The purpose of the article is to tell the reader in detail how to make and install sliding interior doors with your own hands. This design will visually increase the space of the room, as well as complement the interior of the room. Sliding door is a stylish product that is distinguished by an unusual principle of operation and installation method. Further in the article, the features of the sliding door and how to install it will be discussed in detail.
Benefits
Before you make the mentioned product yourself, you need to consider its positive aspects. Benefits include:
- easy installation;
- compact and versatile;
- saving room space by moving along the wall;
- original and modern design;
- no so-called dead zones (there will be additional space for furniture);
- easy and smooth opening of the doors.
In addition, the sliding door canbe installed within the same room for space zoning. This is especially important in tight spaces.
Flaws
Making a sliding door with your own hands is not an easy task. Moreover, such a home-made product has some flaws:
- low sound and heat insulation performance (to increase these characteristics, the fabric will have to be sheathed with a special sealant);
- cannot be used as an entrance door (sometimes glass structures are installed leading from the room to a balcony or loggia);
- high price of accessories and fittings;
- difficult repair.
Masters recommend purchasing several rollers so that you can quickly replace them.
Varieties
Doors according to the type of sliding systems are classified into the following types:
- Built into the wall (in a pencil case) - models that work on the principle of a compartment. In this case, the design consists of two wings that move in parallel. To make a sliding door into the wall with your own hands, you need to install rollers on the canvas, and a guide bar on the opening.
- Cascading - products consisting of several wings that move in different directions. They are more often used for installation in large openings.
- Accordion doors, the canvas of which is made of lamellas - thin plastic or wooden plates. These turn-and-slide parts are connected by hinges, due to which the structure folds when moving to the side, forming a similarityharmonicas (hence the name). Do-it-yourself installation of this type of sliding door is quite simple, since manufacturers usually attach assembly and installation instructions to their products. Craftsmen rarely make such interesting, but impractical and fragile products.
- Single and double leaf are popular and simple models that are easiest to do with your own hands. Sliding doors of this type work thanks to a special guide that moves the leaf in one plane.
Sliding mechanism: types and features
This system must be selected taking into account the type of door, the number of leaves and the material from which the canvas is made. Different designs have a certain mass and create different loads. For example, a polycarbonate single leaf door is lighter than a glass one. Therefore, for the first option, a light sliding (roller) mechanism is suitable. There are two main types of the device in question:
- Hidden mechanism. The design of such doors must be equipped during the construction of the wall, since it will need to make free space (pencil case) for the door in it. Thus, the useful area of \u200b\u200bthe room will be slightly reduced. However, in this case, the walls will be freed for the installation of furniture or interior items. Doors with a hidden mechanism are called penal doors.
- Open mechanism. The advantage of this system is that there is no need to rebuild the walls, since the canvas will move along the outer guide piece. To install an open-type sliding door mechanism with your own hands, for this you needleave free space along the wall (on one or both sides).
Blade attachment options
Before you start developing and installing a sliding interior door with your own hands, you need to choose a guide system. This is a detail that is necessary for the smooth and rectilinear movement of the canvas. Guides are classified by location into the following types:
- Hanging (upper) used with a small weight of the door. Such parts are durable because the bottom of the product will not come into contact with the flooring.
- Lower guides are rarely used, because they are easy to deform. Also, a door without top support will not move smoothly.
- Retractable (combined) - parts used for the device of massive structures (for example, for a glass door). In this case, one guide is installed at the top of the opening, and the other at the bottom. The result is a stable structure that can withstand heavy loads. However, it is almost impossible to make such a system on your own, since the lower rollers must be hidden in the end of the web.
According to craftsmen, the best option for manufacturing is a single-leaf product with a hanging guide. However, before you make sliding interior doors of this modification with your own hands, you need to prepare a lot of materials and building equipment for the work.
Required tools
To make a quality product, you will needthe following fixtures:
- drill with a set of drill bits for wood;
- screwdriver;
- UShM ("Bulgarian");
- perforator and drill with a diameter of 12 mm;
- hand router;
- circular saw;
- hammer and mallet;
- screwdrivers;
- pliers;
- chisel;
- hacksaw;
- jigsaw;
- string;
- planer (manual or electric);
- tape measure, ruler, plumb line and level.
Required Materials
To make a hanging modification sliding door with your own hands, you first need to buy the following building parts and products:
- Canvas. However, it is advisable to make this part yourself, since it will be possible to immediately adapt it to the size of the opening.
- Suspended type guide - an aluminum profile designed to move the rollers. The width of this part depends on the number and size of the wings.
- Wooden beam with a section of at least 50 x 50 mm - material for making a support for the guide.
- A roller mechanism, the size of which depends on the weight and thickness of the web.
- Boards - lumber needed to build a door frame.
- Finishings (mortise handles, lock, plugs, stoppers, etc.) and closer for soft closing.
- Fasteners - self-tapping screws with a diameter of 6–10 mm, finishing nails, anchor bolts.
