I have a patio that is raised on meter off the ground. On a side of it there are stairs that lead to a storage room. I would like to build a door for this opening from two parts
- a 1-meter high horizontal door that swings to the left (as you look
down the stairs) - a vertical door that is level with the existing tiles made
(out of metal probably)
The horizontal door will have a locking mechanism and it will have a lip that holds the vertical door closed: if you close the vertical one first and then close and lock the horizontal one, it will hold them both securely closed. Until you open the horizontal door the vertical one cannot be raised.
Questions:
Having a metal surface, can i put tiles on the vertical door so it will look like the rest of the patio door ? If yes, can you point me in the right direction with a product type or name?
Is there a kind of hinge i can put on the bottom of the vertical door so it is not visible from above?
are there any good reasons I should not do this?
Having tiles on the metal doors would increase it's weight a lot, but I can build a counter-weight inside the stairs area that would be almost the same weight as the door, requiring very little effort to raise it.
I thought about building the vertical door with a few U-shaped arms on the side it will connect with the floor. A leg of the U will be welded to the metal door and the other one to a hinge connected to the ceiling of the stairs. When swinging the door up the U will be on a side, allowing the door to move while hiding the patio floor (less things to trip is always a good thing, right? and it would look a lot better)
(Please forgive my english, I probably used a few wrong names for things, it is not my first language and I used google translate to find a few words related to constructions)
Thank you kindly for your time and any advice
Edit 1: I found this image while searching for U-shaped hinges to add as an example. Another option would be to have the two pieces welded together and make the door swing up like this suitcase (the left part of the image: the part that swings up would be the door) but I'm even more worried about the total weight of the door.
Edit2: Added sketch for the ideal door, seen from the side, in the closed an opened state. The blue arm would be inside the stairwell
- black - door with arm
- red - hinge
- blue - counter-weight arm
- yellow - counter-weight