WAIT!! Are you sure by “Concertina doors” you don’t mean bi-fold doors?! Click here to see the difference!
Concertina doors are a term you probably won’t have in your vocabulary unless you are from the UK – they refer to a type of door, usually internal, that does not open outwards or inwards by way of a hinge but rather folds vertically in one or more places, giving the appearance of a concertina, hence the name. They are referred to as ‘accordion doors’ in the US and elsewhere, which seems mostly to be because of what the musical instrument is known by in those countries. They are also frequently referred to simply as ‘folding doors’ – though this term is potentially a little vague.
This site started out as a site just about concertina doors but is beginning to get out of hand, and now we are aiming to provide information about all the different kinds of doors that can be used in the home, mostly interior doors, but some exterior doors too. So read on to find out about concertina doors, but also browse around for information on other types of door too.
Plain white PVC concertina doors, sold by Marley
How concertina doors work
This type of door is generally divided up into any number of vertical subdivisions, depending on the width of the door and the application. But a typical internal concertina door of standard width would have 7-10 vertical sections, although they can have as few as two, in which case they are usually referred to as bi-fold doors (see below). These are attached by some kind of pivot so that they fold alternately inwards and outwards, much the same as if you took a piece of paper and folded it into strips, alternating first one way then the other, until you had, well, a concertina shape!
Concertina folding doors are usually fixed at one end, and this fixed vertical strip is actually the only one which rotates out from the doorframe as a regular door would. The vertical section at the other end is the one which comes into contact with the other side of the doorframe and typically has some kind of catch or lock which allows it to be closed fully and stay put.
There also has to be some kind of mechanism for them to be able to slide easily open or closed – if you think about it, each section actually needs to slide freely left or right, as the ‘concertina’ is ‘squeezed’ open or closed. This part of the door can be the most crucial, as a cheap, poor mechanism will not open or close properly, and the door will constantly stick when used. Though this may seem trivial, it can become an intense irritation whereas a smoothly sliding mechanism will be a pleasure to use. If you see concertina doors for sale cheaply, be aware that this may be exactly where they have cut costs, and you may end up regretting having tried to save a few pennies.
The picture below shows you the sliding mechanism that a concertina doors typically has. Basically there is a track along the top of the door-frame, and a little guide wheel attached to the door itself runs along that track. There is often not a corresponding track at the bottom since this would protrude from the floor and obviously get tripped over, trodden on, etc. As mentioned above, this mechanism is really what can make or break a folding door and if it is cheap and nasty can very quickly break in a number of ways, making the door useless.
Types and uses
They are used wherever a lightweight solution is needed to separate two areas of a house or other premises and in particular wherever there is not enough room to install a ‘regular’ door that swings out. In this respect they can make a room seem much more spacious as the door itself does not fill up valuable space in the room.
They also appear in industrial and commercial settings of course, often on a much larger scale. Here they are often used to close off or subdivide quite large spaces – you have probably seen an aircraft hangar door take the form of a concertina door, where a regular swinging door would of course often not be practical. Also, if you attended a small school you may remember such a door being used to ‘soft-divide’ a single room into two groups of kids in order to provide at least some measure of separation and make the maximum use of a larger room. These are actually referred to as (folding) room dividers.
Sold by Marley, a door for a living room, with beech effect colouring, also of lightweight plastic.
Available materials
Concertina doors for use in the house are usually found in flexible PVC and featuring a wood effect of some kind, or alternatively a single colour. UPVC is the most practical material for these doors simply because of its flexibility and durability. We sometimes see people looking for wooden or even glass concertina doors, but in fact what they are probably looking for are bi-fold or bi-folding doors which are actually a little different (see the link). There are however concertina doors to be found with full panes of an acrylic alternative to glass – slightly more expensive but certainly an option to be considered for some rooms.
For industrial and commercial applications, concertina doors are to be found in PVC for public settings, for example airports or shopping centres, or of course heavy-duty steel in the case of aircraft hangar doors, agricultural doors, factory work floors etc.
All in all, concertina doors are a practical solution for subdividing a room or premises and can be a stylish option too, well worth considering for your home or work space, just choose wisely where you are going to put them as they can look a little cheap in some settings.
Concertina doors