Folding door nuisance: ideas how to avoid constant headaches?

Question

I guess you all are familiar with the typical folding door setup, say, in a hallway hiding away a washer/dryer for instance, or in a bedroom as a closet door. You will mostly have two parts with a knob in the middle of each part that, when pulled, will pull out the middle of that door-duo and have the outer edges slide along a railing on the top of the opening. Mine do not have a railing on the floor, so in essence gravity will pull on the end of those two sections, making the top roller eventually pop out and the door wobbling around.

What a stupid concept!!

Short of doing pocket-doors that are too expensive for these particular units I'm at a loss as how to make these doors tenant-proof.

Any ideas for a good solutions?!

Jeff B. · Answer

I use solid panel sliders, but you can only access 1/2 at a time.

Deanna McCormick · Answer

We had a long sliding door set (2 doors) for closet opening.. it restricted the closet use way to much we did a trial test installed 3 narrower sliders the front 2 on front track and 1 in the rear track, it works well you can access the middle, and either end with out as much restriction. this was in a 120 unit building we did this as needed with each rental when time came. The old bifolds took to much floor space when extended,, Curtians weren't an option

Frank Chin · Answer

I sort of have the opposite problem.I owned rentals, and most master bedroom closets come with sliding doors, These properties when I bought them was 30 years old, and then I held it for rental for another 20 or so years.What the problem with these sliding doors? Now if you own 15 rentals with a set or 2 in each unit, several times a year, get complaints about the doors being stuck, or fallen off its tracks. Why? It turns out the hardware that holds up the doors, the screws on it get loose, one side now drags, so I either get complaints about the doors being hard to open, or if they yank on it too hard, the doors will fall off its tracks.After years of running by, rehanging sliding doors, for several years, whenever a tenant vacates, I had bi-fold doors installed, at $200 to $300 each.. Since I had it done, had few complaints.I just re-rented a rental, the bedroom still had sliding closet doors. My prior tenant, who handles most repairs himself, removed the clips on the floor that the doors slide on. The new tenant noticed it, and I explained there's no tracks on the floor, just some plastic clip guides. Told them the prior tenant took the guides off as the sliding door gets loose every so oven, gets stuck, and I have to get someone to come, take the door off it's tracks, tighten the screws on the hardware at the top of the door, rehang it. I told them if the missing clips on the floor bothers them, as the doors now hang loose, I will replace them with bi-fold doors. Tenant says he prefers sliding doors. So I told them I will either put the plastic clips back, but within a year, when the sliding doors gets loose, get stuck, they would be responsible for rehanging the doors, or at that point, remove the plastic guides, which is what my last tenant as done. My new tenant decided to leave it alone for now.

Roy Kwak · Answer

Guess I'm late to the party, but for stuff like this, I would probably just opt to ditch any doors or coverings completely...just paint the alcove so it looks clean. Less to worry about and depending on the tenant and the layout of the room/alcove it may not make a difference. Definitely more convenient when you are doing laundry to not have to shove something over...but then again, if you are the type that piles all of your laundry in the laundry room then it would be visible...but maybe that is just incentive to keep your tenants from making the laundry area a fire hazard.When I was remodeling one of my condos, we had a tub with a really old sliding glass door...you know those standard contractor double door that slides back and forth. Instead of replacing, I just tore the whole thing out, caulked the screw holes, and put up a rod for the shower curtain...made the bathroom look WAY less dated and also more spacious since there was no curtain there when we were showing the unit. Anyways, my point is that I like to provide high quality dwellings and furnishing/appliances but I remove anything I can that will potentially be a headache or break...i.e. nice big stainless fridges but without ice makers in the door. Also, microwaves...very unreliable so I only provide them if I have to.

Andy D. · Answer

Thanks, all, for your input! For what it's worth here's what I decided on as a trial run:1xhttp://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/9021713...plus 3x (2 outer edge and 1 smack in the middle)http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/6021722...with the bracket turned 90 degrees so it can be attached to the upper part of the opening (with prior removal of the rail). It's therefore important to get a bracket that fully encloses the rod so it doesn't jump off/fall out.With respect to the actual curtain I will try this:http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/8011198...Considering the quote of $250 per hallway/closet door-setup given to me for using something with doors I'm quite happy with the total price for the diy above. I'll do a test run in 2 units (C+/B-) and see how long that holds up.

Derrick W. · Answer

my wife found the curtins. I think they came from lowes. It had a "pocket" sewn into the top of it that a curtin rod would slide through. I used the same wooden rod that is used to hange clothes from. The rod is around 1 1/4" thick and I used the factory made attachments that are built for this rod. 4 tenants later they are still doing well.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Bi-fold doors are a nightmare for any landlord. On my lower priced units, I remove them and put up a nice curtain rod and a set of curtains. On an a higher-class property, I leave the doors on until they're broken and then try to replace them with a sturdier set.

Quoc Tran · Answer

@Andy D. Check out this guy's DIY. He use two angle irons to create a bottom rail. Pretty inexpensive, but effective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6SydJiNBnc

Kelly N. · Answer

Hang the curtain with a tension rod- no holes and if they pull it down they can put it back up. Or just remove the door and leave it.

Andy D. · Answer

Yes, that came to mind as well. I would need a bottom railing so as to avoid the doors being slammed into the wall or being pulled out into the room and then detaching from the top rail system (idiot-proofing!). It would work for the hallway as there would be enough room left and right but not for the bedrooms, unfortunately.