Door Anchors

Some closed loop that goes over top of the door. There are many materials and techniques that can work for this. I will keep changing them up below so you can see various options!

Something to keep the door anchored the anchor from sliding through the door frame. The general term for this is a “toggle“.

(Optional) And usually, there’s some kind of hard elements like a ring or carabiner for the rope to slide through.

We will demonstrate this on a plank.

Even with the lines flat and orderly across the top of the door, if your partner pulls hard on that anchor…

…it could mark the top of the door. If the door isn’t yours, be respectful and protect it.

One way is to put a thin washcloth or something soft over top of the door…

…to distribute the force a little. It’s not great, but it’s better than nothing.

A little better: Get a thin piece of tough cardboard…

…form it to the door…

…and use that. That will distribute the force better.

If you think you might be doing this a lot and want to have an even stronger protection, get a thin metal plate (I got this one for $3 at a local hardware store)

…and a little duct tape.

Add the duct tape to the inside of the bracket to protect the door from the metal…

Put the plate in position.

Now any tension put on the rope will be distributed across the entire metal plate. This has a much lower risk of damaging the door.

You can use a single piece of rope. This one is 6-7’ long.

Start making a loop.

Typically you’ll want loops a minimum of 6–7 inches.

Continue making neatly-organized loops until you have at least six strands coming away from the bottom. Arrange your lines so that you have equal length tails on the top.

Double check that you have loops are all the same size.

Pick the loops up and begin forming a Square Knot.

When making the first half of the Square Knot, run one of the lines underneath all the strands of the loop like this.

Then add the second half of the Square Knot …

… and tighten. You should have something like this. Having the strands run through the Square Knot helps to hold them all at the same size.

Now we need to use up the rest of the rope.

Make a Half Hitch around the entire set of lines like this.

Tighten.

If you still have rope left, add a second one.

Tighten.

Repeat on the other side one

Tighten.

These knots are sufficiently bulky that you could use this as the door anchor just as it is.

Like this.

Some people do use it like this, but that is outside my risk profile. There are always ways to add a toggle and I just feel better with one in place. Here I just used another hank of rope as the toggle.

Here’s how you would arrange it on the door with no toggle.

… here I added a cane as a toggle…

… and what it looks like on the door from the anchor side.…

This is approximately 6 feet of paracord.

Start with one end.

Connect it to the toggle using a Constrictor Knot.

Run the cord through your carabiner and back around the title.

Set the distance you want, usually a minimum of about 5 inches.

Continue wrapping, keeping your chords nicely in order.

When you get to the end, you need to lock it off.

You can lock off to either side, but mostly for aesthetic reasons, I am going to lock off on the toggle side. Again, use a clove hitch or constrictor not.

Add tension and work the lines so that they all have the same tension and evenly support the carabiner/ring.

This is now ready to go over the door.

In this case, find the center bight.

Attach it to the center of the toggle with a Lark Head.

(Optional) for firmer grip, convert the Lark’s head into a Prusik Head. The video or Prusik Head tutorial will show you how, if needed.

Set your ring on top of the tail a minimum of 5 inches away from the toggle.

Pull the tail up through the ring.

Reverse tension and bring the tails back up to the toggle, one on each side of the center.

We are going to do Cow Hitch’s on each side. Do your first tail pole on the side more toward the center.

Complete the Cow Hitch.

Repeat on the other side, again, first tail pull toward the center.

Complete the Cow Hitch. Verifying the tension is the same on both sides.

Flip it over.

Run the tails underneath the ring…

… and then up through the ring.

Reverse tension and bring them back up to the toggle.

Again, do a Cow Hitch, making your first tail pull toward the center.

Complete the Cow Hitch.

Repeat on the other side and verify the tension is the same on all the lines. (Adjust if necessary).

There are several ways to use up remaining cord.

I will use mine up on the toggle…

… by making a series of Half Hitches around the toggle.

Tighten.

Add another one.

Keep going until you’ve run out of cord.

Repeat on the other side.

…

…until you run out of cord there as well.

This is now ready to toss in a bag or to be used.

Reminder: if you’re using a carabiner with a screw lock gate like this one, make sure the gate is pointed down “screw down, so you don’t screw up“.

Make sure the gate is screwed locked.

This is now ready to use.

Position it on the door.

Make sure the chords are flat and neatly organized like this.

This is how it looks when positioned in a door.

You could also use a climbing loop.

This is relatively straightforward to arrange.

In this example I’m using another hank of rope as the toggle.

You can also arrange the ends of the strap climbing loop as Lark‘s heads to better hold onto the toggle. To see a quick and clean way to create this version, check out the video. Here’s how you would arrange it on the door if you were not using a carabiner…

… and with a carabiner.

Note: You want to position the loop junction at some point where the climbing loop is going straight, not where it goes through any sharp curves.

Here’s the toggle side after it has been shut in the door…

…and here is the anchor point side.

We need to make a trustworthy closed loop. We will do so with a Water Knot. If your strap is 1” (2.5cm) wide, you need a minimum of about 26 inches. If your strap is wider, you will need it to be longer.

Create a loose Overhand Knot in End 1.

Get End 2.

End 2 is going to create a second Overhand Knot *inside* the Overhand Knot in End 1, by follow the path through the knot. So: End 2 is going into the knot where the End 1 comes out.

Pull enough of the strap through to complete the knot.

Continuing to follow the path of End 1 around…

…under…

…and now bending the line, and tuck it through and underneath both wraps that you can see there on the left side of the knot…

…like this. That’s the shape of the Water Knot.

I like to shape the straps into a little bit of a U-shaped here coming out of the water knot before I work to tighten it.

You want this very tight. Pull on the knot from one side...

…then on the other.

Then grab both straps and pull very firmly apart like this.

That should get nice and firmly seated.

That is the Water Knot from the top…

…and from the side. This is a very reliable way of creating a closed loop when you have some flat material.

Now we’ve added the toggle and the carabiner, and this is ready to use. Position the Knot close to the carabiner so it doesn’t damage the door.

This is how we would position it over the door if using it without the carabiner…

…and with a carabiner.

Here is what it looks like in a door, from the toggle side…

…and from the anchor side.

Let’s do this with a scarf.

You want something strong and not stretchy.

Lay it out flat.

Fold it in half…

…or in thirds if that is not too bulky for the door, then bring in the ends together.

Lay them on top of each other.

I *don’t* recommend using an Overhand Knot like this.

Once tension is added, and knot gets tightened…

… Like this.…

… It can jam and become very difficult to untie. This is particularly true of fabrics like silk.

Therefore, I recommend using a Figure-8 Knot instead.

Bring the tail up at a bit of an angle.

Run it behind.

And then on top of the tail like this.

Then reached through the fold.

To grab the tail.

And pull it through like this. You can add tension to it again to lock the knot.

That is a Figure-8 Knot. It can still become quite tight. But is usually easier to untie under the same conditions than an Overhand Knot would be.

Run a carabiner through the loop and this is ready to be used as your door anchor. As this is already a very soft and forgiving material, you may not need to protect the door quite as much.