The Most Common Bi-Fold Door Problem Solved
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2022
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In Ask Skill Builder episode 38, William cannot smoothly open and close his bifolding doors.
See how to toe and heel in our How To Install Korniche Bi-folding Doors video:
🔗 • How To Install Kornich...
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#AskSkillBuilder #BifoldingDoors #Bifolds
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I had a set of four leaf FSD fitted, price was fitting extra, paid for the approved fitters to instal to ensure no problems with any potential warranty work. They never quite closed easily, felt draft strips fell off. After repeated complaints to the company the installers came back and messed around with the doors, still not right. I thought I would give up with the warranty work and sort it myself. Realised two of the four leaves were fitted inside out, the square beads making this difficult to notice. Sent pics to FSD Company who then sent their own fitters out, took an hour, fitted new drafts strips, improved pull handles and reset doors. Have worked perfectly ever after, just needed competent fitters, doors are excellent quality let down by poor installation team, took nearly a year to get it right.
Amazing tale, A one hour job but 8759 hours spent waiting.
@@SkillBuilder have to say this is all too common in the uk with pretty much everything from building works to ordering things. Seems that lots of people don’t care about doing it right. As with everything the good ones get tarnished with the bad ones and it’s hard to find a good one. Keep up the good work Rodger.
It would be good to have a follow up on these videos once the job is done and sorted 👍
Always toe and heal slightly higher to allow for it dropping a mm or two ,also shimming the frame helps .
I was going to say check the megaflow temp and pressure relief valves as they may have not seated after a over heat/pressure. Simple things first... Glad it was found. I was also of the opinion a load of 5mm holes can easily be filled and if drilled in discreet locations, shouldn't be a big issue. Perhaps connect the leads from a damp tester onto 2 pins taped round a pencil or similar long thin instrument and have a poke around in the dark..
Fitted our own custom PVC door with full glass. Paid attention to the toe/heeling, and over a year on it's functioning perfectly. Fitting and finishing were more difficult than a standard door due to what's around it, but toeing/heeling was one of the easiest parts. Bit sad that even supposed professional fitters fail at it.
Well that's it, they can't be. That or just don't care, I'd be straight on the phone.
@@rob5944 Agreed. Broken from install is never acceptable, especially when it's not hard to get it right.
I was just surprised how easy it was given how many videos stress it's importance.
@@elminz well I suppose importance can be easy too. 🤔. I didn't even know about spacers until our handyman fitted some French doors for us. I assumed the glass units just sat snugly in the frame....
Safe style pure utter cowboys
The old toe and heel , simple but effective 👌🏼🧱👍🏼
Just learned something
Toe and heel ing the glass is surely second nature to even the slackest of fitters. I would advise your customer to also cast his eyes down the cill to check its straight and hasn’t got a hump in it
They do these the wrong way see it all the time so actually forcing door down not up
Any opinions on hardwood bifolds from vufold
I run a window company and we do repairs most common things are the sashes are toe and healed the wrong way(all the same way) so pushes doors into the floor 😂
And the other is most don’t bother doing up the grub screws on hinges or put final screw in to hold the hinges on and they are just into the threaded locators and slide down (smarts) normally
Have to say they are expensive but all the work by Everest for me doors windows sofits etc has bee right first time and flawless great quality.
My issue with my bifold doors is when I shut the leading door it shuts fine and locks but there is a few mil of play back and forth so it’s not shutting tight and letting a slight draft through . Is this an easy fix ? I’ve tried altering the Allen bolts above and below the latch plate but it’s still not enough, wondering if I loosen the retaking bar if I can then move the latch catch a mil or so back ? Any suggestions much appreciated, thanks .
The bio folds in question are fitted to a wooden pine single skin out house / shed the lintel above bio folds will be timber there for movement will occur as the wood swells and contracts with outside temperatures . Removing any smooth running tolerances . Placing load compressing the top of biofold frame . .
I’m a locksmith and get called to loads .. one door needs adjustments and tweaks so if you stack 4 or 5 leaves together you have to expect issues
I accidentally popped out the hinge at the top of the door which sits in the middle of the track (on the (middle for) of a 3 door of the bifold pvc doors). Any idea how I can put it back in? I’ve tried to take the top of the hinge joint off using the Alan key but that didn’t work as the mechanism is inserted into the setting from the top as opposed to being slid in. Any idea how I can get it back into the middle of the track at the top please? Thanks 🙏🏼
I installed a window frame just two windows but without glasses , side and bottom has level, but windows without glasses side bottom is a line with frame but top like had hinch separate.i let frame side without level
Get Colin McRae in. He's an expert at heeling and toeing.
