One or two flush bolts for securing inactive double doors?
Jeff S
5 years ago
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18" double doors in place of standard 36" front door
Comments (19)You guys are crazy! I have 3 sets of double French doors on the back of my house, which for us is the only doors we access every day. They are very surcure! But mine are NOT 2-18" in a 36" door space(my utility is though). I'll talk about utility doors later. My 3 sets double doors are 2-24"(each). One door on all 3 pairs, on the inside side of the door, has a top and a bottom latch lock and makes this door stationary. When the opposite door (passage door) is open you can see these two brass locks if you look up and down on the inside of the door where the cylinder catch latch hole is. They lock inside the molding above the door and into the threshold on the bottom...Was not unaffordable at all. I also have one double deadbolt lock on all the passage doors on all three sets of double French doors. It's a personal preference to have a knob on both doors of one set- one can be a dummy knob. They are very convenient when needing to get oversized furniture inside or out. Just open the passage door and unlatch the two brass latches, on top and bottom of the stationary door land open them both, it's that simple. However, when you close them you must latch the locks down, if not anyone can push them open even if the passage door is locked. When all 3 sets of my doors are open(makes up my back wall) it lets the outside in. They are also great for entertainmenting as my doors or in the keeping room where some like to gather to watch the game and use the restroom but still be a part of the outside party too. The original Postee is wanting this look above, but she only has a 36" max space opening drawn on the plans and can't make it larger(if I'm correct?) I see this is an OLDER blog, but I felt I needed to add my two cents just in case others read these just like I am at the moment, the photo at bottom are of my house double doors, the 3 set is to the left of the picture there is a hallway that they fall into....See MoreRemoving One-Way Screws - Security Door Replacement
Comments (24)I ran into the same issue with trying to remove a security door and window. The screws had been in the house for >60 years and painted several times, so in addition to being rusted, they were especially sticky. I tried many things that didn't work and found one approach that worked really well. What worked: - use a dremel tool to cut a notch across rounded sides. The cut went all the way across the screw head to give the screwdriver more area of contact across both sides of the screw. Because these screws were hardened steel, i bought special diamond cutting wheels (made by Forney, not Dremel). I used the 3/4" diameter. They were cheap ($4). Wear some kind of safety glasses and consider wearing a mask. There were definitely sparks flying and fine metal shards floating in the air. This process of cutting a notch took about 2-3 minutes per screw. So quick! - Because they were so sticky, I couldn't start the screw with the screwdriver, so I used the locking vice grips on the stem of the screwdriver to add some leverage. I should note that I was using the largest screwdriver that our local hardware store stocked. It was long and had a wide tip. The wide tip is essential to make contact with both sides of the screw head. The length was helpful because this process of getting the screw started using the vice grips required two people - one person pushing the screwdriver into the screw head with all of their weight so it wouldn't slip, and a second person doing the slow turning using the vice grips. - Once the screw was turned 3-4 times, it could more easily be removed the rest of the way with the vice grips pinching the screw. - This whole process took ~ 5-10 minutes per screw. Far better than the other methods I tried. What did not work: - drilling a hole into the screw and using an extractor. i finally found a drill bit that would drill the hardened steel, but it was impossible to get the drill to stay in place in the center of the screw head. - grinding off the screw heads, pulling the door through the exposed screw stems, and then attaching the exposed screw tips to a drill (inserting them and then tightening down like it was a drill bit) to back them out. I used this technique for one of the screws but grinding off the screw head is not an easy task. It took forever, and I blew out two grinding wheels for a single screw, in part because the screws were flush against a metal frame, so in addition to the screw head, i was also grinding the frame itself. using the drill to back them out was easy and effective, someone could find an easier way to get the screw head off. I hope this saves someone else all the time that I spent trying to figure this out!...See MoreFrench patio doors - better for one to stay stationary?
Comments (18)All French doors have a primary and secondary leaf. That is because there is a vertical weather seal known as an astragal on the outside leading edge of the secondary leaf so that leaf must be closed before the primary leaf. To open requires the primary leaf to be opened and then the secondary leaf can be opened. On older French doors the primary and secondary left are called active and inactive. The active leaf locks with a dead bolt to the inactive leaf which is locked to the head and sill with some kind of surface bolts. Newer French doors offer hidden multi-point locking that allows each door leaf to be opened with a lever handle. To close and lock the doors, the secondary door is closed and top and bottom locking pins are set by lifting the lever handle. Then the primary door leaf is closed and either top and bottom pins are set into the head and sill by lifting a lever handle or top and bottom hooked pins are set into the edge of the secondary door leaf. A dead bolt operated with an interior thumb turn is usually included on the primary leaf. I know that one of these systems is offered by Andersen on their Frenchwood and their Renewal models and Marvin offers it on their Ultimate French doors. I would guess many other manufacturers also offer this kind of hardware and Baldwin and Emtek offer the handle sets. A reason to not use a multi-locking system is to save money but you should at least price the option. Here is a video of multi-point locking. Here is another...See MoreTrouble installing surface bolts
Comments (20)Patricia, they are a security feature, not supposed to be just for looks, the bottom end slides into a small round hole in the floor. At one time, I guess, all 3 of my doors had them, but, throughout the years, 2 doors were replaced, and those were not added in. There is new flooring and thresholds down now, but, I did see the small round holes when we took up old flooring. The old back door was out in the shed, and it had one of those things, still attached to it....See MoreJeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
5 years agoJeff S thanked Jeffrey R. Grenz, General ContractorJeff S
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