Our kitchen doesn’t have an internal door, it’s not heated & the main door into the house opens directly into it (there is another door that is probably the ‘front door’, but it’s not as convenient to use).

So food smells escape into the rest of the house, it seems like a bit of a cold sink sucking heat out of the hallway & whenever we use the door, particularly if it’s open for a while bringing in shopping (or whatever) it lets all the heat out.

We can’t put a normal door on because whichever way it opens it will be in the way.
The only way we could get something in place is by having a door that hinges down the middle as this would allow it to be opened out into the hallway & sit against the wall between the kitchen door & the dining room door. The wall isn’t long enough to accommodate a full-size door folding back onto it, hence wanting something that splits.

Like this, but glazed:

But, all the doors like this seem to be bi-fold doors which run along a track. So I’m guessing at the extreme of their movement, they sit at 90 degrees to the frame, rather than folding back on themselves and sitting flat to the wall.

I was wondering if I could just cut a door in two, stick some hinges on & use that….?
Or if I am just using the wrong search term & there is exactly what I need out there I am just not finding it.
Or get a carpenter in to make a door to fit….?
Ideally I want it full length glazed to let light through into the hallway & some kind of flush fitting catch/handle to allow it to be closed properly, but so the door can still sit flat when folded.

Moon on a stick? Your help/ideas appreciated…..ta.

We’ve got pairs of kitchen doors that fold like that rather than half width. It’s completely possible and will fold back as you want. a carpenter should be able to do it but it won’t be nearly as cheap as a standard door of course. There is no track but without that the difficulty is making the door sit flat in the frame. As we have two complete doors there is a clip to keep one in place most of the time. You won’t have that which is why there is a track. I would ask a carpenter though as it amazing the stuff that they have in their catalogues

What are the walls made of ?

If timber stud what about a pocket door or similar ?

Can yoi fit the door you want but without the rails. Put door-stops in the frame as on a normal door, hinges as per a normal door. Put magnetic catches on the stops/ door to hold it closed and stop it flopping about.

sliding door?

Fitted many bi folds, and the ones fromm the duiy outlets have crap tracks that buckle or fail,

so what i now suggest now is to split the doors and hinge each door, left and right side of frame, with a strip of wood offfset over centre to hide the gap, each door folds back agaist a wall and is only half the width of a full sized door.

DONT get a full size door and cut in half, theyre just doweled construction, we did once, it cut nice, lifted it off bench and damm thing fell apart as the pannel and rails are not glued.

Thanks for all the replies…

See what you mean about keeping the doors flat Leffe boy…I wonder if I could counterbore some holes in the facing edges and put some high strength neodymium magnets in to pull them together when closed…

Trail_rat – yeah, I considered a pocket door, but the walls are solid brick. I could put up a stud panel to accommodate it, but it would have to be a telescoping door and the depth required for the stud panel would intrude too much into the hall I think…

Tymbian – yeah, I did wonder if I could just get the door and do without the bi-fold rail bit. I should probably just go and have a proper look at them.

Vader – see above, sliding door would have to be telescopic and if concealed the stud panel to conceal it would protrude quite a way into the hall…

Do you mean something like this?

project – yeah, the Wickes reviews for the door I was looking at all slated the tracks. Could I not just hang the door traditionally with hinges and not worry about the track?
We couldn’t split the door as you suggest because opening one way would intrude where the stairs are and the cupboard under the stairs….

Sammyc- yeah, that kind of thing…
Is that purchased or made…?

Yes but youll need hinges as above to go past the architrave.do you want both the doors flat against the wall when open?

This principle if stuck for space when open.

It’s just a bog standard pine bifold door from Wickes with the ‘special’ hinges as shown.

It’s called an “H” hinge

[Quote] tymbian – Member
Yes but youll need hinges as above to go past the architrave.do you want both the doors flat against the wall when open?[/Quote]

Yeah ideally flat against the wall…

H hinge sounds just the job.

SammyC, thanks…interesting that it’s just a standard bi-fold door.

I’ll try to post a pic of the doorway…

Here’s the doorway to the kitchen…
To the left is the wall I want the door to sit against.
To the right is the intrusion of the stair case, as well as a horrible louvred under stair door (that also needs replacing) that means a door will be in the way if it opens that way.
In the kitchen, to the left is the double oven and cupboards so the door can’t go in that way and to the right is a large cupboard with double doors, which again a door opening onto would be a pain…

Yeah, the bifold would just sit against that wall you want it to. The hinges are quite expensive, I think we paid something like £30 a pair about 12 years ago, but they were high quality ones that could take the weight of the door without sagging.

Just be aware that they stick out a little when the door is closed. Always worried me with little ones (looking at the gate in that photo), but we never actually had an accident with our two.

Thanks for the info…yeah ours is now 14 months so on the cusp of walking. Might wait until the gate is off and she’s a bit more sure on her feet! We’ll see what the missus reckons….