Movable walls

[Mike Scrimpshire]

Can anyone share a pattern or suggest ideas for making affordable movable walls or folding (accordian style) doors? I want to be able to temporarily divide a larger area into two or three smaller ones as needed. This is a church classroom environment, so some soundproofing isues are involved, but nothing too serious (no amplified music, etc.).

The room is 12' deep by 24' wide and has 8' ceilings. Most of the time we would have it configured as 3 rooms, 12' deep by 8' wide. It was originally a residence. We are converting it for church use.

Thanks!

[Glen]

Lots of unknowns but I'll take a poke at this.

First, because of it's enviornment I believe saftey is a paramount issue. Therefore I would suspend the partitions from the ceiling preferably via a track for easy retraction. This will alleviate the fear of them tipping over. Work with me here, this is just spewing off the top of my head. Track could be nothing more than pipe and swivels attatched to the panels to hang them. The partitions themselves would be a succesion of bifold doors. Instead of wood panels, for some sound proofing I would use fabric and foam or even sound proofing panels (avail in 4X8 sheets)and basically make a pillow to insert as a panel. Could even use suspended ceiling tiles.
Another option is to get the Women involved and fabricate a 'filled' curtain and hang that with a pulley system to raise it.
But I think panels are more readily relaced\repaired.

Glen