Steel Building
Free Standing Header

Base Plates

8” x 8” Steel Plate x 1/2” thick material (w/pre-drilled holes).

Base Plate should be centered on legs.

Base Plate must be flush with the back of the legs.

The legs must be welded to the main header frame.

Pre-welded angel irons are at each of the four corners for added strength.

Caution!

The free standing header is to provide a flat smooth suface to mount the Hydraulic and Bifold Door to! The customer must provide the proper member sizes to hold the weight of your door on the header! Schweiss Hydraulic or Bifold Doors are not responsible for the structural strength of the free standing header! The free standing header must be attached to the building, and the building must support the vertical and horizontal weight of the door - tie the header and side columns to your building. Provide a solid footing under the legs or the free standing header.

Talk About Freestanding Headers

Schweiss Bifold Doors manufactures the entire freestanding header. You may retrofit it to your building endwall or sidewall. The freestanding header is a quick and easy way to prepare your building for a bifold door. It consists of two side columns and the main header frame.

The freestanding header must be attached to the building and the building must be able to support the vertical and horizontal weights of the bifold door. You must tie the header and side columns to your building and provide a solid footing under the legs of the freestanding header.

Why Use a Freestanding Header?

• It's a nice easy way to prepare an existing building for a bifold door.
• It provides a clean, flat, flush surface to attach your bifold door to.
• The freestanding header will offer extra strength.
• It provides a nice straight and level place to attach your door to, especially on those older buildings.
• It's a quick fix - It's easier than remodeling the existing end wall for a bifold and many times cost effective!
• It's a trade off- You would have to build a header up to your existing end wall and that's not free
  (labor and material?)
• Freestanding headers are made out of 4” x 4”x11 gauge tubes (2 across the full widths, 2 legs and base plates).
• Larger freestanding headers are made out of larger member sizes.
• The header comes all welded together. You must field-weld or bolt both of the legs on.

Installation of the Freestanding Header

• Installation is easy; attach the legs to your side columns and tie the header back into your existing building.
• Anchor the base plates to your concrete footing with anchor bolts.
• If there are no footings for smaller doors, just attach the side columns to your building posts or columns.
• We provide a step-by-step installation manual that is very easy to follow.
• If you want to build your own header we will provide you drawings on how to build it yourself.
• Take pictures to send to the factory of your large opening, especially for larger header questions.

Important:

• The customer, contractor/owner, and the building manufacturer are responsible to ensure that the building's structural design is capable of handling all the imposed loads that the bifold door exerts to your door header, endwall, and building.
• When your bifold door is in the full open position, the bifold door tends to pull away from the building at the hinge line; exerting considerable horizontal loads on the building structure in the open position.
• Your building header design must meet standard deflection and strength criteria, both in vertical and horizontal directions to support the bifold door in all positions.
• Schweiss Bifold Doors will provide you with those loads that are applied to your building and door. We will provide you with our A-1, A-2, A-3, and A-4 spec sheets for your actual measurements, movements, weights, and hinge locations.

Assembly

Finished Look

Header Legs Must Be Straight

Header Bracing

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3