Hi all,
I'm here looking for suggestions about an internal door issue in my new home.
I need a lockable interior kitchen door (lockable from the outside, not only when inside the kitchen).
Previously I have used slid wood doors and had dead bolts fitted but in this property the original door frame for the kitchen is cut so the kitchen door opens out into the kitchen itself- pretty standard stuff. Except the kitchen at some stage was renovated to incorporate kitchen units that block a door from opening in to the kitchen.
Previous occupants solution to this has evidently been to simply not have a door.This is not an option for us.
In this property I am trying to maintain a clean and professional finish ( unlike our own previous reverse fitting door capabilities in previous houses) and as a result I am reluctant to say the least to start fitting an interior door onto the existing frame which opens out room not into the kitchen doorway.
Not to mention that doing this has always previously meant cutting into the dor frame to achieve this.Not what I- as a DIY amateur have the skills to perform without it looking awful.
I have considered bifolding doors- instant solution to the whole problem of a door being blocked by kitchen units trying to open into the kitchen and this would seem to be the solution to all problems aside from two things.
The first is sourcing non standard size bifold solid wood interior bifold doors and the second being how to lock them from the outside of the kitchen.
Internet research has brought up some basic token solutions but every one of them has been based on locking the door when you are inside the room but I need a solution that actually enables the door to be locked from outside the kitchen.
At first I thought if I fitted an extnded length deadbolt which shot into the wooden kitchen dor frame a lot farther than a standard deadbolt does, that this would cmfortably ensure the bifold doors could not just be pushed in the bifold (in the middle) and opened up into the kitchen.
Now I'm not so sure and I'm not sure bifold is even the best way to go for this but if I can possibly utilise the existing door frame and original recess into that frame the original kitchen door sat in, I really want to.
Any ideas would be really apreciated- Ive hit a brain storm brick wall.
Thanks.