Few things make a bedroom seem shabbier than a beat-up sliding closet door that's hanging crooked or that won't open and close smoothly. Inexpensive closet doors often are installed to cut down on building costs, but doors made of low-quality materials and hung with inexpensive hardware can lose their alignment and become difficult to operate. And they sometimes don't wear very well, so they can become stained and scratched. A reasonably handy person can correct most minor closet-door problems fairly easily. And if the door is too far gone or too ugly to save, replacing a closet door is also a simple project.Closet doors come in three basic styles: sliding (sometimes called bypass), bifold and swinging-hinge doors. Swinging-hinge doors are like the other interior doors in your home, but bifold and sliding doors are hung from tracks and might need extra attention.The side of a bifold door is attached to the door jamb with hinges or pins in brackets. The side of the door opposite the hinges is suspended from a sliding mechanism that moves along a track.
Sometimes the slides stick. If the sliding mechanism contains a wheel, a little light oil in the works might improve the operation. If there is no wheel, try rubbing a little candle wax on the track.Sliding closet doors, which are used in pairs, are not attached at their sides but glide along overhead tracks. They can become sticky, too, but they almost always have wheels that can be oiled.Sliding doors usually have at least one floor bracket that keeps the bottoms of the doors in line with their tops.A common problem with sliding doors is misalignment. If the doors are higher on one side than the other, or if they are hung too low, they might drag on the floor or snag at the floor bracket. If they're hung too high, they can swing out of the floor bracket and come completely out of the track.The alignment of sliding doors usually can be adjusted without removing the doors.Step inside the closet and look for the brackets that attach the sliding wheels to the top of the door. The bracket should be held in place with screws set in curving slots.
With a partner holding the door, loosen the screws in the curving slots but don't unscrew them completely. Move the bracket up or down as needed and partially retighten the screws. Test the door to see that it slides properly before retightening the screws.Replacement brackets and wheels are available at home-improvement stores. Replacement components run from about $2 for simple wheel assemblies to $20 for new brackets and tracks.Some closet doors are made of a lightweight wood called lauan. Such doors usually have a framework of pine or other wood around the edges, and the center part of the door is hollow.The wood in the doors sometimes deteriorates, and screws can become loose, making hinges and brackets rattle.When a screw refuses to tighten in deteriorated wood, you have to dismantle and remove the hinge or bracket and plug the old screw hole.Put a little wood glue on a wooden golf tee and tap the tee into the screw hole. Allow the glue to dry a while, preferably overnight, and then cut off the extra part of the tee with a utility knife.
Closet-door sizes are standardized (24 by 80 inches, 36 by 80 inches, for example), and it should be easy to find replacement doors where lumber and building supplies are sold. Measure your existing doors and look for replacements with the same dimensions.To remove sliding doors, unscrew the floor bracket and slide it from under the doors. Swing the bottom of the door up and lift the body of the door to disengage the sliding wheel from the track. If the track and wheels are in good shape, you can attach the wheels to the new doors and keep the old track.Bifold doors are removed by disconnecting the hinges. The slide holding the top of the door should then slide out of the track.Bifold doors come in a variety of styles, from plain flat panels to paneled hardwoods or full-length mirrors. Prices start at about $35 for an unfinished, 36-inch-wide door and go to about $150.Sliding doors tend to be a bit cheaper, with 36-inch lauan panels going for about $25 and other woods mostly in the $35 to $90 range.
Often the hardware to hang a door comes with it, but some doors are sold as plain panels. The hardware to hang a pair of 36-inch sliding panels or bifold doors in a 72-inch-wide closet opening costs about $20. New Owner Demolishes O.j. Simpson MansionDark meaning of bubble-gum Pumped Up Kicks is tough to chewHandshakes For All, Including Simpson, As Fung Ends Testimony Therapists see no developmental benefits from seatsNicole Simpson's Grisly Death Described To Jury'He was trying to protect her'SLIDING doors are often a better choice than swinging doors for closets, cramped doorways or as patio entrances. But minor adjustment is frequently required to keep sliding doors operating smoothly. There are several styles of sliding doors. The kind with two panels that slide past each other are called bypass doors. These are used most often to span wide closet doorways. Bypass doors are suspended from the top by brackets. Rollers, usually made of nylon, attached to the brackets glide in metal tracks fastened to the top of the doorframe.
