The pivot door is the most challenging door in high end homes. It is very critical to keep a large pivot door warp-free. Very tall and wide pivot doors do not have the advantage of side hinges to help keep (at least one side of) the door straight. Traditionally manufactured large doors utilize wood-based core or a door frame system just like the walls in an average house. There is no way to keep the door straight, and it will not withstand the use and abuse from daily impact. A wall cannot take impact, like a door, without failing. A 2×6-framed wall will not function well as a door over time.
Patented Sing Core technology is the secret ingredient of the most high end door manufacturers throughout the USA, not because of our 50 year warp-free guarantee, but more due to Sing Core being the most high precision building material in the composite industry at +/- .006 inch. Not only does Sing Core make the door strong (at 660+ PSI, stronger than steel pound for pound) and help to keep the pivot door from warping, but the door manufacturers are able to make the door so beautiful to look at and admire.
If you’re an architect or designer designing a large pivot door for your customer, you should ask your door manufacturer what their warranty is on the door. In most cases the answer will be one year, and for large pivot doors prone to warp, they will likely be excluded from the warranty. Wouldn’t you rather do, cry over your warped pivot door, or “Sing” about 50 years of fail-free service?
Remember, Sing Core does not actually build the doors, we only supply the best door manufacturers, millworks, and custom door makers with the best base material to deliver the high end performance you want. If your pivot door company does not offer a 50-year warp-free guarantee, you should make sure your architect specifies, “Sing Core inside,” the doors you want to last for as long as your home.
If you’ve spent millions of dollars on your home, your front pivot door (the focal point of the house) should not only look beautiful, it should be enjoyed for the next 50 years worry-free, because you are not going to have to be concerned about it warping.
Designer and Architects are establishing a new trend in the architectural impact of structures that garner attention at first glance by greeting visitors with a large pivot door. The larger the front pivot door, the more impressive and attention-grabbing.
Large pivot front doors create the greatest impact when a structure is seen for the first time. These oversized pivot door are big and thick, and the bigger the better. These big pivot doors are taller, wider and heftier than other traditional front door styles. Even real estate developers are installing large pivoting entry doors in high end homes for that extra hit in the curb appeal presentation.
Though some door manufacturers build and stock standard pivot doors, ready to install, the high end large pivot doors are custom manufactured for each installation by millworks, craftsmen or custom door manufacturers. Each pivot door is like an individual work of art.
Pivot Door Swing
Pivot doors are often thought of as having a center pivot point. A pivot door with a center pivot defines the maximum access as basically on-half the door width, because in the fully open position, the pivot door blocks the center of the opening due to the location of the pivot. Large pivot doors may be no problems as a 10 foot wide pivot door can still have a 5 foot access opening.
Center pivots are not your only options when considering a pivot door, as the pivots can be placed at any location. Moving the pivot point of your pivot door more to one side or the other creates a greater egress area on one side than the other. For maximum opening, an extreme edge pivot point can be used for your pivot door, so that it operates very similarly to a swing hinge door. Example: 10×12 extreme edge double pivot doors in the Center for Architecture & Design, Seattle, Washington are each twelve feet wide, five inches thick and open for a full 23 feet of access (also feature a man door for easy access when in the closed position).
Tall Pivot Doors
A large pivot door can span from floor to ceiling of any structure as well as being very wide and thick.
Pivot Sliding Door
Another growth segment in pivoting doors is a method that combines the best of two types of door hardware to develop a pivot sliding door using multiple floor to ceiling pivoting door panels alternatively hinged and retrofitted in sliding door hardware to produce large accordion door wall systems. These pivot sliding door wall units create complete separation between any two rooms, functioning as folding stacking doors, yet when fully opened reveal one large space.
Pivot Door Materials
Pivot doors can be made of any flat building material including materials that would be impossible to make a hinge door due to the weight. The design of the pivoting hardware can accommodate a pivoting entry door that is many, many times heavier than any hinge door.
Large pivot door can be manufactured using available materials such as cement, metals (aluminum, cold rolled steel, copper, galvanized steel, hot rolled steel, stainless steel, steel diamond plate, etc…), natural or exotic woods (alder, bird’s eye maple, cedar, cypress, mahogany, olive, redwood, walnut, willow, etc… ), stone (granite, limestone, marble, sandstone, slate, etc…), just to name a few.
Heavy Pivot Doors
Though large pivot doors can span from floor to ceiling and the pivot door hardware can handle heavy weights, the challenge to overcome is the obvious one: The large size and heavy weight can create problems over time causing the need for routine ongoing maintenance dealing with issues that compromise either the pivot door or the structure itself.
Heavy pivot doors can cause undue stress on both the hardware and the structure, requiring maintenance on the pivot hardware, frame and possibly the structure under regular heavy use.
Light Pivot Doors
One way to optimize large pivot doors for weight is to use a strong lightweight substructure that will not compromise the structure of the door. SingCore large pivot door substrate is perfectly designed for large pivot doors sporting additional features besides creating a solid composite door that weighs a fraction of an otherwise solid door.
Modern pivot doors with patented SingCore inside are strong (660 PSI, stronger than steel pound for pound) and the torsion box structure grids are packed with rigid insulation (for added R-value and sound deadening capabilities).
Using SingCore inside your pivot door can transform any heavy pivot door into a lightweight pivot door.
Large Pivot Doors Warp
Warping large pivot doors are one of the chief problems associate with large pivot doors – or any large doors, for that matter – especially if the large pivot entry doors are made using natural woods, which are elegant when installed but tend to move according to variances in heat, moisture and other environmental conditions.
There’s really no way around the natural characteristics of wood grain to bend, warp, cup or twist – that is – until now…
Guaranteed Warp-free Large Pivot Doors
Only large modern pivot doors with professional SingCore inside can be guaranteed to remain structurally sound and warp-free for 50 years.
That’s 50 years of high precision, high performance, low maintenance enjoyment of your breathtaking very large pivot door, guaranteed.