Bifold Door Hardware: An Item-by-Item Guide

Buying bifold door hardware is something that is often overlooked but needs to have thoughtful and thorough consideration. Bifold door hardware is just as important as the bifold doors themselves.

To install a bifold door, you need a few different pieces of hardware. These pieces/parts are as follows.

Hinges

Hinges are used to connect the doors. Invest in a good steel hinge. No-mortise hinges are an excellent choice for bifold doors. With a no-mortise hinge, one leaf is set inside the other. Installation of the hinge leaves a small gap between the door and the frame, thereby maintaining the integrity of the bifold door.

Another alternative to the no-mortise hinge is a double-locking bifold door hinge which is installed flat on the backside of the two meeting door styles. This type of hinge will stabilize a bifold door by locking at 0º, stops at 135º, and locking again at 180º. This hinge will lock the doors flat when open and it will lock the doors shut when they are folded to eliminate bounce back.

Track hardware

When purchasing bifold door hardware, look for track hardware. Special track and hardware must be used to support the single panel bifold doors. There are different track options available. An easy residential application (for lightweight doors) is surface mounted pivots and hangers, where no hole drilling is required. The pivot locks in place securely and holds the door sashes in place.

If you have purchased and intend to use a heavier bifold door, look to purchase track hardware that has ball bearing wheels. These wheels ride smoothly and quietly on the rails. The heaviest of bifold doors will contain extruded aluminum I-beam tracks. Within the track, you will find four nylon wheeled ball-bearing hangers. Heavy-duty pivots and pivot guides will hold heavy duty bifold door panels firmly in place.

Floor bracket

Floor brackets with the pivot or pivot plate are used to adjust the jamb side door sash in its proper axis alignment and hold bifold door assembly in place. It gives them another point of guidance. There are many different types of floor brackets available. If you are looking for something functional, purchase an inexpensive bracket. If your bifold door is being used as a room divider or if it is being used as a show-piece in a room, purchase a floor bracket with some style or decorative features.

Door aligner

The door aligner is a necessary part of your bifold door hardware. This piece of hardware is an alignment device. It consists of wedge-shaped pieces fastened to the bottom of the door. The complimentary wedge-shaped pieces engage each other and pull the bottom edge of the door into alignment. Each piece is fairly invisible from either side of the door.

Bifold door hardware kits

If you go to purchase a bifold door hardware kit, there are several things that you must consider. You must decide whether the application of your bifold doors requires heavy-duty hardware or whether the use of your bifold doors can be longlasting with surface mounted light-duty hardware.