At floor level, shallow, U-shaped guides prevent the doors from swinging in and out at right angles to the track. If bypass doors jam, derail or fail to close tightly, first make sure that the roller brackets are fastened securely. Try wiggling them if they are accessible. If a bracket is loose, tighten the screws that hold it to the door. If you cannot reach the brackets or determine whether they are loose by wiggling them, remove the doors. To do this, first remove the guides fastened to the floor. Unscrew them and set them aside. If any are bent or broken, replacements can be obtained at stores that sell sliding doors. Sometimes, bent metal guides can be straightened with pliers. Have a helper grasp the outer door along a long edge while you grasp the other edge. Tilt the door so that the bottom rises away from the inner door. At the same time, push upward. This will free the rollers from the track. Next, set the door against a nearby wall and then remove the other door the same way.
With some bypass doors, the brackets can be freed from the track only at certain spots. If you cannot remove a bypass door by the method described, examine the track for openings in the sides of the channels. Slide the door along the track until the rollers line up with these openings, then try again. With the brackets easily accessible, it is no problem to tighten them. If the screw holes have become enlarged, replace the screws with the next longer or thicker size. If the brackets are slotted to allow adjusting their position, try to refasten them in their original position. You can usually determine this from wear marks on the bracket. Otherwise, turn the screws until they are almost tight and finish tightening them after rehanging the door. Properly installed, the brackets should allow the bottom edge of the door to hang three-eighths to one inch above the floor. Rollers often become cut or dented from derailing. If any are badly damaged, consider replacing them by obtaining new brackets.
Also inspect the tracks by sliding your fingers across their edges, but be careful in case any sharp burrs obstruct the channels. Burrs often can be smoothed away with a file. In some cases, you may have to remove the door track to do so. If the track is bent or the sides of the channels are dented, replacing the track is usually the best solution. When you are ready to rehang the doors, wipe the tracks clean with a paper towel or cloth, then spray them with a dry silicone lubricant. Do not lubricate tracks or rollers with oil or grease; dust will accumulate and the parts will become gummy. To replace bypass doors, simply reverse the removal procedure. Doors should hang level when installed. Reattach the floor guides, positioning them so that the doors slide smoothly without rubbing against each other. Sliding doors made of panels that fold are called bifold or accordion doors. These are also suspended from an overhead track, but one that contains only a single channel.
Although some doors hang from roller brackets enclosed in the channel, most are attached by short, flanged spindles that slide in the channel, rather than roll. To reinstall spindles that have slipped out of a channel, look for an opening in one of the channel sides - it is usually near an end - Fold the door until the disengaged spindles align with this opening and then slip them back in one at a time. At the sides of a doorway, bifold and accordion doors are fastened at the top and bottom by fixed metal pins. A bracket in the track and another where the side of the doorway meets the floor hold each pin in place. For the door to slide smoothly, the pins must be aligned vertically. When binding occurs, usually it is because the brackets have slipped out of alignment. If you can gain access to the single screw in each bracket that locks it in position, you can usually realign the brackets without removing the doors. First loosen the brackets slightly, unless they are already loose, and use a ruler or plumb bob to position the door vertically close to the side of the doorframe.
Then have an assistant hold the door in place while you retighten the bracket screws. If you must remove a door to make adjustments, first slide the spindles out of the track. Then lift the door vertically at the edge where the pins are attached and tilt the bottom away from the bracket attached at floor level. To reinstall the door, follow the procedure in reverse. Glass patio doors slide in tracks attached to the floor. If the doors do not slide properly, check the tracks for debris lodged in the channels. If you find any, scrape and vacuum it out. Then spray the channels with a dry silicone lubricant. If the door panels have adjustable rollers, raising the door slightly higher also may help. Another reason patio doors bind are damaged channel sides. Bent or dented sides can be repaired sometimes by placing a wood block in the channel, then hammering the sides flat by using the block as backing. The block must be exactly the same width as the channel. If this doesn't work or if the channels are badly damaged, usually the best solution is to replace them.