Finally figured out why my bifold doors wouldn't hang straight

I did the exact same thing last summer with a set of Johnson Hardware bifolds in our laundry room. I was convinced the subfloor was crowning and spent way too much time shimmying the floor bracket up with scraps of cedar. I had the level out, checked the jambs three times, and was about ready to rip the whole header down and start over.

Turns out I didn't use a plumb bob and just eyeballed the floor track based on the edge of the carpet transition. I was off by maybe a quarter inch, but it was enought to make the doors bind every time they hit the middle. It’s wild how a tiny measurement error on the floor makes the top look like it was installed by someone who’s never seen a square in thier life.

Don't beat yourself up too much. I usally find that the more frustrated I get, the more likely I am to miss the obvious fix. Now that you've got that reveal cleaned up, just make sure you don't kick one of those trim pieces on the laminate—I've got a permanent gouge in my hallway from a dropped piece of crown molding that still haunts me.

I ussually run into trouble with the actual pivot pins before I even look at the floor track. Last time I hung a set of Masonite hollow cores, I spent forty-five minutes trying to figure out why the lead door kept popping out of the top track. I thought the header was sagging under the weight of the drywall, but I just hadn't seated the spring-loaded pin deep enought into the pre-drilled hole.

If those plastic sleeves aren't flush, the whole geometry of the swing gets thrown off. I ended up having to pull the door back down and use a rubber mallet to give the hardware a real good whack. Once that pin was acutally bottomed out, the door sat a quarter-inch lower and stopped binding against the jamb. It’s funny how a tiny bit of friction can make you think the whole rough opening is a disaster.

Man, I am so glad I found this thread before I started my hallway project! I’ve been staring at my old swinging doors for months wanting to swap them for bifolds but I was terrified of the alignment. Hearing that it’s ussually just a track placement issue is a huge relief!

By the way, since you mentioned the laminate floor, what kind of saw blade are you using for that trim? I’m worried about chipping the finish on my new baseboards when I finally get around to cutting them. Does a higher tooth count actualy help or is it just marketing?