Moving a closet door frame

specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
Ok, so here is what I have to work with. I have a closet that is 8' tall, 2' deep, and 5'3" wide. It has a bifold door in the middle that is 3' wide. Since the Bifold door is in the middle, it leaves a 1'1.5" overlap of wall on either side of the door. (See the pics if my explanation doesn't make too much sense). I'm a small grower, personal user, so I don't need the entire closet space to grow in. I toyed with the idea of taking the bifold door and replacing it with a bookshelf, making it look like there wasn't a closet there at all and growing in it. I also considered sealing up the closet entirely, having a hidden entrance and growing in it, but both options would make it look like I didn't have a closet, which is kinda suspicious.

So, instead I would like to seal up half of the closet, and keep the rest of it as an actual closet. I figured it would be easy to seal up one of these overlaps and have a grow that is 1'1.5"x2', but that seems kinda like a waste to me. So instead, I would like to be able to move the frame of the door either to the right or to the left 1'1.5", so that I knock out one of these overlaps and place the door flush with it. Then take the other overlap and double it in size, then seal it off and grow in it. If my explanation doesn't make much sense, feel free to look at my awesome graphic design skills :hump:.

More or less, I know that I would need to take the molding out, slip a jigsaw blade inbetween the wood, and cut the frame out. Then knock out the wall on the one side, and place it next to the other wall, then put the frame back in place where I want it to be, put the molding back on and we are good to go.

I just wanted to get the go ahead from some of you guys before I partook in the demolition of my house :mrgreen:. If anyone had any thoughts, advice, or comments to give me I would appreciate it. I'm not really on too much of a time frame, although I would like to get it done in 2-3 weeks. Thanks guys.

PS. I attempted to draw a before and after picture in paint, but ROI won't let me upload it, too big. So I just took a picture of my drawing. Sorry if it's low quality.
 

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P@ssw0rd

P@ssw0rd

New Member
Sounds like ya got a good plan, How do you plan to close off/enter/exit the portion of the closet you will be hiding? Your time frame seems leisurly, If your that worried about what people see in your bedroom you should hustle and get it done ASAP. If not having a closet would be to suspicious imagine what the demo/construction would look like?

Good luck, i love your plan.

P@ssw0rd
 
Florida Blooms

Florida Blooms

Well-Known Member
I have been also looking into this. But my closet is more like a walk-in... so it would be easier to get a wall up half-way and put close up to make it look legit.
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
P@ssw0rd said:
Sounds like ya got a good plan, How do you plan to close off/enter/exit the portion of the closet you will be hiding? Your time frame seems leisurly, If your that worried about what people see in your bedroom you should hustle and get it done ASAP. If not having a closet would be to suspicious imagine what the demo/construction would look like?

Good luck, i love your plan.

P@ssw0rd
Click to expand...
As far as the entrance and exit, I was toying with two different options. Number one would be cuting a hole in the celing of the grow area, then droping a latter down, and entering and exiting from the attic. This isn't my main choice, as it seems like more work than is necisary.
My second choice, and probably the one I will go with is as thus: When I construct the 8'x2' wall, I will do it in two sectons. One 8'x1' section will be actual wall, and the other will look like a wall on the outside, have internal hinges and 'Tot lock' magnetic safty locks on the inside, and will swing outward like a door. The only concern would be the one long crease that would run down the middle of the wall. I havn't really thought how I would fix this problem though.
If anyone had a better idea as to the entrance and exit I would love to hear other options.
And I agree about the construction. If I could get it up in one day, that would be fantastic, and much less suspicious, but I'm giving myself 2-3 weeks for planning and in case something gets messed up. I already have to repaint my room, so I can do that after the construction to cover up any traces on the walls.

UserFriendly said:
You guys can use Irfanview to resize your pics. IrfanView - Official Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide
I don't understand the benefit of doing all that work.
Click to expand...
The benefit would be having a sealed off grow area. I have a cab right now, and have had two others in the past. I like them, and I planned on keeping my mothers in the one I have, but the space is just too cramped. I would really prefer to have a room, but don't have one that I can seal off to grow in. I am also too paranoid to just grow in one room of the house and 'lock the door'. I would prefer the added protection of not knowing that the grow room actually existed.
 
