Bathroom Pocket Door 1

I love pocket doors. They are an elegant solution to partitioning space in any home, but even more so in smaller houses. Hinged doors are a waste of space on a number of counts. When you look at the square footage they suck up this becomes a stronger argument for pocket doors.

Consider a bathroom door which is typically 30''. With the hinge side of the door and trims, you are typically up to 36" in linear area with when you consider the sweep of the door, renders 9 square feet of your livable floor area unusable. When you take into account the standard 80" height, the wall behind the open door has a very limited useage as well. You loose roughly 17.5 square of wall space as well. On the other hand a pocket door uses only about 1.5 square feet of your floor and gives you back your wall.

Yes it is more expensive. A pocket door frame set is about 70 bucks and another 30 bucks for a door slab, but a hinged door set is not much cheaper when you toss in the knob set and trim kit to match your existing house, unless of course you are building a ''home improvement style'' house.

In a typical bathroom in older homes the plumbing is strung out in a line, shit, shave and shower, or toilet, sink and tub. The bathtub is usually the determing factor in bathroom size. A 5' bathtub means that your bathroom is 5 foot wide. With a toilet and sink your other wall is usually around 8', giving you 40 square feet of space to cram in all of the stuff that normally goes with personal hygiene, like soap, shampoo, towels, bum wad, and the toilet and shower cleaning products.

I am putting a pocket door in my bathroom. Since I have a small bathroom, and tools, I can do this. My hallway has this storage closet which was an afterthought by the guy who remodeled this house.

Particle board and 1'' pine. Don't get me started on particle board.

The resultant hallway is 32" wide and a little over 7' high, due to the duct work for the roof mounted HVAC unit. They mount them on the roof here in arizona and drop the ceilings to conceal the ductwork.

First thing is to slash open the ceiling to see what I have up here, and to ensure that I can get the frame and header in. Remember that pocket doors require a header that is twice the length of a hinged door header as the track and framing are twice as long as the opening.
As you can see, this was a birdshit closet, and there is enough space to install the frame.

After opening up the rest of the ceiling that I needed for the header and removing the old bathroom door and trim, I dry fit the door frame and check it for fit.

This is a pocket door kit from the home improvement store, which has the track and header preassembled, which is a real time saver. It is also a light duty model, as is most of stuff you get at the home improvement stores. Not much of an improvement in most cases, but that is a rant for another post.

I decided to put it next to the existing wall rather than cutting up the bathroom, and installing a new header to tuck it into the existing wall. As luck and a little planning would have it, my pocket frame will allow me to have a clean detail in the new archway.

I will be using a either a wood panel or standard hollow core door(depending on what I find at the remodeling salvage yards) that I will be cutting out to install some frosted glass to provide light in the hallway as well as privacy, which at this point being only me and my dogs is not all that big a deal. I may get lucky someday and then it will come in handy.

Comments

[fp]

(I mean this as a compliment)... The narrative reads like a ze Frank show: direct, personal, dry humor, detailed objective information, no bullshit.

[alan herrell - the head lemur]

thanks, frank!
if i every get out of my current remodeling for others project, i hope to get a semi decent camera and video this lunacy

[J Bigelow]

Good info but I could have done without the crude language.......

[steven davies]

I've renovated two old homes now and never again. But our apartment of fifteen years hasn't been touched since Eisenhower was president, so back I go to painting and scraping.To make my new home improvement.
I've liked your post but I am busy right now,so I will read it later:)
Thanks

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[Cara Fletcher]

Your home looks very good after the improvement and I think you've done a great job.I should do some renovations soon too but I am not ready for them financially yet.

[Cara Fletcher]

Thanks very much for this article.You gave me some great ideas for my home improvement.I was thinking what to do with my house to look better but now I have a lot of ideas.

[Pat (no acne please) Dee]

Nice post. Good pics too. You should of had one of you smashing something. I have a bathroom that could use some anger. I will be taking that one in the next month. Thanks for taking the time and sharing this with us It was very helpful.

Thanks,

Pat

[Michele]

Has the humidity and change in climate affected the door and working mechanisms of the door or pocket? How long ago did you do the project?

[Michele]

Has the humidity and change in climate affected the door and working mechanisms of the door or pocket? How long ago did you do the project?

[alan herrell - the head lemur]

Michele,

As of now there are no problems with the door. Since I shower each day, but with the door open,(probably more information than you need :), there are no issues.

However, in such a small space,5x8', without a vent fan, there is reason for concern, as the current door is a cheap masonite door blank.

I did however paint all six sides before I installed it. Most door warpage comes from not painting the top and bottom edges of any door.

Did the door back in January of 07.