How Hard Is It To Install Pocket Doors

Download Article

Download Article

A pocket door is the perfect solution for endmost off an open section of your domicile or role or calculation a quick fashion to move from room to room where a wall currently exists.^[1] These doors disappear into the wall when opened, rather than taking up space in 1 room or the other. With the right tools and know-how, you can install pocket doors yourself, avoid the hassle of hiring a contractor, and take a paw in the design of your own habitation.

1. 

   i

   Purchase a pocket door kit at a hardware store. This kit should incorporate the door, dissever studs that allow the door to retract into the wall, a runway on which the door runs into the wall, and door hardware. Most are nether $100.

   • You may be able to find pocket doors at lumberyards, too. Regardless of where y'all go, you should hands find kits for doors that are 1 one/viii inches to 1 three/4 inches thick by 6 feet (ane.8 m) 8 inches high. If your door is not a standard size, talk to a professional person well-nigh getting the chore done.

2. 2

   Bank check the wall. The terminal thing you want to do is to tear a hole into your wall merely to find that it's not feasible to put a door there. Before you go about drilling and vehement down, bank check for the following things:^[2]

   • Check if there's enough room in the wall. You need but over twice the width of the door (and so it can hide).
   • Bank check if the wall is load-bearing or simply a sectionalization. If information technology is load bearing, you'll need a new header and a means of temporary support while the door is being worked on.
   • Check for wiring or plumbing. A wall with pipes in it is not a expert place to put a door. Wiring can exist easily detected with a inexpensive voltage sensor.

   Advertisement

3. 3

   Remove the existing door, if applicative. If you're replacing a door with a pocket door, you'll need to get rid of the existing door. Get-go with removing the molding and, with a reciprocating saw blade, cutting the shims. When the nails are cut, you can remove the door frame.^[three]

   • Door jambs aren't nailed confronting the studs in the wall – they're simply spaced with wooden shims.

4. 

   4

   Remove the drywall on one side of the wall. Do this slowly to brand sure you haven't missed whatever obstacles inside the wall.^[4] Remove the drywall a few inches in a higher place where the header volition exist, just don't go all the way to the ceiling – that just means more work later.

5. 

   5

   Cut the exposed studs carefully. This makes room for the new framing. You may detect this pace easier if you utilise a combination of a circular saw and a small-scale paw saw; you exercise not want to accidentally damage the wall you did not cut abroad. The goal is to leave large enough holes in the studs to allow the pocket door to pass through.

   • A standard pocket door is 1.75 inches (4.4 cm) wide. To make this step fifty-fifty easier, look for a pocket door kit that comes with carve up studs.

   Advertisement

1. 1

   Brand a new header, if necessary. It's possible that your door will require a header of a different superlative.^[5] The height of your header is adamant by whether or not you need a new soleplate. If the floor roofing above the subfloor is minimal, the split-stud brackets tin be secured straight to the floor. To decide the header height for virtually standard kits, figure the length of the new door, plus 3 1/four" and the acme of the soleplate, if any. Once the advisable length is determined, install a new stud this length from the existing stud on the opposing side. Nail the new header in place (or screw) and then cutting and fit the soleplate to the floor.

   • To adjust the header, use a reciprocating saw to remove the partition header currently in place. So, cut away the studs, but like in the above, to make infinite for the framing.
   • Cut the nails that are betwixt the studs and the soleplate and so decide the height of your desired header before cutting the stud tops to length. Otherwise, you lot may end up with a frame that is non to size.

2. 

   2

   Install the slider runway. Your pocket door kit should incorporate the rails on which the door slides into the wall. Install the slider runway using the directions that come with your pocket door kit, screwing the brackets into the studs. If yous are too installing pre-carve up studs, you can install them subsequently you install the slider track.^[6]

   • If you need to cut the track to length, use the mark on information technology that corresponds to your door size. Most, if not all, kits come up with these markers. Use a hacksaw on the aqueduct and a handsaw on the nailers.
   • Make certain your track is level. If it's not, it won't slide hands in and out of its pocket.

3. 

   three

   Place the hardware and the door into the slider track. Brand sure that the door is sliding easily and stays level. Mount hangers on the top of the door – this is how the door will slide. Then, slide the wheeled carriages into the track. Hook the hangers onto the carriages. Once it's all gear up, adjust the assembly until the door hangs plumb and is in place.

