I'm installing a pocket door in my theater downstairs. This will be the door leading into the closet/equipment room. Anyway, my question is this: do you have any experience with any particular brand that you recommend I go with, or run from? I've read good reviews of the Johnson (IIRC?) brand available through HD, and bad things about Stanley, available through Lowes.
Any insight or tips?
Do you have to? I've never been fully satisfied with pocket doors. If there is any way around it and you can install something that swings I'd highly recommend that instead.
Otherwise, no I have no info on which ones are better.
+1 for everything KyAllroad said.
Tell me why. I dont really have any experience with pocket doors, except that my grandma had one. Here's my thought process:
The closet isnt deep, 4' is all. With a swinging door I'd have to save room in the closet or theater. I could actually use the space in the closet that would otherwise be taken up by a swinging door. A pocket door will allow the door to open to a true 3*" wide, something that would be useful going into a narrow closet.
Not disregarding your input, just asking for clarification, and explaining my reasoning, flawed as it may be.
I'd say a pocket door makes sense for what you want, but they're troublesome - going off-track, getting jammed on things that fall into the track, just knocking around loose...similar to problems you might've seen with a sliding closet door, except they can be a helluva lot harder to fix.
If it's a door that regularly gets used, I would put a swinging door in. If it's for a closet that rarely gets used I could see a pocket door. I have to to see one that wasn't constantly falling off the track.
I'm also on the "use any pocket door as long as its not a pocket door" train.
Remember the pocket door will require a much bigger total opening (half wall and half door). This would be a big consideration if you are installing this door in a load bearing wall.
What about one of those folding closet doors? Folds in half on a vertical crease? I don't love those either though, but I like em better than pockets.
You could also just use a sliding closet door and put the bracket it hangs from behind the wall (half of a pocket door, since the other side is inside the closet), but that's kinda ghetto.
I have installed 5 or 6 johnson closet door sliding rails in my house. We used solid core doors too (heavy doors). The sliders work incredibly well and are easy to install. I would say that I would use them again. Hopefully they use a similar system for their pocket doors.
finally, if this really is for an equipment room, use a sliding glass door. Nothing more awesome than seeing all the electronics blink and beep away. Plus it keeps the the sounds of all the fans etc sealed away.
Since its an equipment room for a Theatre, I'd put a sliding glass door in there with perhaps some smoke tint on the glass and then make the equipment nicely organized and decorated.
Make sure you have some way to ventilate the closet to keep the equipment cool.
rcutclif wrote: What about one of those folding closet doors? Folds in half on a vertical crease? I don't love those either though, but I like em better than pockets.
I have 2 kinds of these at home: The kind that run on a track and the kind that swing free and are latched shut. The tracked type is nearly as aggravating as a pocket door, the free-swinging kind works well.
+2 for everything KyAllroad said.
Unless it's a door that's never used and always left in the pocket, I'd do something else. Problems are common and repairs are difficult because you can't access half of the tracks.
The bifold closet door should give you the opening size and not take up too much floor space when open. A sliding barn door style is pretty cool and keeps the hardware exposed.
Pocket doors can be fine but in my experience are problematic and not worth the extra effort and expense.
Any kind of moisture where you instal it and it will warp. I've never seen one that didn't. Start hating your life now.
I've had 3 different pocket doors in the various houses I've lived in and they were all a pain in the butt. I have no idea if that's because of the brand (no idea who made them) or the installs (all done before I lived there). I'm sure there are ones that are decent though. If you are gentle with it and keep the track clean/lubed I'm sure I'll be fine, especially with limited use. All the ones of ours were bathroom doors so they were in a high use situation.
This'll be a low-use room, just for storage and the amps. The equipment won't be near the door, so they'll be hidden anyway. The closet it 4'X13', with the door on the long wall. Now that I'm thinking about it, the door could go all the way to one side of the long wall, open into the closet and not take up any valuable space I think. I'll have to get working on sketchup and see how this is looking.
My 100 year old house has several huge solid wood pocket doors and they are all fine. If you really do want to use them, though, I seriously recommend going for a double width opening with two doors, one to each side. The advantage there is that if you do get any trouble later all you have to do is pop the stop out of the center and either door can be slid into the middle of the opening so you can get to both rollers or remove the doors entirely without messing with the trim work.
