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carrie_p_gw

Laundry doors - need help

Carrie_P
9 years ago

I have been lurking, reading and learning a lot on the forums but this is my first post. We are doing a major remodel of our 1969 home. In our neighborhood the garages are detached and we are building an addition to connect the house to the garage. We are putting the laundry at the very back of the addition so that it is out of the way. My challenge is the doors. I despise the accordion style doors. I really want doors that open and can slide back into either side of the WD. I don't think they can be cabinet doors because of the size and if we use regular doors my builder is leery that he can find the hardware to accomplish this on a regular size door. I am including a picture of the floor plan for the area I am talking about. Has anyone done something similar? Suggestions on how to make this work?

Comments (16)

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    I looked into it, for the same reasons, and I couldn't find hardware to support full size doors.

    In your location though, why not just use bifolds (not accordian, but bifolding)? Or, do it as drawn?

  • Carrie_P
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I don't want doors in my way while I am doing laundry but I want to hide the space when not in use. I really like that picture but my machines have the control panels at the back of the top so I can't run a counter above them. I suppose I meant bifold when I said accordion, I don't like those kind of doors either. I'm still really hoping there is some miracle hardware that will allow me to accomplish this.

  • mdln
    9 years ago

    error - deleted

    This post was edited by mdln on Mon, Oct 13, 14 at 23:16

  • mdln
    9 years ago

    Can you find a door, that you like, that weighs less than 75lbs, and no taller than 78''?

    This seems to be the hardware you are looking for.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Heavy duty pivot door

    This post was edited by mdln on Tue, Oct 14, 14 at 10:01

  • Olychick
    9 years ago

    I'm considering using either of these in my laundry. Not sure if I'd do an overhead or horizontal tambour or just make the doors fold back as far as possible and helpful like those below.

  • Oaktown
    9 years ago

    A really nice curtain?

  • jdez
    9 years ago

    I would leave the doors off. The only people who will use your garage entry are people close to you who probably wouldn't care if they saw your dirty laundry.

  • debrak2008
    9 years ago

    We ended up building our own doors to accommodate the exact size and style we wanted.

    Much cheaper than buying doors and we got exactly what we wanted. Note one door is bigger than the other. The bigger door is the one I would open to use the stackable w/d. The smaller door is what I would use to access the central vac hose.

    yeah, no w/d yet. Maybe for Christmas, lol.

    Can't your builder make the doors?

  • dekeoboe
    9 years ago

    There is the Hawa Turnaway hardware that does what you want.

    If you are doing a search, try using the phrase "pivot door slides" to come up with other brands.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Hawa Turnaway

  • johnc777
    9 years ago

    I'm not sure the Turnaway system would be sufficient for standard doors. They also offer the Concepta with will work with full sized doors up to 110 lbs. but oh the prices...

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    Just a note--
    You say you don't want (bifold) doors in your way when you are doing your laundry.

    But, you do realize your laundry "closet" is (as drawn, if to scale with the machines) plenty wide? If you center your machines, the doors will not be anywhere in your way. They'll be in the "space" on either side of the machines.

  • ci_lantro
    9 years ago

    I had a pass thru to the garage laundry in my old house and it was a PIA maneuvering laundry baskets thru the doors as it was. And that was without the added inconvenience of stashing the machines behind yet another set of doors. And pocket doors? Imagine trying to keep that clean! And the lost sox & dirty underwear that will inevitably get balled up and jammed back in the pocket along with (in my household) great wads of pet hair and lint.

    My current laundry is in the basement and had a couple of doors to close them off from view. I say had because the doors were just another PIA that I soon removed to get them out of the way.

    Your laundry location is in a private area of the house so I would not create more obstacles to being able to use them and frustrating attempts to clean the space. Instead of pricey specialty hardware, I would spend the money to get the machines painted aqua or aubergine (or whatever color makes you smile) so you'll enjoy looking at them. :-)

  • aptosca
    9 years ago

    I'm planning on doing something along the lines of benjesbride's picture.

    I have a tiny house (1000sf) and the geometry is such that I want to open the laundry space into the kitchen but I don't want the w/d to show all the time. Pocket doors seem like the solution. I have them on my Stickley TV cab.

    I looked at the Hawa slides and was shocked at the price. But I think they're overkill. Their pictures always show full-size doors. I think the solution mdln gave is probably adequate. I suspect those are Accuride: they look like it and they look similar if not the actual hardware Stickley uses. The doors won't be that much bigger than the Stickley doors and the specs for these slides is way over the needed size.

  • tuesday_2008
    9 years ago

    I love Benjesbride's picture a lot! But I would modify it somewhat. Love the cabinet on the top; would not bother with the doors that slide out to cover the front of the W&D. I would have a nice custom made board/cover that spans the top, yet doesn't cover or block the controls, for folding clothes.

    So basically, you would see the front of the machines, you would have a nice folding station, and you would have nice storage cabinet at the top to alleviate clutter on top of the machines. It would not bother me for the machines to be visible.

  • scrappy25
    9 years ago

    Just keep in mind that if you are going to run the dryer with the doors closed, you are going to either need a large gap at the bottom, a vent panel, or louvered doors.

    Here is a link that might be useful: gardenweb thread on laundry closet door