Sliding Wood Closet Doors

Sliding wood closet doors offer a smart, functional option when you have limited space available for a closet.

Wood closet doors give a clean look to a room.

Sliding closet doors are available in a variety of wood colors and wood grain blends that present a distinct but practical décor choice for any room. To add another element of functionality, mirrors can be added to the door. Adding mirrors also adds reflected light and can make a small room look bigger.

A combination wood and glass door is another sliding closet door solution.

When space is limited, it's not practical to have a closet door that cannot open all the way or that prevents you from placing furniture where you want it. In my home, I chose not only a sliding closet door, but also chose a pocket door for coming in and out of the room. This allowed me to maximize the space in that room and allowed space for my piano against a wall that otherwise could not have been used if a standard swinging door was installed.

But even when space is not limited, sliding wood closet doors present attractive decorating options and expand the possibilities for where to hang pictures and position furniture without being concerned about a door banging into it when you go into your closet. Instead, the sliding closet door moves into the wall on almost silent rails. Benefits of installing a sliding closet door include:

• They disappear into the wall
• They add about 10 square feet of usable space to your room
• Modern pocket doors are relatively trouble free

Sliding closet doors can be purchased pre-assembled, which makes installation easier for the non-professional. However, they are more easily installed in a new home while being constructed or when doing a remodeling job. To just add a pocket door does take a bit of work and creates a mess, but the final outcome is worth the inconvenience.

To install a pocket door requires removing the wall where the door will be installed. The amount of wall to be removed will depend upon the size of the door you are putting in. You need to create enough space for the door to slide into the wall when opened. This is why sliding closet doors are also known as pocket doors when they slide into the pocket created between two walls. The space required for a pocket door should be slightly more than the overall width of the door you are installing. Before you begin work or even the purchase of the door, it's important to investigate what is behind the wall you plan to tear down. Ask yourself questions like:

• Does plumbing run through the wall?
• Do heating or cooling ducts run through the wall?
• Will electric cables or phone lines be disturbed?

All of these items can be relocated, but they add a degree of complexity to the project and will most likely require the services of a professional. One other question to ask is whether the wall in question is a weight-bearing wall. If so, you will have to be creative. One option is to install a weight bearing beam over the door so that it will still carry the load.

Once you make the opening for your door, double check that it is square and plumb. It's imperative that the top of the opening is level to ensure that the sliding door glides without effort and closes properly. To test that your rough opening is ready for the door and not warped or twisted, attach a length of string at opposite corners and form an X within the opening. If the two strings barely touch, your opening is ready for the door to be installed. However, if a the strings don't touch and the space between the strings is more than an eighth of an inch, the vertical studs creating the opening will need to be adjusted before the door is installed.

Other types of sliding closet doors are much easier to install because they run on a track and one door slides behind the other to give you access to the closet itself. You may need to cut your door opening to fit the standard size of sliding closet doors, which are usually 80 inches tall. Once your opening is the right size and you have your woodwork installed, simply attach the overhead track, mount the wheels on the tops of the doors, slide the doors onto the track and position the guide at the bottom.

Considering the fact that the wall needs to be torn down to install the sliding closet door when you choose a pocket door, it's important to buy a quality product to ensure maintenance free operation once everything is back in place. Buy doors with metal wrapped studs so that they will not go out of shape with humidity or use.

Also when choosing the wheels that attach to the door and ride in the track, look for a door and frame that comes with a guarantee. You'll want wheels that do not jump off the track. Home improvement stores like Do It Best, Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement Stores stock all the hardware you need to complete the project with quality.

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