A Pocket Door Without the Pocket
By Arti Lilien
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Homes built in the early twentieth century exhibit character and charm that are virtually impossible to duplicate in this new millennium. But along with the things I love about older homes come certain eccentricities. There are compromises that must be made to the past. Closet space is frequently at a premium, as our forefathers were not quite the clothes horses we are, and every family owned an armoire. Bedrooms are small, with their swinging doors taking up valuable floor space. Many homes have rooms with two doorways, serving as pathways to other rooms. Foyers might have multiple doors swinging into one another at the most inopportune moments. Improving the “flow” of your house, akin to a functional version of feng shui, is a worthy goal, but how does one achieve it?
The use of pocket doors (doors that slide into a pocket in the wall) to enclose a parlor or separate a foyer from a den was very popular from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. Frequently used in pairs, these sliding doors acted as room dividers and space savers, allowing area around the doorway, normally lost to the swinging door, to be effectively used. The doors were typically large and quite heavy, and the rolling hardware, an adaptation of the carrier system used to hang carcasses for dressing in the meat packing industry, was poorly designed for this task. Doors would slip off the track and jam in the pocket, creating a major headache for anyone wishing to repair them. I’ve entered many older homes with their pocket doors pushed back into the walls permanently, and these quality issues likely contributed to the decline in use of the sliding doors in most homes built in the 1920s. This fact in no way diminishes the basic design advantages a sliding door offers over hinged ones.
Sliding doors offer potential solutions to virtually all the eccentricities previously mentioned, but creating a pocket door in an existing home, because of the demolition and construction involved, is just not practical. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use that sliding door concept to increase the living space in those smaller rooms, turning some of those swinging doors into sliders? Can this type of upgrade be achieved without knocking down walls to create a pocket for the doors to slide into? A pocket door without the pocket?
L. E. Johnson, a well respected manufacturer of sliding door tracks and systems, has produced an elegantly simple solution to this dilemma. It is based on the old surface mounted barn door track, but in a much more compact package. The key to this system is the track itself. Made from extruded aluminum, it integrates a wall mounting strip, fully enclosed box track, and a fascia into one extrusion. Screw the track to the wall, install the roller’s mounting brackets to the top of your door, connect it together, add a floor guide, and voila! — a surface-mounted sliding door. The track itself is easily concealed by applying a molding directly to its face, or, for a more substantial look, building a valance over it. Johnson’s unique system uses a special box-shaped track, making it impossible for the wheels to slip off. By machining and balancing the wheels, this system is smooth, silent, and very low in friction, and it can carry doors up to 200 pounds.
A few extra details are worth noting. You can use the existing door, but you will achieve a more finished look if you fill the hinge and lock mortises and install flush pulls. Concealing the guide on the floor is easy, but you’ll need a router to slot the underside of the door. The best way to control the travel of the door is to use stops installed in the track; make sure you have two.
For more information about this product or other L. E. Johnson products, visit www.johnsonhardware.com.
Arti Lilien is the Product Manager for W. C. Winks Hardware and can be contacted at 503-227-5536. |