   Advertizement

1. 

   1

   Replace the drywall you removed at the beginning of the project with new drywall. For this part, you'll demand panel adhesive and screws. However, don't move onto taping and mudding just yet – in that location's even so a flake more work to be done.^[vii]

2. 

   ii

   Install the latch hardware. The pocket door kit should take come with door latch hardware. Some of this will exist attached to the door and some will exist attached to the wall. Follow the instructions that came with the pocket door kit. Make sure the door is still sliding easily on the track and that the latches line up as needed.

3. 

   iii

   Finish installing the drywall. At this point, you can tape and mud the drywall. Use plenty of drywall compound, aiming for multiple coats over every seam. Embed tape in information technology, so get rid of whatsoever excess chemical compound. Permit it to dry out, sand it, then use the next layers of compound using the same method every bit necessary.

   • When you are finished, sand the drywall to make it finished and smooth.

4. 

   4

   Paint or otherwise decorate the wall as you see fit. The difficult function is done – all you have to do at present is return the wall to its original (or new and improved) state.

   • Do this before you install the door trim, unless y'all desire the door trim painted, besides. This way if your lines aren't perfectly straight, the trim will cover them right upward.

5. 

   5

   Install the door trim. The trim hardware should have come in your pocket door kit. Install information technology co-ordinate to the pocket door kit instructions. Nail or screw it to the jamb and the door studs.^[eight]

   • That's it! Your pocket door is officially ready for apply and looks similar it was installed professionally.

   Advertizement

Add together New Question

• Question

  Where does the door guide go?

  

  When the door is open up, place door guides at the lesser of the frame. Pull the door out a niggling scrap so you lot don't position guides too close to the door, leaving an eighth inch gap on both sides of the door to foreclose rubbing or scarring of the finish.

• Question

  Are in that location tracks both at the top and bottom of the pocket doors?

  

  There are only tracks on the top of pocket doors, merely like sliding closet doors. Sliding closet doors usually come up with a pocket-sized guide for the bottom that you spiral to the floor where the ii doors overlap. This keeps them from swinging in and out. Pocket doors sometimes take a similar U-shaped guide, or two wedges you screw down on either side of the door to keep it swinging into the doorjambs and ruining your pigment job.

• Question

  Should I expect until the ceramic floor is finished before installing the pocket door?

  

  Yes.

• Question

  The door I purchased is 13" on the height and 12" on the bottom. Is this normal?

  

  No, it should be the aforementioned on the top and bottom.

• Question

  Can I replace an existing 6 panel pocket door with a drinking glass pane door to permit light in?

  

  As long equally the hanging hardware and framing to a higher place the door is strong enough for the added weight of the door, then you tin do this. If you're not sure though, become a carpenter to come and help.

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your electronic mail address to become a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Advertisement

• If you exercise non want to go to the trouble of reframing a wall, consider installing an open up pocket door. This door functions similarly to a pocket door, but is attached to the outside of an interior wall instead of sliding into the wall.

• Steps to install a pocket door during new structure are slightly different, but should be easier. The master deviation is that yous can plan ahead, so you should not need to cut abroad any studs.

Cheers for submitting a tip for review!

Advertisement

Things You lot'll Demand

• Pocket door kit
• Circular saw
• Handsaw
• Hacksaw
• Sander
• Additional tools equally required by specifics of pocket door installation kit

Nigh This Article

Commodity Summary X

To install a pocket door, outset by removing the existing door and the drywall on ane side of the wall. Then cutting the exposed studs to make room for the new framing. Next, install the slider track using the rails that came in your pocket door kit. Exist certain to screw the brackets into the studs! Then put the hardware and door into the slider track. Replace the drywall, but hold off on taping and mudding it until later you install the latch hardware. Once that's washed, install the door trim that came in the kit. If yous desire to larn how to bank check your walls to encounter if you can install a pocket door, keep reading!

Did this summary help yous?

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 201,418 times.

Did this commodity assistance you?

Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Pocket-Doors

Posted by: karstenmurs1979.blogspot.com

Share this post