Newly Installed Bifold Doors Difficult To Initiate Closure When Fully Opened

Question

I have recently changed out my 36 year old solid wood louvered bifold closet doors with new hollow, molded composite doors. These doors, when opened fully, tend to stick when using the knobs to initiate closure. I usually end up pushing on the panel with my hand to get it started. I NEVER had this problem with my old doors. I did see in another Q&A that someone advised the following:

"Another problem is when the carpenter puts the knobs in the wrong place. They're often set right near the hinges. This makes the closing force all wrong, which results in premature wear and deformation of hardware. Ideally, the knobs will be in the center of the inner panel. This allows force to be applied in all necessary directions for both opening and closing action."

That feels like what my problem is - that the closing force is all wrong. However, the knobs are exactly where they were on my old doors. Could the difference in the weight of the doors have anything to do with it? Is there any way to fix this since the door hardware has already been installed?

Answer 1

Ed Beal & User3757614 are very right. However, see if you already have stops that are integrated with the door anchors at the ends. If you have them, they're adjustable & keep the rollers from binding in the track, which sounds like is your problem. The doors shouldn't collapse tightly together.

There would be a screw at the outer edge of the anchor & you may notice a seam between a thin edge piece of metal or plastic that you may have mistaken as a bumper or cap. This, would or could be your adjustable stop that can be extended out again to where the binding is avoided.

This is a common problem & everyone eventually leans on the collapsed doors to push the stops in or never extends them in the first place. Due to leveling issues some people leave or make the binding to hold the doors open to stop the doors from closing on them, it's very annoying.