Rest in peace
Yes and all his passengers.
I have this issue, but the doors face the rear of our house in the evening, and the catching on the runner at the base rail for the door only happens when the weather is warm - expansion is the obvious cause I suspect - any advice for this?
We stayed in a Sheppard's Hut in Isle of Sheppey nature reserve. The by-fold doors on that hut appeared to have been done poorly as everytime you opened them they'd scrap on the decking.
People push their luck with outward opening level thresholds. Worse when it snows
Just bought a house with bifold doors that open to the right from inside and we want them to open from right to left is it possible to change them around?
My wife shut the bifold doors and top is not aligned and the lock is jammed. Press middle the handle does not come out. Top there is a gap. How can the lock be unjammed
They are hardwood timber with triple glazing
What is the problem when the hinge snaps on the bottom off the the two doors that consentine and you end up with two parts off the rollers that are not attached to the door could this be caused with dirt in the track or not towed and healed when the doors when fitted just over a year years ago ?
Joiner by trade but often fit these for my gaffer you’d be surprised by how many “window door fitters” don’t know how to fit and set window openers or doors single or multiple leafs
How about cold air getting in?
Liam of garden rooms has some good videos on doing this too.
He is a good guy
I have bio fold doors 3 section all open inwards can I make them open out wards to give me more room space inside my summer house that I built in corvid
In our church we have a baptismal set in the floor beneath the stage. The Church was built in 1939 an the stage is finished out with 5-5/8" tung and Grove pine 3/4". And the 4'x8' lid is our problem. The lid has been cut in half and hindged to fold back on itself. Then the 2nd half slides across the removable floor joices. And to do so it takes 2 grown men to slide it out then pick it up to remove it out of the way. Remember this usually occurs after a service and men are in suits. But my question is if I were to convert the already matching floor/lid to make it a bi-fold. Would the whole thing be able to lay flat on the floor when opened or will it only open to a 90 ° . Because it would be in the way of viewing of the baptism. If it did that. And can not have it slide the other way because the hand rail is on the opposite side. Please someone with an answer or a suggestion of how to make this easy open with minimal cost. Thank you
Need to check everything is level/plumb/square aswell…or you are fighting a losing battle from the start….
Absolutely. Amazing how many fitters just throw them in.
Moved into a house with wooden bi-fold doors, 4 of them. Swells in the winter and jams, not that i am opening them all just ones. In the summer works fine. Wood lowdown is starting to discolour and a few black spots. Thinking of using ronseal wood rot harder in the hight of summer when dry then sanding and repainting. Any other suggestion?
Give up with them if you can afford it because your have nothing but problems with them year in year out no matter what you put on it.
What about the lead door that doesn't sit flush at the bottom. It rattles about compared to rest of the door and let's the cold in
I need help with bi folding door
How do you adjust for an increased gap between the doors - ours are wood.
I find my bifolds drafty on some of seals in the top corners. They cost me about £3500 for the 4.5m long 5 pane set.
Toe and heeling is used to transfer the weight to hinge,probably been toe and heeled in the wrong places so the weight is sagging
you think it's been heel and toed rather than toe and heeled?
or just bottom corner packed... an amateur thing done all too often by rush fitting
The actual solution is to get sliders and scold yourself for even considering bifolds.
Yes. Very fashionable right now, you just know that design is flawed long term.
Bi-folds work fine if they're fitted properly. By packing the glass correctly and in the right place and in the right sequence, ie start at the first hinged side and working towards the locking leaf!
@@DB7PHiL repeat every couple years...
@@smellydeadcat2178 😂....not if I fitted them 😉
Bruce, I'm with you there. Bloody bi-fold rubbish. I was in the building industry for a while (flooring), and dreaded trying to work around those things.90% of new builds I encountered with bi-folds were a nightmare, seems poor builders go hand in hand with poor sub contractors, ie, door fitters, plumbers, sparkies, tilers...you name the trade. I got rid of the slider in my own house due to 6 monthly replacement of the little wheels, put in a double french door and end of problems.