Mr Green Man

Mr Green Man

Well-Known Member
IMHO.

Option one is a no go. there won't be room to clime down when the space is full of plants and lights and fans and whatever else you might want in there. let alown trying to get a watering can down there!

So you need to make a hidden door in the side of your closet. This should be pretty easy really. I find that a removable pannale works best. the panel should be at least 4' high and the full 2' across.

Remember this is a closet. Fill it with a couple of boxes and no one will notice the fake wall unless they where looking for it, and if you have someone looking for you grow room, well you fucked anyway.
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
do you have any pics or posts that you know of involving the construction of hidden doors, removable pannels, or something similar in a closet?
 
P@ssw0rd

P@ssw0rd

New Member
consider putting a small storage cabinet up against your false wall, cut a hole in the back of it that goes through the wall. To enter just open the doors of the cab and crawl through. It would be easy to build and super stealth, but you would loose a few square feet inside for an area for you to stand up.

Another esy option would be o put a bookcase against the wall that is larger then the hole, Put the bookcase on caster wheels, or if your feeling really handy mount it to the wall with hinges. Put some foam on the back to light proof. This would not require an extra space for you inside as you can stand outside to tend you garden.

The cabinet would make for an easy place to run your intakes from.

Good luck
P@ssw0rd
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
I look forward to your pictures Mr. Green Man.

Thanks for the ideas Password. Both of them are very good ones, that I havn't thought of before. I think I'm going to wait to see greenman's photos before I consider other options. I think a false wall would be the best option as of yet, but I'm still open to more ideas. I think right now KISS would make it easier, and that would be a false wall. I would really hate to make a false room, then end up dragging my feet on creating a closet for that wall, and end up fucking it up because of it. One thing at a time. Of course, I do realize that moving the frame of my closet and creating a false wall is not KISS, but we'll look past that :).

As far as ventilation goes, I already have that covered. Once I get the room built I plan on cutting a hole in the ceiling and putting a vortex fan (I already have a6" one, but if need be I will switch it out for one of those S&P fans) in the attic. For intake I'm going to put a air vent, like the kind for heating and ac units that you have in your house, and putting it in the wall that it shares my room with. Then placing another air vent a few inches above it on the other side of the wall on the inside of the grow area. This would create air flow from my room, into the grow room, then out the top of the grow room into the attic. The light would not be able to get out of the air vent, as I will make the two vents far enough appart, while painting the inside of the wall black to trap light. I'll even cut an air filter for both of the vents, to help block air and keep unwanted objects (bugs, dust, ect) out of the grow area. Or at least that's what I've planned so far.
 
Mr Green Man

Mr Green Man

Well-Known Member
Okay here you go.

My faluse wall is quite obivouse when you move the stuff from in front of it, I will do a better job after this crop, however when there is a few boxes and an old mattress put there, well no one has ever worked it out, Tuch wood.
Any way I turned a spair room into a storage closet by building a wall 4/5th so of the way across the room. I then filled the room with unintersting crap.

Remember unlike my room you will have no room to walk around in yours. So you need to be able to easly reach everything from the door.

Any way, not the best pics, there isn't much room for taking photos and I don't want anything to be in the pics that might give me away to my friends who may be on this sight. I know some that grow that don't know I do. :blsmoke:

Hope this helps. I have build better. including a pannel that used to be in my living room. Right there behiind the caouch. no one ever round it. hehe. don't have any pics of that one though.
 

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specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
I have, but it is only 2 feet deep. So even if I used half of the back, that would only give me 1 foot to work with. Not to mention the fact that the wall itself would take up space, so I'd be looking at a grow area of 5' long by 8-9 inches deep. Seems like alot of work for such a small space, so I decided moving the frame and creating a grow room that is 2'x2' would be a little more worth while.

As far as the door goes, I understand what you have going on Mr. Green Man, but your photos don't really help me out. I totally understand your reasons behind not taking more elaborate ones, but the photos don't really give me the opportunity to see the mechanics behind it.

