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I was an idiot when I framed the door opening

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7.6K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  MikeKy55  
#1 ·
Cliff's Notes: classic mistake of framing opening too small for bifold door.

It's not the end of the world, as this is only a closet in my finished basement. But the idiot who framed this project (me), didn't account for clearance space for the bi-fold door opening. The rough opening width is 73" (6'1") between the studs. Originally my thought was that I would wrap drywall around into the closet doorway (1/2" x2 = 1") and that would leave me with 72" for a 6' double bifold door. [forgetting clearance space for proper operation].

Somewhere along the line, the idea changed, and I thought it would look better with wood trimming out the doorway, instead of just drywall like the builders used in the rest of the house. 3/4" wood framing now leaves me with 71.5" rough opening for the door + needed clearance space.

Options? I see 3:
  1. Custom order a door.
  2. Get a standard 6' double door and trim 1/2" off of each panel.
  3. Frame the sides of the doorway with 1/4" boards instead of 3/4". Of course, this means I have to find 1/4" thick boards. They only need to be paint-grade, however.

Any thought as to which approach is better? Any other ideas? Drywall is up, finished, and final painted already, so cutting the opening wider is not really a viable option.

Image
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Door bottoms won't need to be cut, have 83" rough height.

Can't just cut the sheetrock back to widen the opening, there is a stud sitting right there.
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Sliding doors were a thought, but might get inconvenient when/if I'm dragging a bicycle on a trainer (or other cumbersome object) through the door opening, versus a 6' wide opening. No doors have been purchased as of yet.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Hit post before completing a thought... I think right now my leading plan is to resaw some 3/4" x 4.5" boards down to 3/8", plane them to 1/4" thickness and put them on the edges. (Of course case moulding will cover the front and back where the drywall meets the wood).
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
I thought about plywood/luann, but what about the edges of the luann? With the case moulding offset to leave a slight reveal, won't the rough edge be visible/ugly? Or should I just get around that by mounting the casing flush and not leaving any reveal? Edge band it? (can you do that with something that thin?)
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
I'm not worried about the the studs being out-of-plumb. As this was originally intended to be drywall wrapped, I made certain the studs were plumb when I framed it. The rest of the house just has drywall-wrapped openings, like this:
Image


So, that's what I was going to do here also. It was after I started hanging drywall that I decided I wanted it to look a little nicer and be trimmed with wood.

As for the casing, it fits. It's tight, but it fits. Due to some uncontrollable issues, I had to put the A/V rack about 1" further to the left than I wanted. Even if I flush the casing for the door with the stud, there is still about 3/8" to 1/2" between the two. (Excuse the frog tape and over-paint in this picture, I was in the middle of painting when I took this). White = door casing, black = a/v rack casing.
Image


For fun, here's where the A/V rack progress is as of this morning:
Image
 
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