I work in an office that has two rooms. Right now they have a broken pocket door between them. We have a lot of noise coming from one room, so we need a sound-dampening divider that we can get through easily to go between the rooms. We were quoted a thousand dollars to hang a regular door, and fixing the pocket door would involve ripping out walls.
Any ideas?
Depending on what’s broken with a pocket door, yes, they can be fiendish to work on, and sometimes do require disassembly of one or both sides of the wall that the door’s built into.
OTOH, $1000 to hang a “normal” door seems a bit outlandish. Extra work will be needed to re-work the pocket door jamb into one suitable for a regular swinging door, but unless you’re locked into having to deal with your corporate properties management group, or something similar, you ought to be able to get a better price. Lowe’s for example, has installation services, and you can certainly find an independent guy who’ll do it for less. I’d guesstimate labor for an uncomplicated door install to be around $300 in this area - that’s for them to bring the new door, hang it, install the trim and lock and take away the old door and clean up. Plus the cost of the door itself - probably $150-200 for a good sturdy solid-core door.
I’d agree w/ everything but the door, I don’t think you need a solid core door for this application, just a standard interior door.
If the pocket door is still there, have you tried pulling it out? They’re often easier to repair than you think. Of course if it’s opened frequently, especially by different people, they tend not hold up well.
It sounds like this is commercial space where fire/building codes will probably require a solid door. Aside from that, a solid door will hold back noise a bit better.