Removable panels in general are nice and all, but it seems like if I did that I'd be only halfway finishing the project. I would prefer to have an actual door. So, I've decided to create a hidden door, that operates much like the one here:

Hidden Door Bookshelf - Instructables - DIY, How To, home

Instead of creating a bookshelf, I'll just build a wall that moves in much the same mannor. The only difference being that in the instructable, the guy builds a moving bookshelf to cover up a door, when my moving wall will actually be my door. Oh yeah, and I don't know how to weld so I will be making it all out of wood. Except for the pivot points at the top and bottom, they will still be steel, only because i don't think they can handle the stress involved in holding the wall in place. But everything else will be made out of wood. I drew a diagram for it, but I'm not sure how well you will be able to see it.
 

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Mr Green Man

Mr Green Man

Well-Known Member
Ye sorry about that. It's pretty much as simple as it could be. there is a 2" fram running around the edge of the wall, and a flat pannel that sits agianst it. I have a couple of screws in the pannel that I can use to pull the pannel out.
A door is great, but remember that you will have to open it. which means you ay need to compleatly emty the closet every time you want to look inside.

Also did you think about the fact that it is a closet and why the fuck would anyone look in there?
You could just lock it. this is your bedroom? why would someone have the right to ask you to open your closet?
 
dew-b

dew-b

Well-Known Member
specialkayme said:
Ok, so here is what I have to work with. I have a closet that is 8' tall, 2' deep, and 5'3" wide. It has a bifold door in the middle that is 3' wide. Since the Bifold door is in the middle, it leaves a 1'1.5" overlap of wall on either side of the door. (See the pics if my explanation doesn't make too much sense). I'm a small grower, personal user, so I don't need the entire closet space to grow in. I toyed with the idea of taking the bifold door and replacing it with a bookshelf, making it look like there wasn't a closet there at all and growing in it. I also considered sealing up the closet entirely, having a hidden entrance and growing in it, but both options would make it look like I didn't have a closet, which is kinda suspicious.

So, instead I would like to seal up half of the closet, and keep the rest of it as an actual closet. I figured it would be easy to seal up one of these overlaps and have a grow that is 1'1.5"x2', but that seems kinda like a waste to me. So instead, I would like to be able to move the frame of the door either to the right or to the left 1'1.5", so that I knock out one of these overlaps and place the door flush with it. Then take the other overlap and double it in size, then seal it off and grow in it. If my explanation doesn't make much sense, feel free to look at my awesome graphic design skills :hump:.

More or less, I know that I would need to take the molding out, slip a jigsaw blade inbetween the wood, and cut the frame out. Then knock out the wall on the one side, and place it next to the other wall, then put the frame back in place where I want it to be, put the molding back on and we are good to go.

I just wanted to get the go ahead from some of you guys before I partook in the demolition of my house :mrgreen:. If anyone had any thoughts, advice, or comments to give me I would appreciate it. I'm not really on too much of a time frame, although I would like to get it done in 2-3 weeks. Thanks guys.

PS. I attempted to draw a before and after picture in paint, but ROI won't let me upload it, too big. So I just took a picture of my drawing. Sorry if it's low quality.
Click to expand...
if you have never done this befor iwould say hirer a person to do the work or it could cost you more in the long run. it is load bearing
 
specialkayme

specialkayme

Well-Known Member
Mr Green Man said:
Also did you think about the fact that it is a closet and why the fuck would anyone look in there?
You could just lock it. this is your bedroom? why would someone have the right to ask you to open your closet?
Click to expand...
I think it's really just paranoia. I like the peace of mind of knowing that in the extremly rare chance that someone looks in my closet, they don't see anything. As of yet I havn't found a way to lock a bifolding closet door.

dew-b said:
if you have never done this befor iwould say hirer a person to do the work or it could cost you more in the long run. it is load bearing
Click to expand...
What is a load bearing wall, the wall surrounding the frame of my closet? How can you tell it is load bearing?

raped said:
what the light are u using on your closet ??? 1000watts ?
Click to expand...
no, it's a 400 watt. 1000 would be overkill
 
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