Sorry, but if you want to be shielded from sounds, the answer is to move the powder room to a private area. A pocket door is no more or less soundproof than any other door (which are not terribly soundproof)

Agree with sjhockeyfan325: a pocket door is no more or less sound absorbing. But there are different doors. a 1 3/4" solid door is going to be more deadening than a 1 3/8 hollow core/molded door. At that point, I'm not sure if you'll get more sound transmission from the door or the wall ...

I've found there's not much difference between the two kinds of doors. If your near the bathroom, you'll hear it.

Agree with all of the above. A standard door or a sliding door will both typically have a space at the bottom, and that is the main sound transmission path.

I agree. We have a pocket door separating the toilet from the rest of the bathroom and it's not useful for sound blocking....

Put in a noisy fan.

Thank you. I guess if its the same - and not any worse - as a standard door then really it will serve only one purpose - that of reducing wasted space by a swing-in door.

I have used two different types of pocket doors; lightweight hollow doors hung on a track, heavy solid doors with both top and bottom tracks.

The door you want exists.

Jim Mat - Do you have any photos, brand names, prices to share?

Kudzu9 - So, you get a kit seperate from a door?

Our builder mentioned something about a manufactured door that comes assembled on a track and you fit in, and stick drywall either side. Job done. What's that about? Good quality or not?

You might get an a decent package deal, but you might also get a middling grade or hollow core door combined with no-name, lightweight hardware. I prefer to buy the Johnson kit which includes all the track hardware, plus a pocket door frame of steel-encased wood studs that the drywall gets attached to: Johnson Pocket Door Kit. (And I know it will be trouble free for as long as I'm in the house.)

Then I go to a door store and get a good quality solid core door that I mount into the opening. The only other thing you would need is to get hardware like an edge pull or handles for the door.

Here's a 10 minute video that show how a Johnson kit is installed:

Johnson installation

The door and the pocket frame are separate. The door itself is, generally, no different than a swinging door. Both have to be drilled for hardware and mounted/hung in some kind of frame.

All the millwork places I've talked to sell pocket door frames. As kudzu9 mentions, Johnson has a good rep on GW. As does Häfele, though I believe they're very pricey.

Both of the places I've been talking to sell El and El. They're in Southern CA (I'm Northern CA) and I believe make their own pocket door frames.

If you do go with a swing door, there are acoustical panels which you can purchase to attach to the back of the door. They will dampen the sound quite a bit. I don't think you'd be able to use them on a pocket door, though, due to the thickness of the door and width of the wall opening.

I have this same problem with a bathroom located right off my family room. Even with the fan on, you can hear the sounds from the bathroom. Ick. I've been considering the acoustical panels, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Consider an automatic door sweep for pocket doors. I have linked one as an example. This will allow the closing of the space below the door when the bathroom is in use. Couple with a solid core door, this is a link to Trustile doors, you can achieve some sound transmission ratings for your purpose. Most millshops will mortise the sweep into the door. Many millshops also supply different pocket door hardware depending on the recommendation from the door manufacturer.

Good luck!

I have one standard and one pocket door BR, both doors are identical solid, and believe the pocket door offers less sound blocking. JMHO

My daughter poo-pooed (pun intended <g>) the idea of a Panasonic Whisper fan in her powder room saying she WANTED a noisy fan so people outside the powder room wouldn't hear bathroom noises. That makes NO sense to me! A noisy fan INSIDE the bathroom will only keep the person using the bathroom from hearing noises outside the bathroom, right? I like my whisper quiet Panasonic fans :)

Less noise resistance as in addition to the fact that the door does not seal tight even (compared to a regular interior swing door) you have the fact that the wall alongside the door is hollow as the door slides into an open pocket.

Play the radio loud!

Are you able to add insulation to the wall facing the dining are? That could also help..

Insulation does not really muffle sound. If you can add sound proofing material to wall where the pocket door will be installed. Roxul makes a soundproofing material.

If you have almost any bathroom in close proximity to a living/dining area, there is still the likelihood of some sound transmission, regardless of the type and construction of the door.

Damping the sound doesn't sound possible from.most posts.

I definitely plan on having insulation in the dining facing wall. Will look in to other sound proofing materials but it feels like a whole lot of hassle.

We don't have any other place for the downstairs bathroom. Already moving it (powder room) from being smack in the corner of the kitchen with a flimsy bi fold door to be in the new addition part of the kitchen extension which positions it at one end of the new dining area and the opening to the foyer.

Green glue sound proofing

Sound transmission is a partially a function of density. Cast iron vent / sewer pipe really helps. Also you could use two layers of sheet rock with green glue

To quote their web page: "A lot of people wonder how a simple layer of Green Glue Noiseproofing Compoundis so effective at dissipating noise. To understand the science behind the compound you need to understand a little about the energy of sound waves and how they travel.

Noise travels through the air like a wave or an airborne vibration. When these waves hit a ceiling or wall, the vibrations will pass through the structure and exit through the other side as sound again. That is, unless the structure is damped.

Green Glue Noiseproofing Compound has a unique polymeric formula that converts the mechanical energy from sound waves into small amounts of heat. When the compound is sandwiched between two rigid layers of material (like drywall), it forms a damping system. So, when sound waves pass through the structure, the energy is dissipated in the form of heat.

The result is dramatic - just one layer of Green Glue Noiseproofing Compound in between two sheets of drywall can eliminate up to 90 percent of noise, even at low frequencies."

I agree that one can make the physical door itself more soundproof, but the issue is still that the sound travels through the walls and around all the edges of the door. So, short of hermetically sealing the door and turning the bathroom into an acoustically damped sound studio, how far does one want to go in terms of masking the occasional bathroom sound?

Absolutey not, you hear everything!

"Absolutey not, you hear everything!"

Even 5 years later?