Great advice Roger, any idea how to open a bathroom PVC window, changed the handle but the piece of square part in the frame itself won't budge and the window is stuck firmly. I can wedge a plastic edger all around and the frame moves but it just will not open. This is 25ft high so would rather try and fix it from the inside than spend £500 on a new window.
All I can suggest is that you look at the mechanism on one of your other windows (assuming they are the same) and see if you can work out why it is jammed.
@@SkillBuilder Thanks for the reply, seems one of the bolts has seized solid
Most likely a sarcacen dead gear box due to nobody lubricates there windows. You need to remove the glass to get enough movement on the sash to prize from the frame if its glazed internally. Push the loose side out with your hand then prize it on the other side towards the side that your pushing on. It should pop open. Good luck. A decent double glazing firm should be able to repair it for you.
I need your help. Since day one my bifold every winter get bad condensation on the aluminium frame on the inside. My installer said it just needed to be tightened when you lift the handle to double lock it. He showed me how to do it. It worked the first year but I’ve checked it agin this year and it isn’t working. I have to lay towels down due to the moisture. Surely there is a way to stop this, I really hate leaving towels down for 3 months or the year. He told me that cold air was getting through and the seal was not tight enough.
I have been donig some heat loss surveys today and even thermally broken frames are not that good. The moisture is condensing on the frames but it would drift around and condense somewhere. I think it is worth looking at what you can do to reduce the moisture levels in the house. The door needs adjusting and setting so it doesn't move. This is a job for a window doctor. There are companies who specialise in this sort of thing because installers don't want to know about putting their installation faults right.
@@SkillBuilder Thanks, yeah they have adjusted it from what they tell me but every year this happens in the winter.
Great video Rodger! The thing that always scares me about touching plastic or aluminium is getting those pesky beads out without damaging anything! And more importantly getting them back in! I’m gonna admit it’s always been a mystery to me and something I’ve avoided like the plague!
But I was trained in traditional carpentry and joinery! It is a skill I’d like to have in my tool bag though!
Any tips or tricks, clips? I’ve never really been able to find anything that explains it, or if they are all different or versions on a theme 🤷
Cheers Rodg
We have a few videos on window fitting that show removing and replacing the beads. The problem is that they aren't all the same. The Korniche ones we fitted recently require a special tool
@@SkillBuilder thanks mate 👍🏻 how is anyone to know in the future? Know what I mean ? Lucky they don’t last that long anyway 😂. I’m sticking to wood 😜
Great vid, but one star off due lack of fury.
I only rant when I am standing up
Can anyone suggest how to remove the white stuff ( like a mouldy cotton like )which appeared in between my newly fixed bifold door
Is it between the glass panes?
@@SkillBuilder yes it is still there
Or just get sliding windows or even plain french doors. Here in Belgium those bi-folds havent caught on and there's a good reason for that: its rubbish.
I had a guy come round and do this. I always thought the issue was the hinge. When he put the packing in, I was amazed how easy the job was.
It makes you wonder why the people who fitted the doors left them like that from day one
@@SkillBuilder lazy cnuts
Just an observation - the glass has a silver spacer bar so these are not A rated units with the warm edge spacer which is black..... this is often a sign to me of a customer ordering the frames themselves and if that’s the case was the correct tolerances allowed for? Is the door to tight to the opening and bowing some where? Also makes me wonder if it was an inexperienced person or even the home owner having a go.....?
I have never heard that about the spacer, They ask what colour you want when you order sealed units. It is also the case that these windows were supplied and fitted by a professional glazing company.
@@SkillBuilder silver spacer bars are aluminium, warm edge spacer bars for A rated DGU’s are generally black as they’re a composite/ plastic.
Wasn’t make assumptions about the installer just generally that’s what I have found over the years.
Great channel, love your videos have learned an awful lot from you and what you share 👍🏻
whoever flitted them door's needs a slap the cowboy
its the same when making a wooden gate bracing it from the hinge
yes and a lot of people put the brace in the wrong way.
@@SkillBuilder The amount of times I have made a gate frame and skinned it the wrong side only to find out when I fit it, LOL. I make them as a K |/|\| brace now rather than |\|\|, Still never know what way around a K type really should go or even if the is a way. I would recon the spine of the K should be the lock side as it gives support all the way from the bottom on the hinge side and they don't sell them handed.
