knob/crack positioning

August 29, 2009 8:20 PM

On which side of the folds of a pair of bifold closet doors go the knobs?......

toward the center of the closet opening, or toward the sides of the opening?

thanks MeFites!

posted by hollyanderbody to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

When my father-in-law installed a set of bifold doors on the closet in our dining room last fall, he installed the knobs on the outer doors.

It was counter-intuitive to me, but it works pretty well. He's a union carpenter for a living, so I trust that he knows what he's doing.
posted by elmer benson at 8:31 PM on August 29, 2009

If you have: hinge-door-hinge-door-gap-door-hinge-door-hinge, then the knobs go on the bold doors, near the hinges. Just thing about how you open it--you want to pull them, not push them.
posted by jeffamaphone at 8:31 PM on August 29, 2009

Toward the center. If you put too much thought into it, it makes sense to put them on the inside edge of the outer doors, because it seems like you'll get leverage having them there. In practice, however, putting them on the outside doors means you'll have to spread your arms much wider to use them, which is more uncomfortable in practice than in theory, and when the doors are totally open having the knobs on the inner doors makes it easy to close them again.
posted by davejay at 8:32 PM on August 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

(Near the inner hinges.)
posted by jeffamaphone at 8:32 PM on August 29, 2009

and here I thought it was clear-cut, but already contradiction. overthinking a door of panels.

How about just putting knobs on all of the doors, and calling it a day?
posted by davejay at 8:33 PM on August 29, 2009

Ours are in the center of the panel of the inside section of each bifold door.

(I'm not sure I entirely understand the wording of your question; hopefully my answer makes sense.)
posted by oneirodynia at 8:34 PM on August 29, 2009

... so they are not on the same panel that either jeffmaphone or elmer benson suggests. They work just fine though. You pull on them anyway to start, just because that is how the door moves- it comes toward you. Then as it folds, you push them apart. If the knob was on the outside door instead of the inner, they would be too far apart to operate comfortably, especially as the hinge folds in and the doors push out, clocking you in the wrist.
posted by oneirodynia at 8:40 PM on August 29, 2009

Cursory google image searching seems to suggest that consensus is that they go on the doors closest to the gap. Like this.
posted by knapah at 9:02 PM on August 29, 2009

Best answer: They go on the doors closer to the gap (so that they're facing each other when the doors are open and are easy to see and grab), but they're best placed near the hinge, not in the center of the panel (so that pulling them opens and closes the doors easily).
posted by nicwolff at 9:10 PM on August 29, 2009

Response by poster: OP here: I assumed they went near the crack whichever side it would be because you pulled outward, and that is the direction the crack goes....I hadn't though of positionning the know in the center of the panel, thanks, knapah and oneirodynia.
posted by hollyanderbody at 9:19 PM on August 29, 2009

Response by poster: drr, knob
posted by hollyanderbody at 9:20 PM on August 29, 2009

I had a couple of these installed recently, and when the carpenter put the knobs on as per the pic in nicwolff's link I thought 'No,' but using the doors has made it clear that that's a good spot.
posted by kmennie at 4:16 AM on August 30, 2009