I’ve always wanted to live somewhere that has one or more pocket doors.
Now that we own a place, I am wondering if I should explore the possibility of adding pocket doors.
The only location I could see them fitting stylistically would be between the dining room and living room. We live in the second and third floors of a typical Boston two-decker, which means that the living room and dining room are separated by a double-width doorway flanked by two pieces of wall. Our doorway is centered so there appears to be “technically” enough room inside each of the flanking wall pieces to accommodate a single width pocket door.
I say “technically” because I don’t really know what’s inside the wall, beyond horsehair plaster and lath and some electricity for the living room wall sconce and the thermostat. I do know it’s not a load bearing wall so I hope that means we can do anything we want with the wall.
Is this a horrible idea? Anyone ever seen pocket French doors? Or are pocket doors always solid?
If you Google “pocket French Doors,” (Images) there’re several pictures; they look really nice. IANACarpenter, but I believe the walls have to be twice as thick as usual walls (8" thick as opposed to 4") to contain the doors, their track hardware, and framing to support, basically, TWO walls–one on each side of the PD when it’s recessed.
Somebody will be along soon to flesh out what I just laid out here.
I’ve installed pocket doors in both of the houses I’ve owned. It’s not hard to do if you have room for it. Are there any outlets or switches on either side of the walls you’re looking at replacing? Any heat registers? Duct work going through the wall? It sounds like there’s little chance of there being any plumbing in that wall, but it’s another thing to look for.
It’s easy to deal with the electrical issues but duct work or plumbing would probably be a killer. Once you’ve got enough space it’s just a matter of ripping out the existing walls and framing new walls which can accommodate the doors. I used Johnson hardware for our doors. They have everything you need to frame the walls and hang the doors. Don’t skimp on the hardware. You want those heavy doors to roll smoothly.
Possibly depending on the type of door, but pocked doors can certainly be installed in a normal width (2x4) wall. The door rides between to narrow ‘studs’:
Definitely; bathroom doors and the like are usually thinner; the Google pix I saw, the doors looked much more substantial, and I would assume heavier, too (?), what with all the glass. Some of the historical houses I’ve seen, some of those walls looked to be a foot thick.
When I had the downstairs bedroom/bath re-done, I had two single-pocket doors put in (regular thckness 3.5" wall), one to the bathroom and one to the closet. They save a lot of space. But you can’t have electrical in the space where the track goes, so bear that in mind; you would probably have to move your outlets to the other walls.
Anyway, I love them. Did I mention they save a ton of space? Also it saves money over buying pre-hung hinged doors, because all you have to buy is the door slab itself, not the jamb. You don’t have to worry that you might hang the door slightly off so it swings open or closed by itself - just make sure your host wall is plumb, and you’re good.
The only caution I would make is to paint them (or finish them or whatever you are going to do to them) before you hang them. Once they are hung it’s much harder to avoid getting paint on the surrounding area when you’re painting near the edges of the door.
I toured a house once that was for sale and would have made a wonderful money pit in the Northeast Kansas City area. Three full floors, and it was listed for like $40k if that gives you an idea the shape it was in. It had pocket doors like that, the walls were over 1; thick…two solid wood pocked doors between rooms, which had to have been 14’ high.
They’re noisier than normal doors: opening and closing them makes more noise. They’re often less substantial, too: the lighter hollow doors take much lighter bearings so the total package is a lot cheaper but sound goes through them. You can get solid doors but you need a higher quality track for it.
We put one in where a normal door would have been awful, and it was fine. As mentioned, they’re great space-savers. But I’d only use them for specific locations where a normal door just isn’t practical.
It has to be hung level, of course, just as a doorframe has to be installed correctly. Botch either up and it’s bad news. The guy who installed ours put a few nails in a bit too far in the framing (new framing for existing standard wall, to take the new door). That scratched the paint on the door after the humidity changed with the season. It was a pain in the ass fixing that without tearing the wall out and doing it all over again. I pulled the door off but the slot was too narrow for my arm (of course) but I managed to do something somehow; I can’t remember exactly what. I only needed to file about 1/8" off the end of a couple nail points, but one was a couple feet into the wall from the edge.
That $40k was just the cost of the doors, right? …“wonderful money pit”… I don’t think I’ve ever seen those three words together like that; sounds almost elegant, like swan diving off a tall building.
First thing we installed into our house when we moved in. We were converting the living room into a bedroom/hospital room. There was already an arch into the entry hall. Pocket doors were the perfect solution, not taking up room in either room. And completely out of the way when moving beds, equipment, etc.
We bought them unfinished to save some money, I stained and finished the myself.
It actually took little time to do the installation, the doors came with the pockets, so the contractor removed the trim, around the arch and the baseboard, then installed the pockets onto the wall. Dry walled over the whole thing, replaced all the trims. Done in a day, not counting staing the door or painting the finished trim and wall.
Now that our caregiving days have ended we only use them when we have company overnight, using that room as a guest room.
Unfailingly whenever children come to my house, they always find them and are intrigued!
They were the exact solution for us, and worked out brilliantly. It doesn’t hurt that they fit in perfectly with the Victorian cottage style of our house, 9’ ceilings etc.
“Pocket Doors” were “de rigueur” in certain large houses in coal cities where I spent a lot of my youth. But… the door frames ALL have to be Solid Mahogany (or the single hardest wood for sale today)… as well as the doors that side into them.
I had one put in between my kitchen and utility room, when I remodeled a few years ago. I used to have bifold doors, and they were always in the way. My GC had no problem taking out part of the wall, installing the door, and cleaning up the opening.
In my case, it’s much quieter than the older door, and takes up much less space.
Luckily I am never moving again. When I leave this place for the last time it will be on a stretcher.
Now my smart idea is to head up to Vermont Salvage to find antique doors appropriate for our 1915 era house and pay a craftsman to covert them to pocket doors. This is the best most expensive boondoggle I’ve come up with so far!
I suspect we’ll have to widen the wall, sacrificing a few inches of the dining room so we can keep the electrical on the living room wall. And matching our original wood trim will be a challenge both for the doors and any work that needs to be done to the existing door frame.