@@SkillBuilder wow i got a reply from the main man
These doors can be adjusted from the hinges if needed, no one tells you how to do it, they look like smart system bi-folds. Problem is these companies technical department are a bit useless and they don't want to even talk to you if your not FENSA certified. Hinges can be moved up and down by loosing screws and then there is a lock screw which needs to be removed. It's a pain as all glass will need to come out and set the door up properly without the glass.
Then make all the adjustment and then put in glass and toe and heal.
But first try and toe and heal as it's easier if it works then all good. Next option take all glass out and readjust the door
He was looking at hinge adustments but it better to do that first. I set them up with a laser so all the frames are in line, then put the glass in and recheck.
That's handy to know to check with a laser wud u do it both vertically and horizontally
I can’t get over his amazing blue eyes ?
some people find them terrifying
We have sliding doors that disappear into the wall cavity pocket made for them. So much nicer than those bi-fold nonsense door they install in the UK
Very posh. Would love to see some pics.
What a bout when has the same problem but without glasses
Steer clear of plastic bi-folds waste of alot of money
Did y'all flag my comment about pay? Why?
I had a set of these things fitted years ago by a cowboy. Five panels. They threw them in and didn't fix the top to the lintel properly, and the frame was distorted and not square. When you opened them, they leaned forward by about 5 degrees.
I ripped them out when I noticed they'd dropped and I could see daylight coming in between the top of the panels and the bottom of the outer door frame. I measured up and fitted sliders myself. Never had an issue since.
They're probably great if fitted properly but mine were garbage.
Some times doors drop it's the nature of the beast
Peter. That is true but they walked away from these on day one
Not if they are toe and heeled correctly they dont.
Trust me I've been fitting for 25 years you can toe and heel at the start of the job and they will be fine you can do final checks B4 you leave and they could have moved the weight can be a massive issue sometimes especially if the door leaf is a metre wide plus
@@petermax85 been fitting myself 17 years, that is why you over compensate when you toe and heel, then open the door out and pull down on the leading edge to settle the weight then try operating the door again. Comp doors on adjustable hinges i can understand it as they have a tendency to drop as they settle over time.
That's naughty the big companies take your money but it takes a life time to get a service engineer to ya
Great advice but the adjustment needs to be done by someone very confident because those glass units are extremely heavy, and you do not want them falling out perhaps two people, should be firming them in position, if you are not a professional,.
Don't take all the beads out ;)
@@UberAlphaSirus Can you still toe and heel, the unit with two beads still in will that not be just a bit tight,for adjustment PS just asking.
@@peterryan7827 Depends if your levering on the glass or the frame to get your packers in. Rarely had that problem, a 2x4 lever under the leading edge of the pvc usualy does the trick to slide your packers in. You could pull all the beads off, sometime you have to anyway because they are butted and not mitred or pull most of the rubber out the sides if it that kinda bead. Gently stick a clamp on the top or put the top and bottom beads on the side to stop the glass tomb stoning. You get creative when there's stuff you have to do alone and the doc says you can't do any heavy lifting. :D
@@UberAlphaSirus Sirus thanks a lot for this tip , the clamp on top that's bril its amazing how we all need some good tips from time to time, and some are just so obvious you cannot believe you never thought of it, cheers mate,utube can be really helpful at times,It still seems a little strange though that there is no adjustment for those two doors , you would have thought by now, some wizkid would have come up with hinges for those opening doors
Oit may already be toe and heeled. On the top of the door there might be an Allen key adjustment to save having to re toe and heel.
I've only ever seen that with Smart System bifold doors but it does make the job of heeling and toeing much easier. You must use the glazing packer that comes with the bifold with the grub screw as it's much thicker than a standard glazing packer.
Defo the thicker packer or you end up winding the grub screw through the spacer bar of the unit…..seen that one!!!!
Don’t believe so called “window fitters”did this but they did.
Having knowledge..a lot...a real lot..of these fitters are what you need on that day...absolutely no skill except the basic and a large hired or leased van..knew one who tried flat roofing...went over joints in white mastic...we were calling in tradesmates to view our tennis court!!! BUT...he still got paid!!!!@@@!!!!argggghhhhh
Now run off to Spain..joining a lot of cowboys in all trades for bars and ex pats...
Good fitters Toe & Heal.
Not so good fitters Punch 🥊 & Kick🦵🏽