.
But as a space-saving design, a sliding accordion door in the kitchen fully justifies itself: in small apartments, the kitchen is often the smallest room.
Types of sliding accordion doors
The main criterion for dividing these doors into types is the material from which they are made. Most often they are:
- plastic;
- wooden;
- glass;
- combined;
- made from chipboard;
- made from MDF.
Plastic sliding accordion doors are the most inexpensive economy class products. They can be both deaf and with decorative inserts. Reliability and quality here leave much to be desired. It is, rather, a decorative element of the interior, a screen. But due to its moisture resistance, such a door can be an excellent solution for a bathroom.
Wooden doors are significantly more expensive, but they also have a great advantage over plastic ones - the naturalness of the material and a solid appearance. But it is important to consider that heavy solid wooden plates of such doors require a more solid sliding mechanism and high-quality fittings.
Glass sliding doors allow you to make any room visually more spacious and will be appropriate both in the kitchen and in the living room. The durable glass from which they are made can be corrugated, frosted, transparent, mirrored, with a pattern or sandblasted engraving. In addition to the spectacular appearance, the advantage of glass accordion doors is water resistance, corrosion resistance and durability.
Combined accordion interior doors combine several types of material, such as wood and glass. There are many combination options: artistic stained glass inserts, engraving, mosaic, mirror insert.
Chipboard is not a very reliable material that does not hold hinges well, so when deciding to make a sliding door with your own hands, you should not opt for it.
MDF doors are moisture resistant, fireproof and environmentally friendly.
Important! Sliding folding doors can only be installed as interroom, indoors. They are not airtight and are therefore not intended for outdoor use as entrance doors.
How to make an accordion door yourself
It is not difficult to make such a door with your own hands. The most important point in this case will be the choice of high-quality fittings. In order to make an accordion door yourself, you will need:
- sheets of material;
- loops;
- hinged guides;
- pen;
- lock;
- plastic edge;
- side profiles;
- plugs;
- guide;
- roller mechanism;
- self-tapping screws;
- drill;
- roulette;
- pencil;
- stationery knife.
Sequencing
You can make an interior sliding accordion door with your own hands in two stages.
Door leaf manufacturing:
- Measure the height and width of the doorway.
- According to the data obtained, mark the sheet material and cut out the desired number of panels from it (optimally - 5-6), which will consist of the sashes. The width of individual elements may vary.
- Treat the edges of the cut panels with fine-grained sandpaper and stick a matching plastic edge on them.
- Leave the blanks to dry for about 12 hours.
- Mark the installation locations for fittings and handles with a lock.
- At the end of the extreme sash, fix 2 metal axles above and below. Their position must be exactly the same relative to each other.
- Drill a hole for the roller mechanism at the top and install the wheels.
- Lay the panels on the floor to connect them with hinges. Loops should be located at the same level horizontally so that there are no distortions. Between all panels, except for the extreme ones, 3 loops must be installed.
- Connect adjacent panels with hinges so that the open distance between them is 3 mm.
- Make recesses for the handle and lock.
Important! Before installing the folding structure, it is advisable to dismantle the box of the old door and clean it to the ground. This will slightly expand the doorway.
Installation in a doorway:
- Drill small holes in the upper rail every 25–30 cm.
- Choose which way the door will fold. Install the latch on the opposite side of the rail.
- Insert the slider of the carriage into the guide.
- Fasten the guide to the upper bar of the door frame.
- Fix the receiving plate at the bottom of the opening.
- Insert the metal axles of the finished sashes into the receiving plates.
- Install platbands around the perimeter of the doorway.
As can be seen from the recommendations, the question of how to install an accordion door yourself will not make it difficult even for an inexperienced craftsman.Choose the right material for sliding doors, accessories for them, take into account all the features of these designs, and they will serve you properly.
