Single door in a two-leaf wall construction

[PitchforkArms]

HI all,

Was looking for some construction / design advice pertaining to doors and wall-systems.

I have a build currently that has a two-leaf wall construction and I am ruminating on door-possibilities... That brings me to the question - with a two-leaf wall system, is it required to thusly have two doors? It seems logical to do so in order to maintain continuity and decoupling across/between both leafs. I am wondering if anyone has any ingenious ways that they have seen/experienced that allow for a single-door build in the two-leaf system. To my eyes and intuition, whichever leaf the door is not on would have an incongruity at the door-cutout where the jamb/trim would not be sealed and would not match the construction/integrity of the rest of the leaf.

Let me know if I need to be more clear or if there is any feedback for me

Cheers, and much love and respect to all of you kind folks. Long-time acoustician (currently working in automotive) who is finally in a build that I have to shell out the $ for and definitely want to keep complexity and cost down for myself.

[Soundman2020]

Hi there, and Welcome to the forum!

You are correct in your assessment: putting a single door in a 2-leaf wall does indeed reduce isolation. Rod Gervais outlines a method that he uses for doing that, but it creates a flanking path between the two leaves, because he joins the two jambs with solid wood. It also requires building a super massive door, and a super-beefed up jamb to hold it up without warping and twisting as the door opens and closes. So I'm not a big fan of that method Overall, it's just a lot of work (and expense) for no real gain, and in fact a reduction in isolation.

If you want maximum isolation, the you need a door in each leaf.

If you are worried about the space lost to the "sweep" area of the doors (the area that it swings into), that's also a valid concern. The solution there is simple! Use sliding glass doors. The don't take up any space as they open, and they can give you very good isolation. In a small studio, that sweep area can take up a lot of space, and make it basically unusable. Sliders is the way to go.

who is finally in a build

Congratulations on that! Feel free to post your ideas, plans, and questions here. We'd love to see that!

build that I have to shell out the $ for and definitely want to keep complexity and cost down for myself

Then don't buy your doors! Build them yourself... Like this:

Site built door for high isolation

- Stuart -

[PitchforkArms]

Thanks for the prompt reply, friend!
Pretty much confirming what I had intuited. Looks like I'll be fabbing two doors per doorway opening as I initially anticipated
Thanks for linking the site-built doors post - I have looked that over multiple times before and intend to do something very similar. With the "nested" door design (multiple cutout layers - "vault" style), is each one of those new door-face + jamb assemblies getting a seal? Any product recommendations for seals at the jamb (I guess for the bottom, too - I would rather not shell out excessive amounts for lift hinges, as well as pricey door openers and automatic door bottom seals, but obviously am open to hearing any good products, assemblies, and ideas)? I have had good results with the isostore products, but they are not particularly cheap.

I'm sure I'll get around to posting some site photos when I am of more present mind. I am in very deep on construction and my day job and am not allotting myself the proper mental bandwidth for conversation - that will change! When I get stuff together, I'll assemble a bevy of photos and throw them into the forum