If sound insulation is an issue, my guess (and I don't know this for sure) would be that it's much easier to seal a swinging door than any of the other doors mentioned here.
peter wrote: If sound insulation is an issue, my guess (and I don't know this for sure) would be that it's much easier to seal a swinging door than any of the other doors mentioned here.
Very true, but there's nothing on the other side of the closet, so I dont really care. The idea of the double width door makes a lot of sense.
oldopelguy wrote: My 100 year old house has several huge solid wood pocket doors and they are all fine. If you really do want to use them, though, I seriously recommend going for a double width opening with two doors, one to each side. The advantage there is that if you do get any trouble later all you have to do is pop the stop out of the center and either door can be slid into the middle of the opening so you can get to both rollers or remove the doors entirely without messing with the trim work.
old pocket doors have real steel tracks and wheels. new pocket doors have light stamped thin gauge sheet metal junk tracks and soft plastic rollers.
step one for this is pick your desired pocket door. step two is throw it in the yard and pour gas on it. step 3 is light that E36 M3 on fire and pat yourself on the back as your quality of life will be much better without a pocket door.
DrBoost wrote:peter wrote: If sound insulation is an issue, my guess (and I don't know this for sure) would be that it's much easier to seal a swinging door than any of the other doors mentioned here.Very true, but there's nothing on the other side of the closet, so I dont really care. The idea of the double width door makes a lot of sense.
Ah, when I heard "home theater" and "equipment room" I figured this was the door between noisy fan-laden HT equipment and the viewing room. Carry on.
I wish I knew the brand of ours to tell you. Its functioned perfectly for 4 years now. Retired father in law helped with a lot of renovations when we moved in and installed the door on a day when I was at work. I know he tried a kit from one of the big box stores first and said it was complete crap, he ordered this kit online.
My house was built in 1894, three pocket doors. Two solid oak 2" thick sliders between two living rooms and another between the kitchen and dining room.
I can't speak for what may be available new from a box store, but the old crap I've got works well. Blow the dust out of the track once in a while, WD-40 up into the dark and so far everything seems fine.
If I had to buy them today I would scout around for refurbishers or old stuff recyclers.
Dan
Most of what has been said in this thread is true, sort of.
Cheap pocket doors suck. They have questionable hardware, but the bigger issue is the actual door slabs.
Modern interior residential doors are really chinsy. They are prone to warpage when they aren't well sealed or well secured (preferably with 3 hinges).
The back edges and tops and bottoms of pocket doors can't be sealed, because they are inside the wall. They hang freely from the rollers, so nothing stops them from warping.
Then they are installed with tight tolerances in the wall pocket. When they warp, they clip the framing, and jump the tracks.
It doesn't help that the hardware is sketchy too. It's pressed metal, and flimsy.
You can hang a good door (well sealed) on a modern pocket door track and have it function reasonably well.
You can also buy better hardware. Johnson makes better quality hardware, but it's not in stock at any store. You have to special order it, and it's very expensive.
Old pocket doors had better doors, and better hardware.
Bottom line, you can get a good pocket door, but they aren't cheap. And nobody buys them.
If you can avoid using one, you will be happy.
In reply to 914Driver:
Good example.
Your 1894 oak doors were made of quarter sawn, straight grained, well seasoned and dried, solid oak, 2" thick. They were sealed on all 6 surfaces before installation. They are riding on cast iron rollers, and heavy duty tracks.
You can still buy doors like that. They'd be worth about $1000 each, and the hardware is worth about $600.
Modern pocket doors are 1 3/8" thick, made of pressed composite material and hollow- filled with a cardboard honeycomb. They are rarely sealed on the edges, and hung on stamped metal tracks with plastic rollers.
Those doors cost about $30, and the hardware costs about $100.
That's why no one buys good pocket doors.
yeah johnson hardware costs a fortune. i was trying to get a triple bypass closet door setup for my bedroom and they were the only ones that made the tracks, and it was going to cost close to $800 for the tracks and wheels. i have probably 2 customers who are willing to pay for their products if needed.
I find pocket doors made to fit in a 2x4 stud space to be quite flimsy.
If you have the space, frame real stud walls on either side of that flimsy crate they call "the pocket" amd stiffen the whole wall up substantially.
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