Manual door opening conundrum

tomrogers

Hi everyone

Not sure if this is a good place to post this, but thought I'd give it a try. So I have a very complex problem I'm looking to solve and any ideas would be helpful.

I am a wheelchair user and the door to my flat has a very heavy closer on it. I already have an automated door opening system but it breaks down frequently and when it does, I'm completely stuck in the flat until someone can let me out. It is also very expensive to fix and at the moment my parents pay for it, but this won't be able to be the case forever (I'm already 31). It is something that's hard to save for because it can go wrong twice in two months or it can be fine for six months and there is no way to tell what's going to go wrong because there are so many complex parts involved. Basically, I'm looking for a manual solution that would allow me to open the door if the automatic door opener is broken so that I'm not stuck inside. I've tried several different solutions, but none of them have worked. The problem is the hallway is very narrow and so I cannot put the wheelchair beside the door. I have to put it directly in front but then if I get close enough to reach the handle, the door can't actually open because then my wheelchair is in the way.

One solution I came up with was to attach a long piece of string to the door so that I could pull it open from far enough away that the door can actually open. This sort of worked, but the problem is I can only use my right hand and with the amount of tension required to pull the door open. I cannot move the wheelchair forward out of the door at the same time because if I hold a rope and then move the wheelchair to get out, the rope is closer to the door so the tension decreases and the door closes anyway.

My next idea was to put a hook on the wall which I could hook the rope to when I've got the door open, let go and then drive the wheelchair through it. The problem with this is that it requires so much tension to pull the door open, I'm almost certain I wouldn't be able to stretch the rope around the hook at the same time as holding it open. Extremely dumb question but I was wondering if a chain with a hook on the end would be easier because I wouldn't have to bend anything over the hook I could just hook it on but presumably they would still need to be some slack. I haven't had a hook attached to the wall yet because I don't think it would work but if somebody tells me it might, I might give it a go. Would it be easier to maintain the tension with a solid chain? Other than that, does anyone else have any other ideas? After thinking about this week, I feel like I've hit a brick wall. I was really optimistic about the rope idea but it requires so much tension that I'm just not sure I could actually attach it to anything at the same time. Unfortunately, the heavy closure absolutely does need to stay in to comply with fire regs and because, frankly, if I took the door opener out just because of the times it breaks down, I'm not sure if my parents would ever speak to me again.

Thanks to anyone for reading this post and absolutely any ideas welcome,

Tom

WelshBlue

A pulley system would be the way to go, (think roller blinds etc) but the logistics/ costs are most probably prohibitive

I would go for a hook on the wall that you could use your right hand to wrap the rope around

A cleat hook would most probably be better ?

Angekk86

I understand this problem far too well.

Is there a way you could maybe change the whole door/frame so it can be pushed from either side?