We have two pocket doors to separate toilet rooms from the rest of the bathroom. I wish I'd done a pocket door to separate the master bedroom from the master bath.

Ours work fine, but we don't open and close them 10 times a day. How often do you close your master bath door? I think ours has been closed twice in the last year.

My parents built their home in 1963, they raised 5 children and several foster children there. Now there are 9 grandchildren who visit. We had two pocket doors in each of the 'kids' baths-one to separate from hall and one to separate w/c & tub from vanity. This was very functional and the doors STILL work great. You can imagine the kind of wear and tear they have gotten over the years. I do not remember Dad having to fix them. I think the key must be in the quality of the hardware and the installation. I think there are 'kits' and you can actually build your own from scratch as well. I am a big believer in pocket doors and feel they are under utilized. If you are concerned about them 'wearing out' perhaps do some research and find a better quality set up for your home. Since we are going to put some in our home I could ask my Dad if he has any advice on them.

We have three pocket doors in our house. One separates the master bedroom from the master bath. The second separates the master closet from the master bath. The third closes off the powder room.

the master bath closet is open all most all the time. The door to the master bath is open most of the time - we probably close it a half dozen times during the day.

The door to the powder room gets the most use as it's very conveniently located.

We've been living her for nearly a year. I haven't noticed and difference between the pocket door that gets used a lot vs the others. I do think they make them better than they used to.

My parents have a pocket door to seperate the hall bath from the master bath dressing/toilet area. It's awful, noisy and never works right. I chose to not have a pocket for my powder room because of my experience with theirs.

After my decision I saw a few new homes w/ pocket doors and they seem strong and strudy. I bet you get what you pay for when it comes to pocket doors.

We separated the master bath from the bedroom with a pocket door and have had no problems in 5 years. Because it's just DH and me, we don't close it every time we enter the bathroom -- we tend to close the WC door. But we do close it every time we use the tub or shower because of warmth.

Get a good door and use reasonable care and you should be fine.

Incidentally, one little problem that it caused was because the return is behind a portion of the vanity, we couldn't put outlets in that wall. Solved by putting them into the tall cupboard next to the vanity.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have no opinion on pocket doors in general, but will happily install them if that's what the client wants. I've seen some last for decades without problems, I've seen brand new ones come off the track in a week. It's all in the quality of the hardware and the installation. That's why I recommend Johnson Hardware for pocket doors. They are the best I've come across.

Here is a link that might be useful: Johnson Hardware

I have read (here, I believe) that pocket doors should be installed in 6" walls VS 4" walls, to avoid the light switch/outlet issue. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

I have also read (here again, I believe) that the Johnson pocket door hardware is the best and that that makes all of the difference as well.

I personally do not like pocket doors (poorly done doors in a previous home) and changed the plans for 2 pocket doors in this house.

Here's what I did in my master bath--something to consider.

A single door would have also hit one of the bathroom vanites when opened. So, instead of doing a single 3 ft door, I chose a 4 ft double door. This gives the master bath an elegant look and each door only encroaches 2 ft into the room when open.

Not a great pic, but the only one I have to show you what I mean.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Great idea with the double doors. I didn't even realize that this was an option.

We have a Johnson pocket door...I can't remember what model it is, but it was the most expensive one. I think it is rated to hold a 300 lb. door. I don't anticipate any issues with it. I love pocket doors. They are very traditional, which I appreciate.

We have lots of pocket doors. One for the toilet room, and one that separates the master bedroom from the bathroom. Our master closet is between those doors and we did a conventional door on it. I wish we'd done another pocket door because we can't close it very often as that's where the dog has chosen as her hangout. We love the pocket doors. They are a little harder for my husband to close because he has some range of motion issues, but otherwise they are fabulous. One thing our builder mentioned though is to make sure the framers fully understand that the door opening are for pocket doors, otherwise you can end up with nails in the frame blocking the track for the doors.

mcbird has made a VERY important point about installation. Our framer did not read the enclosed directions on installing the Johnson hardware for our pocket doors. (He also didn't look at the plans sometimes when he was building the interior walls, but that's another story.) I happened to walk through the house as 2 of his crew were installing 2 different pocket doors. One guy was doing it backwards!

He also didn't read how high the headers over the doors were supposed to be and made them too low. The pocket door pieces bowed. We have 9 pocket doors, and had to have them all redone--by someone else since we didn't trust him to do them right.

I had 4 pocket doors for 25 years that were the cheap builder's grade. 2 to the kitchen, 1 to the master bath, and 1 to the hall to the bedrooms. This last one was 36" wide and heavier. It got slammed by my kids a lot and didn't hold up. The others were fine.

Anne

Pocket doors are great space savers. A few tips:

- I don't use the prefab/prehung pocket doors. I build them up from the straightest stock I can get. I've even ripped birch plywood to make the frames. Better yet, make the wall with 2x6 plates.
- Don't use cheap hardware (track and hangers). Ask for the heavy duty stuff.
- Frame the opening oversize so that the door can be removed without tearing out the jambs. Nail stop molding to the jambs to cover the edges when closed.

And most important...clearly label the wall, especially at the bottom, so that the carpenters don't fire nails into the door when hanging trim. Been there, done that. Two nails in every stud. Don't ever want to do it again.

We're having pocket doors between the master bedroom and bath, master bath to walk in closet, kitchen to processing kitchen, and double pockets from the entry into the study. They're made custom. Tom

We had a pocket door between the master bath and bedroom in our old house and have a pocket door between the master closet and bedroom in our new house as well as one in the laundry room. If you need to free up wall space, then I would not hesitate to get a pocket door. However, if there is no benefit to having a pocket door, then I think that a swinging door is more convenient to use than a pocket door. But if there is some benefit to be gained by using a pocket door instead of a swinging door, then go for it. My only complaint with pocket doors was with the one at our old house--a nail protruded into the pocket so it scratched the door everytime it was opened and closed and it would have been a big deal to fix it. We never had any trouble with the pocket mechanism.

We have 5 pocket doors in use for 2.5 years now with no issues. One between master bedroom and bath, one between each guest bedroom and its bath, one between hallway to master suite and living area, and one to pantry.

A great way to customize such doors is to put full-lenghth frosted glass in them. That's what we did for the hallway door.

The only thing we ever run into is the cats. They have figured out how to slide them open if they are not locked!

Great ideas on this thread. Thanks for the Johnson link, remodeler matt.
blsdgal, I love the elegant look of double doors. And, as you pointed out, they are so convenient. One problem, with our last build, a pair of 18" doors cost the same as 2, 36" doors. Of course, my supplier probably knew I had no other sources. How the internet has changed things!!

I find pocket doors more awkward to use. Because they leave a gap at the bottom, they offer less privacy and allow a draft.

We have pocket doors on our master closets, which flank a short hallway between our MBR and bath. We have double (french) doors from the hallway into the bathroom. We almost never close the closet doors. We close the double doors to retain heat in the bathroom when bathing. The toilet room has a swinging door that opens out.

Are they harder to clean--around the space where they go into the wall. How do you clean them?

Less privacy? Do you have midgets on their knees with fibre optic scopes in your house? A draft? From where?

Our pocket doors have a 3/8in gap. Our regular doors have a 3/8in gap. We have no midgets, and we have all our returns in the ceiling.

pinktoes... clean them? What's to clean? Vacuum as you would any corner.