A Bi-Fold Door Fix. Installing a Bi-fold Door Repair Bracket

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Part 1 of this article :: Adjusting a Bi-Fold Door after new Carpet Installation

“Replace Hardware”: Step 2, again

So with my next visit to the hardware isle, I bought every bi-fold door part in sight. Different styles and different sizes, tack-in types. There were ones for different track widths; ones with plastic sleeves and others with metal sleeves. It really was surprising to me how few, in fact only two, had any sort of sizing information on their outside packaging.

Before pulling out, though, I spotted a “bi-fold door repair bracket” — 2 sizes, and I grabbed them both; I could always return the unneeded one. I checked out and headed on my way. While I was in my truck, I thought to myself, “Sweet” — now I don’t have to try to flip the door over, or move the pivot to the other side.  If you are looking for the how to, repairing a bi-fold door with a bracket is right here.

Home Improvement is Not Brain Surgery, Thankfully

I never lost my cool at any point during this install, I will tell you that trying to retract flushed plastic sleeves from a bi-fold door is not necessarily an easy proposition. In all cases, I had to trim off the sleeve’s flange with my five-in-one tool and then push the balance of it down in the doors’ hollow pockets. (No one will ever notice the rattling of carcasses I left buried in these doors that weekend.)

Anyway — to make this fix finally happen, I installed a “repair bracket” to the cracked portion of the door bottom — adding a little wood glue earlier in this process. Before I went to work on it, I did notice the instructions on the packaging (see how I am always trying to double check instructions).

Kinda smart how the labeling on the package, when folded and sealed inside, makes for a great place to store more detailed instructions. While the instructions were very similar to those I noted in part one of this article, they did have this one little additional tidbit:

“If your bi-fold door has been damaged, it may be necessary to drill out the existing pivot pin hole . . .to allow the new pivot pin to slip through the large hole in the bracket.”

For a moment, I thought to myself maybe I should have heard about this a little earlier in my reading. Nah, instead, I took some blame for it, and thought that I should have had a little foresight and incorporated this bracket into my original action plan.

After a few tests with the varying hardware I bought, I had it nailed. Step 2 — done. I was finally ready to move to the elusive steps 3 and 4 . . .again.

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Check out our category Doors for more lifesaving products and tips.

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