Tips for Installing Contemporary Pivot Statement Doors

Builders looking for a unique door concept that makes a modern design statement may want to consider pivot doors. Because they rotate on a vertical axis in their frames rather than on hinges off to the side, pivot doors can be larger than traditional doors, and can even be combined with another pivot door or configured side-by-side to make a pivot wall. 

Because the installation process is different than for a standard door, Andersen Windows & Doors Territory Service Managers Kevin Forrest and Brad Trampe offered some tips for installing a pivot door.

Pre-Installation

For this demonstration, Forrest and Trampe worked on a single pivot door in a Minnesota home where water penetration might be a problem. While pivot doors can be installed without a sill, that wasn’t an option here because of the climate. 

The floor needed to be finished first, and then the frame was dry fitted to calculate where the high-performance sill and closer box should go. Once the sill was perfectly level, the rest of the frame was squared up.

Placing and Adjusting the Door

At that point, the closer could be positioned in the frame. The closer box is the mechanism that allows the door to rotate. The pin within the door needs to align with the closer, but because once the door is in place it’s not possible to see it, its position was first carefully marked with tape on its face. 

Then it was time for finite adjustments. The closer box allows for a variety of tweaks to how the door operates. First, there’s power, determining how hard or easy it is to pull the door closed. The speed can also be set in terms of how quickly the door goes from open to closed; five to seven seconds is optimal. Offset refers to how snugly the door closes, and height specifies how high or low the door is raised within the frame.

The pin system that connects the door to the closer box and top door jamb can also be fine-tuned to modify the reveals between the door and its frame.

Pro Tips

Trampe and Forrest offered some professional tips to keep in mind when performing a pivot door installation:

• Because the threshold plate is challenging to install due to the fact that it sits underneath the door, they suggest that it be installed over the closer box before installing the door. The other plates can be installed once the door is in place, but the threshold should go in first.

• Painter’s tape marked with an arrow should be applied to the face of the door to show where the pin goes into the top of the frame. Once the door is upright, there will be no way to accurately see where the pin is supposed to go. 

• The pins can be lowered or raised from within the frame, but it’s easier to work with gravity than against it by raising the top pin, then placing the bottom of the door onto the lower one. At that point, the top pin can be lowered into the door.

• The packaging applied for shipping may compress the door’s weatherstripping. It will expand back to its correct size over time, but slivers of daylight may be seen around the edge of the door after installation while it’s still expanding.

Because of the variation of materials used in the home’s construction and the associated installation techniques, fasteners used to attach the frame in the door opening aren’t provided with the door. Select these based on the applicable building code and the substrate used in the frame. The Andersen installation instructions for pivot doors can help with this process.

Pivot Doors Make a Statement

Andersen’s pivot doors aren’t just ordinary doors. Available in sizes up to nine feet wide and as tall as 16 feet, they make a truly impressive design statement. They are available as inswing, outswing, or both, and can be installed as singles, doubles, or gang pivots to create an entire wall that can open up to a pool, garden, or entertainment area. Custom sizes are also available. 

And in spite of their larger size, pivot doors operate smoothly and nearly effortlessly. For customers looking to make a statement with contemporary entrance ways, pivot doors are the perfect solution.