French Door Bi-Fold Hamdles?

[drgrafix]

When we first built our house we had a open porch tucked against the family room and kitchen walls. Over the years it has evolved from a screened in porch to a 3-season room with Andersen window-walls and a ceramic tile floor.

I just recently removed the old no-name slider that lead out from tht eFamily room and re-framed the 72" wide door. I ordered 2 sets of 36" bi-folds (1-3/8") and everything looks OK on paper except for one thing. The handles to open a bi-fold are usually on one side of the door, and they are usually on the rh or lh panel of the two that make up each side. Not ever having a french door setup like this, I wondered if anyone else has a good solution for handle placement and how you deal with opening a bi-fold from either side? IOW, if they "open" into the porch, you can't have a handle on the family room side to pull them closed from within that room. And yes, the wife wants them opening into the porch.

Incidentally, the reason that we went with bi-folds as opposed to conventional french doors was furniture placement on either side. Just not enough room to swing 36" door panels to an open position without bashing into something.

Mike

[willshak]

Can't help you on the folding doors, but just want to add my 2 cents on=20 the swinging french doors (for others who may want to do the same). I had basically the same situation as you. Deck outside family room with =

a 6' sliding door leading out. Deck was replaced with a 20' x 20' "Four=20 Seasons" (brand name) sunroom. The wife wanted to replace the 6' sliding door with a 6' bi-folding=20 french door for the same reason - door opening into the sunroom would=20 interfere with furniture, etc. I wanted to replace the 6' slider with a=20

5' swinging french door. I told her that a 5' french door, rather than a =

6' french door, would shave 6" from the width of the door, and when=20 open, the 5 footer's opening would be larger than what we had with the=20

6' slider. We have some bi-folds, and I reminded her of how they rattled =

when opened and the required track needed along the top jamb. I also=20 said that I liked the ambiance of grabbing both handles and swinging=20 open the doors. Well, I finally convinced her, and we installed 5' swinging doors.=20 Usually we only use the right side door to enter the sunroom and the=20 left door is secured top and bottom with optionally bought and=20 installed, edge mounted sliding bolts into the top jamb and threshold.=20 As for bumping into the furniture, there is no furniture within the area =

that would prevent the door from opening at least 90=BA. The right side=20 door opening is within a foot of the aluminum faced styrofoam wall and=20 if opened much more than 90=BA, the handle could strike that wall, dentin= g=20 it. I installed a door stop that connects to the door hinge and will=20 stop the door from swinging into the wall. As for the other side, there=20 is an end table against the wall so the door cannot be opened more than=20

90=BA either, so I put the same type door stop on that side. After all was said and done, my wife is glad that I installed the=20 swingers rather than the bi-folds (I won this one!).