- Mounting foam.
For decorative finishing of the sliding system and facing the opening, you need a pair of bars and a set of trim made of wood or plastic.
Blank blank
You can make a sliding door with your own hands from MDF, chipboard, solid wood, polycarbonate and other materials. The technique for making canvas from boards includes several stages:
- Buy lumber with a thickness of at least 25 mm. However, you also need to pay attention to humidity, since a suitable indicator is 12-15%. Masters recommend buying material that has been pre-dried in a special chamber: in this way, the boards do not deform, because they have been exposed to temperature.
- Sand the surface of the boards with fine-grained sandpaper, and level the ends with a planer.
- Combine lumber into a single composition. To complete this stage, the boards must first be leveled and adjusted to size. As a result, they must be fastened together with wood glue. It is advisable to carry out the described work on a workbench in order to lay the harvested canvas on a flat surface.
- Press the glued product in several places with the strings.
- After drying, re-sand the sliding door with sandpaper with your own hands.
- Fix three small strips with dowels on top, bottom and in the center of the canvas.
- Install fittings.
In addition, the canvas can be made from an unnecessary swing door:
- Remove old hinges, locks, handles and other parts.
- Glue plywood inserts into the holes obtained.
- Putty and paint the old canvas.
- Install new fittings for sliding doors (lock,recessed handles, etc.)
To design an original canvas, you can make small holes for glass in it.
Preparing the opening
When the fabrication work is completed, then you need to proceed with the mentioned task. First you need to remove the trim from the installation side of the door, and then measure the size of the opening. The main condition is that its height and width should be 6 cm less than the dimensions of the canvas. If this requirement is not met, then it is necessary to reduce the entrance opening in this way: fix a wooden frame on the inside of the slopes.
Before you install a sliding door yourself, you need to consider the following conditions:
- The maximum thickness of the plinth is 23 mm. If larger elements are installed in the room, they must be replaced.
- The adjoining wall must be level (allowing deviations of no more than 5 mm).
- Side slopes must be strictly vertical, and the top slope must be horizontal.
If all the requirements are met, you can proceed with the installation of the product.
Mounting a hanging sliding door
This work consists of the following steps:
- Fix the rollers on the upper end of the door with screws.
- Finish the slopes and the front of the opening with trim, which must be fixed with finishing nails.
- Fix with dowels to the wall above the opening a wooden beam with a section of 40 x 40 mm. The top of the lumber should belocated at a distance from the floor equal to the height of the door plus 9 cm.
- Screw the guide to the fixed beam using self-tapping screws in increments of no more than 15 cm. The main thing is that the length of the part is twice the width of the canvas. The horizontal of the guide must be checked with a long level. If there are minor deviations, they must be eliminated, otherwise the door will spontaneously open or close.
- Hang the canvas with rollers on the guide.
- Set limiters.
- Glue the rubber seal on the side trim.
Installing a sliding door with your own hands according to the described method is a difficult task that requires the correct measurement of parts. To install a double-leaf door, you need to follow the same instructions. In this case, a long guide should be installed above the opening.
How to install an interior sliding door in a niche with your own hands: instructions
This option is the optimal method of mounting the product in simple plaster partitions. This door installation method includes the following steps:
- Make a load-bearing frame with a thickness of at least 100 mm. For these purposes, it is necessary to use guide profiles (floor and ceiling) with a width of 100 mm. In turn, rack profiles should be taken, on the contrary, narrow (width - 28 mm), and the minimum distance between them inside the frame should be 40 mm. In addition, in the place where the door case will be located, the frame must be two-layer.
- Make a load-bearing beam from double profiles. The result is a support for the guide,which can be reinforced with a beam with a section of 40 x 40 mm.
- Fix the guide to the beam from the bottom side with screws.
- Fix the beam with the profile to each upright inside the frame. The main requirement is that the bottom of the guide should be at a level equal to the height of the door plus 3 cm from the floor covering.
- Fix mounting platforms to the upper end of the door, and a steel or aluminum profile with a rubber seal and a recess for installing the guide flag to the lower end. The last element must be fixed to the floor along the center line of the structure inside the frame.
Installing a door into a pen-type structure
This work must be done according to the following instructions:
- Install the front stop with stopper in the guide.
- Insert roller carriages (two pieces) and backgauge in the same way.
- Hang the suspension bolts into the mounting plate holes.
- Hang the sashes to the sliding mechanism.
- Adjust the height of the door, and then carefully tighten the bolts.
- Adjust and tighten stoppers.
- Sew up the so-called skeleton of the structure with plasterboard and line the walls with finishing material (for example, paint or wallpaper).
In conclusion
The article examined the best and well-known options for how to make a sliding door with your own hands. If the inventory lacks the necessary tools and materials, it is better to buy a finished product. In addition, making your own door is a laborious task, forwhich you need to carefully measure the dimensions of all parts and be able to handle carpentry tools. It is easier to install the finished product according to the instructions given in this article.
