As long as the measurement is correct for the pocket opening, the door is the right thickness, and the door hasn't been pre-drilled for a standard door lockset or hinges, you can use any kind of door for a pocket door.
Check That You Have Enough Space
A pocket door requires a “sleeve” inside the wall to retract into. For a traditional 32-inch-wide interior door, you'll need at least 66 inches of linear wall space: 32 inches for the door and the rest for the housing.
What is this? You can use any type of door for your pocket door. But preferably, the door hasn't been pre-drilled with holes for the door handle and the hinges. Of course, you have to make sure that your regular door fits the opening for your pocket door from the height, width, and thickness.
If you simply want to replace a pocket door or remove it in order to repair it, you don't have to tear into the drywall! That's great news. All you have to do is lift the door off the sliding track. In order to do that, you have to remove the trim around the door.
A pocket door differs from a standard hinged door that opens by swinging back and forth. Instead, a pocket door slides, via rollers on an overhead track, into a “pocket” in the wall on either side of it. When it's fully open, the pocket door completely disappears.
If you have simple tools, you can install the pocket door frame and hardware with little difficulty. Installing the door into the pocket is also fairly easy to do.
Pocket doors are a great solution for smaller spaces that lack the wall space for a full swing door. This makes them perfect for small bathrooms, closets and connecting those two areas, for example between a master bath and the walk-in closet.
A typical kit consists of the door itself, the framing for the door and all the necessary hardware. You can accomplish the actual installation of a pocket door in a single day, but because drywall repair is involved, the entire project, including paint touch-up, may take three or more days.
To install a pocket door in an existing wall, you have to remove drywall, and it's easier to uncover the entire wall instead of trying to work in a limited opening. That way, you can remove entire studs instead of cutting them and reroute wires as needed.
During a new construction, pocket doors will cost between $500 and $1,000. As part of a remodeling project, their cost will be in the $1,000 to $3,500 range. These prices reflect both parts and labor. These doors hide inside a wall cavity instead of swinging out from a hinge.
Pocket doors are a good option for smaller rooms that may not have space for a full-swing door. They're perfect for closets, connecting two spaces (for example between an en suite and a walk-in closet, and small bedrooms where floor space counts.
Pocket doors are more expensive to install because they usually require construction to a home's structure. Both doors have a nominal cost of $400 for an average 30-inch solid wood door. However, the installation cost of a new barn door is anywhere from $100 to $300 per existing wall.
Double the width of the desired door, or pair of doors, to determine the wall space that's needed to install the pocket door frame. For example, 48 inches is needed to install the frame for a 24-inch pocket door, and 64 inches is need to install the frame for a 32-inch pocket door.
The open doorframe should be twice the width of the intended door slab, plus 1 inch. So, the rough opening for a 30-inch door slab should be 61 inches. Height should be the vertical length of the door slab, plus the thickness of the door track and desired clearance (about 1 inch, though product dimensions vary).
Pocket doors that are 4 feet wide would require a header that spans the opening of 8 feet, plus another 4 feet on each side where the doors tuck away. It's 16 feet long, heavy, unwieldy and often constructed of two 2-by-10s or more depending on the load above.
The reasoning is a 2x4 wall really has no room for framing other than a 1x2 or 1x4. These thin framing members just don't have enough rigidity so the opening can be flimsy. This is most noticeable around the pocket opening where the door sits.
At the very least, pocket doors do require thicker walls. This means an offset of more than 4 inches (100mm) to accommodate doors that have a usual thickness of 2 inches, with a bigger gap required for thicker door choices.
Yes, you can lock pocket doors to secure specific places in your house. Pocket doors can have a lock on one or both sides. If you want to secure your property, you can choose a pocket door lock with a key. The locks may either be a round or square lock.
The pocket door system can be installed against the existing wall. This is done by creating a false stud wall along the side of your existing one with a space for the frame, the Rocket Pocket is only 100mm wide including plasterboard so you will not lose lots of space in the room.
Installing the pocket-door frame and hardware and hanging the door usually takes less than 30 minutes.
Pocket doors were popular in the late 1800s, especially in Victorian houses. They had a resurgence of popularity in the 1950s. But because pocket doors from the past ran along raised tracks on the floor, the tracks were a tripping hazard, so builders and homeowners avoided pocket doors when possible.
Pocket doors are there when you need privacy and gone when you don't; they slide into the wall when opened they do not take up space that could be used for something else. This is why pocket doors are perfect for bathrooms, en-suites and toilets.
You can really have a pocket door installed anywhere you like but normally, such doors are placed in areas where they will be of benefit. If the space provided for a door swing is not optimal, a pocket door will free up space in the home.