I landed on this job not to far from me.  I got a call from a woman who said I was recommended by a few people who knew me which always good to hear.   She said she has this joiner who is struggling at the moment to keep up in front of the other trades men because the second joiner had left because he was moving away.  

Well I had a look and it's a pretty big house.  I told her I'm a little busy but she said it's okay if I can just come when ever I want  so it's a kinda turned into a hospital job for me.

Anyway to the point aswell as doing general joinery she wants me to do the bits she feels I should do one of them being a secret door and making some units/built ins.  

I have done a few secret doors  but I was wondering how other people have done secret  doors.    This one I believe she just wants it to look like the wall. So I was wondering what type of hinges or something else you've used in the past.

I have used a pivot point top and bottom and I have used SOSS hinges

Jmb

Thank you any way  and yes I have seen it.  

I am going to suggest some sort of shelving with a surround as that is only way for it to be completely secret.    

I dont know untill I next time go to the job if she wants it totally secret or just discreet so just blends with the wall as she was saying she just wanted a door and said it can be made out of MDF and just painted like the wall.     I didnt go into much detail at the time as she was showing me EVERYTHING around the house and I only just popped up quickly to see the job dats all as she was more bothered about doing stuff down stairs first as the plasters where coming to do down stairs  but she just showed me some of the other jobs any way.

I have just done a quick sketch up  at the the grey are the walls of course and thats how it is alterations can be made has it has not been plasterboarded yet.   Its a small opening any way and its low height door also has sloping ceiling behind the door so its not a proper access door its just another way into that area.  

So doing something like Gary would only make the opening even smaller and I dont think the opening can afford being any smaller  you might have to then walk through it sideways lol.  

The Yellow section is the door and the white is the skirting (baseboard)  and the red it the pivot point which is 45 mm away from the adjacent  wall as I made a mistake with a secret door before! It worked brilliantly and then I fixed skirting on the wall and the door wouldnt open OOPS!  So the Pivot point needs to be atleast two thickness of the baseboard away to allow for the skirting on the wall AND for the skirting on the actual door AND half the thickness of the door














JMB

Any one use these before?   *These*


They seem perfect for the job and they move out on a gear as you turn the door how durable are they?   They say they will do a 36inch door this door is only like 26 inch when I looked at it I didnt measure

Also how do you remove the door?   Looking at the diagram once you release the set screws the top pivot goes up because of the spring and the bottom will go down because of gravity  so how would I reverse this to remove the door if I need to make minor adjustment or just need to remove the door in the future!



JMB

Got it figured out yet ? 


Seth

JMB,

Maybe it is because many of us have never done hidden doors.  I have been doing this almost thirty years and have never done one.

But it is amusing to see you talking to yourself  .

Peter

what about floor springs? maybe too epensive but door will shut itself

yup

i'll talk to you but we'll have less of this friend business!!!

yeah they are expensive, hafele do 1 for 100quid but they discontinued half the bit by the looks of things

FINALY Thousands of photos later I found my first ever secret door! I still need to try and find the other secret doors but im a little fed up looking lol!  Any way   I only just finished my 2 year apprenticeship so have mercy!   

The Forman had left me two it on the job as he went on Holliday for a week and he gave me the keys and security code and told me all the jobs I had to do which was like a months work just for me and  left me a list to let the other 6 joiners know what they needed to do if they finished what they where working on and make sure every one had all the materials they needed! It was fun!   

Any way! So I decided I wanted to work on this secret door well umm looking back at it I wouldnt split the door like I did I would do it like a full size door opening I dont know what I was thinking at the time!

I wasn't like I am now and go on the internet researching all the time to make sure I know what I am doing and making sure Im doing it the best possible way!  So I didnt have a clue how it was done back then I wish I did go on the internet and looked how other did secret doors  Oh Well!!


Pictures!

I did everything in the bathroom I made the Units I made the secret door and built the ward drobes on the other side to hide the door.

JMB   What a unique thing to do , It is really great the way the door opens up and it makes the bathroom look great.
This was a great venture on your part. Good work as far as I a concerned.


Sal

I did not do this bathroom but I did rip it out and built the wardrobes with a secret hatch.  

This bathroom was done by another joiner who worked for the company.  The bathroom was umm no more than 1 month old and it was all ripped out and thrown into skip!



 

You can see in the corner der is a door with a little chrome knob well da is where the toilet is that stayed as they love loads of toilets as I can remember the house had 11 toilets!


Then I built this its not finished I did a little more work on it since the photo like fixing the styles in line with the walls but it never got painted it got ripped out again and burned!   as they had another change of mind and it become the landing instead of a bathroom so with in a few months it went from bathroom to walk in wardrobe to smaller dresser room/landing/ secret cupboard all walls knocked down and new studding dividing it all up

I made a secret hatch to store his naughty stuff  

I know its OFF-Topic but it was on the same job and I found these videos and pictures in the same folder so I thought I would still post it in here!

I was walking into the canteen you can see it in the video in the background   its a green container thing!  Well you come round from the front so you can EYE the wall down and  I have always noticed the wall with a bow in it BUT this time I noticed the BOW in the Wall was more I first thought nothing off it but I decided to walk over and I noticed the wall crumbling and I touched the door and it was loose and I remember it was fixed solid.   I still didnt think much off it and just as the Forman past me I said do you think that wall is more bowed!   He said yes!  

Then he panicked and told every one to get out of the building and told the ground workers to move away from the wall!   One joiner ran back inside and put a acro prop under the oak truss to stop the roof going if the wall went!

Watch what happens next!

For Fog

The reason the wall collapsed because the grounds men where digging the ground away and dug below the footings and then when they where wackering the ground the wall started to give.

So maybe I saved some peoples lives? or maybe some one else might of noticed it a few sections later who knows!

Sorry I missed this post before!    I think I understand how you have done it!   Im not sure what to use yet for the push latch a magnet or non magnet I want a really strong heavy duty one but all I can find at the moment see medium duty and one heavy duty one but it looks ugly!

JMB

Unbelievable! Good thing you said something. Jeesh...

Same with that secret opening into the building.  It aint a secret no more.


So, JMB, who's picking up the tab for that disaster?

Are you adding that specialty onto the side of your van?  "I check walls for plumb, then run!"