communicating doors in a single frame with double leaf

[mtw]

Hello All,

I am in the home stretch of a small, single-room studio project with a double leaf design. So far, things are going along well. The last bit that needs working out is how to integrate a tandem / communicating door with a single jamb / frame.

My assumption (and I'd love to be told I'm wrong) is that the shared jamb will couple the inner and outer leaves if bolted to both. Is that accurate? Or is this one of those situations where the benefits of an airlock door outweigh the issues of the coupling?

For reference, I am looking at something similar to the Overly 5712190 assembly. (The one I'm looking at is made by Curries; their 757 series)

Thanks!

[mtw]

I think I found the answer to this question myself. From Rod Gervais' book "Home Recording Studios: Build It Like the Pros":

I’ll let you know right now that this is one place I don’t worry about maintaining the separation of wall assemblies with the frames, even when using totally separated assemblies. When it comes to carrying a door that might weight well over 300 pounds (if you build them like I do), or even standard solid core doors, you do not want your door frame attached to a stud that can move over the years. As I noted above, tests have proven that a through jamb does not effectively lessen the total isolation value of a wall assembly to any great degree. So don't worry about any minuscule amount of isolation you may lose. Just build the frame straight through the cavity.