Pocket doors can open up a home and make it more accessible
The pocket door has been around a long time, offering a great space-saving solution in smaller areas that can’t properly account for the natural swing of a hinged door.
When you think of one, you might envision a closet in a small bedroom with a pocket door. But they can also work in larger spaces: picture adjoining dining and living rooms — pocket doors can leave the space wide open when you’re hosting massive family dinners, or can separate the rooms, creating an intimate feeling when it’s just you and the kids.
The question is: when should you install a pocket door and is it worth retrofitting your home to include one?
POCKET DOORS AND MOBILITY
I say this all the time: I believe in building for the future.
That means using sustainable products and green building practices, which means keeping our planet healthy for my grandkids — but also building homes that will take care of us as we age.
For much of our elderly population, the ability to live at home independently is a point of pride for many. I’ve talked about this before: by upgrading our homes with accessibility needs in mind, you’re creating a home that will age with the homeowners.
Think about navigating your home when you age. Do you have lots of stairs to climb multiple times per day? Do your main living areas have the space to manoeuvre a wheelchair or walker?
For smaller, cramped areas, it can be difficult to account for the swing of a hinged door with a person’s mobility device, and a pocket door can offer the perfect solution to keep the room usable while offering a sense of privacy.
CAN IT (RETRO)FIT?
While pocket doors can save you a lot of personal space for smaller rooms, allowing more manoeuvrability, the mechanics of a pocket door need a lot of room that your home may not be able to accommodate. If you’re attempting to replace a hinged door with a pocket door, the challenge will come from the installation process.
The pocket door will actually need twice the space of a swing door — both for the door itself, and the wall cavity the door slides into when it’s fully open. Do you know what’s behind your walls? In many cases, there could be electrical wires, ductwork or plumbing snaking through the house providing much-needed utilities. Or the wall could be structural. You need to know this before you even attempt to install a pocket door. Some of these systems just can’t be messed with.
If you love the benefits of having pocket doors in your home, generally the best time to install them is during the construction stage. It’s not impossible to retrofit pocket doors throughout your home.
Your contractor can help you decide where you can easily add them — and where you shouldn’t. It’s going to be cheaper to construct the house with pocket doors in mind than it is to add them later on.
THE PROBLEMS WITH POCKET DOORS
There are a few common problems you can run into with a pocket door. Over time, you may find that they start to stick, and they don’t slide as smoothly as they should. For the most part, you should be able to solve many potential issues on your own. You’ll have to do a little detective work to source the cause of the issue, but here’s how you can make it right.
If your pocket door gets blocked on the track somewhere, it’s possible that debris or other junk has wedged itself into the door’s pathway, causing it to stick. Take the pocket door completely off the track and remove whatever is obstructing its path.
A sticky pocket door can pose major problems. If it was added to accommodate someone who has mobility issues, when they can’t easily slide the door open, that’s a concern.
Make sure the track is clean and free from dirt.
Tighten the screws holding the track to the framing. After you’ve refreshed the mechanism, if it still sticks, add a little bit of lubricant to the rollers and the track.
If the door itself has warped, it’s time to replace it. A warped door can keep the roller from sliding as smoothly as it should, and could result in a stuck door. Here’s where I would call in a pro to handle installation to make sure it’s been done properly. Watch Mike Holmes in his series, Holmes Makes It Right, on HGTV. For more information, visit makeitright.ca.