pocket doors

[badgolferman]

Whoever invented pocket doors must have been laughing to himself when he considered the poor slob who has to repair them.

My 1967 house has three pocket doors and I have had to fix all three in the eight years I've lived here. It's always the rear roller that either falls off the track or the adjustment gets out of whack and the inside part of the door drags on the floor. The one I have looks like this:

I spent the weekend tearing off the moulding around one of the doors just to get to the rear roller. This time I modified the top frame so I wouldn't have to take the entire moulding around the door off just to get the top one off. It's finally all back together and the door rides correctly. I'm hoping this is the last time for a while.

[SeaNymph]

We have one pocket door in this house and I shudder to think we might have to fix it some day.

[Micky]

Thomas Jefferson has them at Monticello, and they work.

I think they've been repaired, however.

[philo]

My house was built in 1898 and the pocket door still works.

When I purchased the place in 1979 the door was out about 2 feet and jammed...but all I had to do was forcefully wiggle it a bit and it freed-up and has worked ever since.

[Micky]

I'm gradually recalling the tour there. There was something like a bicycle chain connecting them under the floor, or maybe above them.

I thought he invented the idea, but I couldnt' find anything that said that. Maybe it was just the most famous early American example.

That's great. You probably saved money on the house because the door was messed up. At least $20.

Wow, look at this:

The

1953-'54 Kaiser Motors Darrin sports car used pocket doors. You have to look at the picture to appreciate it.

[philo]

Multiply that by 1000

My house was in such bad shape it was $20K below anything else in the area.

Back then good houses were going for $50K

It needed a lot of work, that was 1979 and it's pretty nice today, but it's a never ending process.

[Don Y]

The design probably ignores maintenance.

One could design a mechanism that requires you to fasten a solid, metal "lip" at the farthest inner point for the upper track. The corresponding end of the track would be formed to "hang" from that lip. The lip has no moving/wear parts and just provides support.

Another part on the near end provides a robust surface to accept a "mounting screw" (i.e., its little more than a plate with a threaded hole that is, itself, fastened to the wooden frame of the house).

Slide track into the pocket so the far end "hook" is past the lip on which it hangs. Move up and pull back out to engage the hook on the far end lip. Lift near end of track to align mounting hole with the near end mounting screw (nut).

But, this requires the track be strong enough to support the door itself -- you'd have no intermediate supports affixing the track to a frame member. And, the two point supports would have to similarly be robust (and not subject to removal each time you serviced the door!)

[gfretwell]

They make much better pocket door hardware. Builders just choke on the price. These are pretty good

These are real good

Hafele makes some excellent $tuff

[Paintedcow]

Now you need to get a computer that was built in 1898. That surly will be a never ending process, to keep it running. Of course if it was made in 1898, it will have Windows 98 installed.

[Art Todesco]

I installed a 24" pocket door in the early 80s for a too small powder room; made a world of difference on space. Previously you had to go into the room and move your body over the toilet in order to swing the door closed. But I ignored some key installation instructions. When my young kids were running from each other, they would always screw it up by sliding it way too fast and derailing it. Once they even bent some of the mountings, but I was able to twist the door and make it better. Some years later, I remodeled the whole room, which made the too small room feel even larger. I decided to up the size of the door to 28"; didn't realize that 28" was non-standard. I actually cut down a 30" and re-glued the end. I didn't know at the time you could special order the

28". But, the big thing was that I made some of the parts removable with screws for easier servicing. Of course, Murphy was there and I never had to take it apart.

[Micky]

The problem with using one of those is that many are steam-powered and that means cutting wood and constantly having to add wood to the fire.

[DerbyDad03]

Maybe you should have twisted the kids to make them better. ;-)

(Joke! I had four of them wrecking stuff in my house over the years.)

Uh oh...now you've done it. You know that Murphy reads this ng, don't you?

[philo]

I do have some computers going back to the 1970's

One of them is a Kaypro which runs cp/m

[philo]

No steam powered computers here, most are BS powered so I have no energy bills to pay