Installing a Pocket Door

By Murray Anderson

Back to Choosing Pocket Doors

So you’ve decided you want to install a pocket door in your home. You done your up front planning and made sure you know what you’re going to do with any infrastructure inside your chosen wall and you’ve found a good quality pocket door kit that can handle the weight of your chosen door. All that's left to do is install the door. Here’s how to install your pocket door.

 
Things You Need

• Interior door
• Pocket door kit
• Tape measure
• Drywall
• Drywall joint compound
• Reciprocating saw
• Hammer
• Hack saw
• Level
• String
• Plastic sheets

 

Installing Your Pocket Door  

·         First hang some plastic sheets around the area where you will be working. Your first step is opening the wall and that's going to generate lots of dust but the plastic will help contain it.

·         Use your tape measure and mark the rough opening needed to install your new door. Be sure to make the opening a couple of inches wider and higher than your door requires. (In general a pocket doorframe needs to be twice the width of the door plus 1 ¾” – so a 32 inch door will need a frame 65 ¾”. (2 X 32 plus 1 ¾”) so add the extra inches to those dimensions.

·         Make your opening by holding your reciprocating at a low angle and cut through the drywall along your markings.

·         Once the drywall is removed, cut through the wall studs and remove them.

·         The rule of thumb for frame height is 85 ¾”, however, check the instructions that came with your kit and follow them.

·         Install your new header so the bottom is at 85 ¾” (or the appropriate height for your kit).

·         The hardware track is installed on the bottom of your header. Follow the directions in your kit and cut it to length with your hacksaw. Next install the track ensuring it’s level by placing shims where needed.

·         For your pocket door to work properly the opening needs to be level, plumb and square. You can check for plumb and square by running pieces of string from opposite corners to form a large letter ‘X’. If the strings just touch other at the intersection, the opening is perfect. However, if there is a gap of more than 1/8” inch between them, you need to adjust your studs to get make your frame square.

·         Once the opening is perfect you can install your door kit split studs. These are thin metal wrapped wooden studs that come with you kit. After installation, they leave an open channel for the door to ride in. The combination of metal wrapping on wood provides strength to the studs while their wooden makeup allows you to attach the drywall using screws

·         You attach the split studs to the sole plate and header (always making sure they’re plumb).

·         Next mount the hanging brackets onto the top of the door and slide them into the track. Now, hook the hanging brackets on top of the door onto the wheel carriages and adjust them so the door hangs plumb.

·         Finish the door assembly by installing the latches, pulls or lock you have selected.

·         Complete your pocket door assembly by installing new drywall (screwed into the split studs – don’t use screws any longer than 1 ¼”), then tape and ‘mud’ it. After sanding, all that’s left is to install the door jambs, trim casing and finally, paint your drywall.


Back to Choosing Pocket Doors



Murray Anderson is an experienced freelance writer with over 500 articles published on the web as well as in print magazines and newspapers in both the and . He writes on a wide range of topics and is a regular contributor to DoItYourself.com. He can be contacted at murand@lycos.com.