# 4' wide pocket door?



## Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD (Nov 11, 2008)

I've got a room that is used as a living room and guest room. The entryway to this room is 4' wide and I'd like to install a pocket door that could be closed when it's in guest room mode. It's not feasible to do 2' on each side, so it looks like it would have to be a 4' door. I've done a couple of 28" pocket door installations on our bathrooms, so i think I could manage this one. 

The problem is that I don't see any 4' wide interior doors being sold. Do such doors exist? If so, where could I find one? If not, would it be possible to make one? It doesn't have to be anything fancy, since it'll be open (and therefore hidden in the pocket) 98% of the time. Finally,, it would be nice if the door is reasonably sound-proof. Thanks.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

No such thing as a sound proof pocket door. About the best you could hope for is a soild wood 1-3/4 thick one to help deaden the sound.
Widest one I could find it 42" wide.
Your going to have open up the whole wall any way to add a header so how about just reframing to a smaller width so you do not have to order a custom door.
http://www.interiordoors.com/pocket.html


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## abracaboom (Dec 27, 2011)

I don't know if they even make the hardware for a 48" pocket door. 

Pocket doors are real ugly anyways, not worth the trouble cutting the wall another 4 feet and installing an 8' header, when you can install French doors without any construction work.


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## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

If you have room enough to slide 48" back into one side, since you have to tear out a lot anyway for the header, can't you just slide the whole door opening over 24", and then put in two 24" pocket doors? One on each side.


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## AgBuilder (Jan 25, 2012)

In my area, a door in a non-loadbearing wall doesn't require a header. Just proper framing of the opening, which you likely already have since you have a hole in the wall. Have you looked into or considered True Divided lite pine interior bi-hinge doors??? you can get them with obscured glass so that privacy isn't an issue when closed. They also look nice opened fully. If you have the space on each side of the opening to open the doors, it is a considerable option.


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## Blondesense (Sep 23, 2008)

Does it have to be _inside_ the wall. Modified barn doors are trendy now and probably a lot easier to install. 

I'm sure you could find other hardware suppliers.

~note~ Not endorsing this site, just using it as an example.

http://www.realcarriagedoors.com/hardware-cat.php?page=sliding-hw


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## crankcase (Sep 21, 2010)

Jeremy Hillary Boob said:


> I've got a room that is used as a living room and guest room. The entryway to this room is 4' wide and I'd like to install a pocket door that could be closed when it's in guest room mode. It's not feasible to do 2' on each side, so it looks like it would have to be a 4' door. I've done a couple of 28" pocket door installations on our bathrooms, so i think I could manage this one.
> 
> The problem is that I don't see any 4' wide interior doors being sold. Do such doors exist? If so, where could I find one? If not, would it be possible to make one? It doesn't have to be anything fancy, since it'll be open (and therefore hidden in the pocket) 98% of the time. Finally,, it would be nice if the door is reasonably sound-proof. Thanks.


Check out Johnson Hardware, never dealt with them just did a quick search. looks like they have different series of rail available to accept up to a 300# door. 
http://jhusa.net/100pdbp.aspx

As for sound proofing or sound deadening, Im planning on building my own door but in my installation it will be hinged. Im going to rip a couple 2x4's, frame up the perimiter and add a web or 2 horizontal for support for my door knob. Then I plan on filling the "core" by laminating (2) 1/2" sheetrock and (1) 5/8" sheets. Then skin over it with 1/8" oak or hardboard. In my case I am going for the added benifit of a gypsum core for the fire door aspect. 

Your going to have sound transfer either way, either thru the open doorway if its open, or the other half thru the framing wll essentially be just the 2 layers of drywall. You could however fill in the spaces between the 1/2"OSB "studs" with more 1/2" drywall pieces so as not to interfere with the pocket opening and have 1" of gypsum on each side. Does this make sense?


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## ddawg16 (Aug 15, 2011)

I agree with the idea of using an exterior sliding barn door. It is an option we are looking at.

Another option....Bi-fold doors?


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## Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD (Nov 11, 2008)

ddawg16 said:


> I agree with the idea of using an exterior sliding barn door. It is an option we are looking at.
> 
> Another option....Bi-fold doors?


Thanks for all of the info and suggestions.

As for Johnson Hardware, I have used their pocket doors previously. It's very high quality stuff. In fact, I have a leftover set of rollers, and I'd just need to buy the track, which would only cost me about $100. So that's part of the reason I've been focused on a pocket door.

I hadn't thought about moving the door over and putting in a pair of 2' doors. Space is tight in this house, and that would interfere with the place where we have our desk, but we might be able to work around that. Definitely something to consider.

As for the inside barn door... I had considered that, but the hardware seems to be really expensive compared to pocket doors. It also seems to me that any reasonable sound-proofing would be far more difficult, if not impossible.

I guess the bottom line is that I'm undecided, but still leaning towards a 4' door, if only I could find such a thing. I had considered building one, and I might think about the feasibility of that a bit more.


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## DannyT (Mar 23, 2011)

have you looked at these?

http://www.inventiveusa.com/home.html


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## Msradell (Sep 1, 2011)

DannyT said:


> have you looked at these?
> 
> http://www.inventiveusa.com/home.html


Very interesting concept, have you ever used one?


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

http://johnsonhardware.com/111pd.htm

You can use hardware like this and a single 4' door or 2 2' doors that both slide the same way, could even connect the two doors together so slide as one.


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## bpm (Feb 8, 2011)

Are you doing a pocket door because you want to save the space of standard door swinging in or out of the room? If that's not an issue, you could close the existing opening down a bit and just install a standard door. It would likely be a lot easier and wouldn't require you to open up the wall to do the framing for a pocket door.


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## Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD (Nov 11, 2008)

mae-ling said:


> http://johnsonhardware.com/111pd.htm
> 
> You can use hardware like this and a single 4' door or 2 2' doors that both slide the same way, could even connect the two doors together so slide as one.


Now that's a thought. It would be pretty easy to connect a pair of 2' wide doors together and have them pull as one. That might be just what the doctor ordered.


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## Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD (Nov 11, 2008)

bpm said:


> Are you doing a pocket door because you want to save the space of standard door swinging in or out of the room? If that's not an issue, you could close the existing opening down a bit and just install a standard door. It would likely be a lot easier and wouldn't require you to open up the wall to do the framing for a pocket door.


It's a space issue. We already have pocket doors on both of the bathrooms for the same reason. In addition to this 4' entryway that currently under consideration, there's one more spot where I'll eventually put another pocket door (or maybe a barn door for that one). They make a big difference in tight spaces.


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

You can get 4' wide doors, well I used to be able to.


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

:laughing:Could really have some fun confusing people.
A camp I used to go to had a plywood door on a storage room. it was 4' wide but someone put trim around it at the 32" mark and a handle inside the trim, they even used a black marker and put a line around just inside the trim, really looked like a 32" door. It was funny to see people hit themselves with the door


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## Jeremy Hillary Boob PhD (Nov 11, 2008)

mae-ling said:


> You can get 4' wide doors, well I used to be able to.


Where might that be?


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

Got them from "Dominion Lumber" just a regular lumber yard that dealt a lot with contractors. 
I find big box stores not very helpful.


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