Any suggestion on how to make a door for this opening? See photo

We just finished a new deck and it has stairs down to the basement. We’d like to find a way to do a single hinged door that opens up to the right to access the stairs. When the door is closed down though, we want it to blend in with the deck so we’d want to cover the door with the same ipe deck wood and have it be strong enough to hold the weight of someone walking over it. Ideally when the door is closed, it becomes part of the walking area of the deck. Using this wood will also make the door fairly heavy so we’d need some type of hinge that will assist in lifting it up. I was thinking maybe the frame could be made with metal and then covered on top with the same ipe deck boards and fitted with some sort of hydraulic hinge– but I have no experience with this type of project. Any suggestions? Have you done something like this or anyone have any idea where to look to get some help?

stickerhappy

in Decks and Porches 8 years and 6 months ago

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workisfun | 8 years and 6 months ago

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Roof access panels/doors have such hydraulic mechanisms. Maybe follow that lead.

stickerhappy | 8 years and 6 months ago

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Ok, thanks all. I was really thinking about some sort of hinge that would assist with lifting the door- like a hydraulic type hinge? Maybe also to help to slow it down on closing. Any thoughts?

daveinbedstuy | 8 years and 6 months ago

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HD will sell hevy weight galvanized hinges. Probably a T-Hinge is best.

workisfun | 8 years and 6 months ago

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Do you intend for your horizontal door to leave some of the existing vertical door exposed? Or will the new door be on an angle, so it entirely covers the vertical door? It looks like the grey door peaks above the deck level. Would you consider a horizontal sliding door? Weight issues solved. You could build a short pocket with the same ipe and strong slides, so it looks like just a raised plane on the deck and you could still use the floor area.

cmu | 8 years and 6 months ago

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Lovely deck. You need strong hinges, of course. For easier lifting, you could use a counterweight under the deck. What I’d do would be to attach a steel angle perpendicular to the door, which would be level with the deck when the door is closed, and with a slot in the deck where it rotates down as the door opens. A counterweight is attached to this strip. assuming there’s freefall space of about 2′ under the deck. Or you could get heavy duty car hatchback pneumatic supports, you may need 4 for that weight, but should work. Not sure about their longevity being exposed outdoors, though, and they ain’t cheap.

stickerhappy | 8 years and 6 months ago

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Thanks for the suggestions. Dave, if built as you suggest, that door is going to be real heavy– the ipe wood is super heavy as well as the 2x6s. Can you suggest hinges that would help lift that weight when opening the door? I can likely lift it but just not sure others in my household would be able to do it easily.

daveinbedstuy | 8 years and 6 months ago

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You could make a single door with the same decking material and framing. It would need to be supported on both sides but the span isn’t so long that it would need any center support, if done right with either 2x4s or 2x6s (better, space permitting). You’d need to affix 2×4 furring boards to both sides of the existing frame there for the door to rest on but they would be adequate. Hinges are the easy part.

resident2 | 8 years and 6 months ago

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It would probably be easier to make two sets of doors. One metal door directly on the masonry base, as is fairly normal for a basement hatch and have the deck builder that built the deck to build an additional door (hatch) at the deck level. The deck door will need to be wider and deeper than the metal one, so that the there is space to open the under hatch.