pocket door hardware for 36" high pocket door

[eugene thomas]

I am going to put pocket door in doorway between mudroom and kitchen. do to use of room and all going to be only 36" or so high. need to figure out how to make it work. will have to have roller on bottom of door or some kind of slide system. kind of looking for solution to make work. my builder suggested making full side door and leaving upper panel out. going to make 3 panel doors for the house. not really think would like the look of that.

[George Bokros]

I don't think you can make a pocket door that has the track on the bottom. I cannot think of any way to keep the door from falling to one side or the other. A door suspended from the top due to the forces of nature (gravity) it will hand straight down with the floor guide at the opening keeping it from swinging. Also the track in the floor will eventually fill with dirt.

[Jeff Duncan]

Can you tell us more about your situation? If we know more about what your trying to do we may be able to offer alternative options? I'm assuming you want a door to keep a child or pet contained? But why leave the top open? If your goal is to let in more light maybe go with a couple glass panels on top? Or if it's for ventilation maybe build the full door but leave the top panels out altogether? Or....?

As far as making a 36" high door work I'm not sure I know anything that will look good and work well over time. You could mount the door with heavy duty side mount drawer slides....but it'll look pretty ugly. You could also make the door a little more than twice as wide as the opening needs to be and use wheels on the bottom. That way the door would still be supported even when closed by the walls.

good luck,
JeffD

[Jamie Buxton]

Put wheels on the bottom edge. Get them thinner than the door, and you can embed them in a pocket inside the door so they're almost invisible. Like a conventional pocket door, this half-height door needs to be a little wider than the doorway, so the wall guides the door while it is closed. Me, I'd put rollers inside the wall opening to guide the top of the door, instead of just letting the door slide against the frame. Use the usual pocket-door flush pull.

Like all pocket doors, you have to think ahead. Most doors in a house are installed after the sheetrock goes up. For pocket doors, you have install the door before the sheetrock. One issue with this wheeled approach is that the finish floor height needs to extend into the pocket.

[Sam Murdoch]

If you don't mind that one side would have hardware attached and you have access to the pocket side until after the door is hung you could just use some heavy duty side mount drawer slides mounted to the face of the door 3" up and down from the ends. For example - http://www.drawerslides.com/hettich-drawer-slide These might be wayyyyy over build depending on the weight of the door but there are lighter options.



Actually if you think of the door as a very narrow pullout and the pocket as a narrow cabinet with a top set at or near 36" you can find all kinds of hardware for "pullouts" from spice racks to full pantry cabinets that allow for pulling a 3' tall structure out while being supported by a top and bottom mechanism or simply a top mechanism and a bottom guide. Look at Hafele or Rev-A-Shelf for examples. The Hafele Architectural catalog could be a source for other more door like options. In any case you will need to allow access through the wall of the pocket.

[eugene thomas]

jamie, i was thinking along your lines but the floor thing will definitaly have to remember that. the reason need to go this way is my wife wanted dutch door and i didn't. wanted pocket door but we have cat that just seems to not like dogs. put up with him because after last cat passed on house was taken over by mice, bought cat in house and that night 2 dead mice. no more problem but anyway.

[Jason White]

I've been told that these guys are good...

http://www.johnsonhardware.com/pdindex.htm

[George Bokros]

I've been told that these guys are good...

http://www.johnsonhardware.com/pdindex.htm

I used their hardware (not the pocket door framing) for a pocket door I installed for the entry to my basement shop. Their instructions were perfect and my door works flawlessly. As a mater of fact it works 1000% better than the three a builder installed in one of my previous homes.

George