Pocket Door Installation

If you've chosen the right location, installing a pocket door can be a pretty straightforward process. Pocket doors add ambiance to a room and can increase the value of your home. As a matter of fact, putting in a pocket door can add 15 square feet of usable space to your room, enhance wheelchair access, and keep your space looking light and airy while still providing privacy when you need it.

When deciding on a location for your pocket door, make sure you have a wide enough area to work with. Doors can be installed singly or in pairs. The style you choose will be limited by the space you have available. Remember, when the doors are retracted, they have to be completely concealed by the adjacent wall or walls.

Pocket door frames require the thickness of a two-by-four or greater. Special kits and hardware can handle more but not less. You may have some latitude with on-the-wall mounting strategies, but these are usually custom designs and may take some extra planning.

Your walls may not be virgin territory either. Installing a pocket door will be much harder if you have to reroute ductwork, wiring or plumbing. Evaluate your walls for possible obstructions before you break out the sledgehammer.

Complete kits, as opposed to framing kits or other partial solutions, offer one-stop-shopping. If you have problems, the directions in these step-by-step packages are usually quite detailed, and you have recourse through the manufacturer if you need additional clarification. Where older style kits may have been short on quality, newer packages offer strong, attractive doors and superior hardware. One size doesn't fit all, though, so make sure you have a standard configuration that will fit a packaged setup before you buy.

If you have your heart set on that spectacular door you saw in Architectural Digest and have to use it in your pocket door setup, by all means indulge your need to explore your creative vision, but use good judgment. Take careful measurements, and make sure that the door has been prepped correctly. A pocket installation won't allow much room for the wood in the door to expand, so moisture is definitely the enemy here. Swelling that wouldn't make much of a difference in a standard installation will make opening and closing your pocket door a nightmare. Be sure to seal all doors along the edges before you install them.

• Make any adjustments to the door before you attempt to install it. Once you have it in place, you're not going to want to try and take it out again.

• One of the biggest problems with getting pocket doors to slide smoothly is misalignment. To avoid problems down the road, evaluate the door studs by running twine across opposite corners of the door opening from floor to lintel. If you have an eighth of an inch gap or wider, the studs will have to be evened up.

• When you replace drywall, don't use screws that could scratch the door. Instead, use drywall adhesive.

• If you have problems with humidity in the room, or it experiences extremes in temperature, try going with a door material other than wood.

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