My mother was watching House Hunters

[conuly]

And the couple was raving about how the charming old house they were looking at had "pocket doors" and I'm just - folks, we live in a house with pocket doors, and lots of 'em. Do you know why this feature is so rare? When those doors break - and sooner or later everything breaks! - they are a massive, massive pain to fix. Are you particularly handy? No? Then don't do it.

I just googled this, and they start out by telling you to cut an access hole in the drywall and just no.

Comments

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

That they break was well enough known that when my grandpa installed one when building the master bedroom, he made the trim detachable so he could pop that off and get the door back up and tightened.

[conuly]

Smart of him.

[jhetley]

I had a few clients ask for pocket doors in house designs. Managed to talk some of them out of the idea. One case, a conversion of an old office floor into apartments downtown, that really was the only thing that would work.

[conuly]

They're very convenient, I'll grant you that, and your clients... but they're so inconvenient when they break!

[moon_custafer]

(Googles “pocket doors,” confirms they are what I think they are)
Question for the homeowners:
Are you Buster Keaton?
Then no, you do not have the required improvisational-engineering skills to keep these working, cute though they be.

[calimac]

We stayed in a hotel room where the bathroom door was a pocket door. I kept on getting almost trapped in there, though I could always shake it loose - eventually. The hotel sent its engineer to fix it. Didn't make a damn bit of difference.

[conuly]

The bathroom door was a pocket door? Bet it had a really frustrating locking mechanism too.

[zesty_pinto]

Ha ha, yeaaah, that's probably why I see the modern iterations of this use exposed beamwork to install them. I can tell if the mechanism isn't already exposed then I'm going to have a major project just from one of them.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

The loft door is its own phenom, because warehouses didn't play fussy games.

[zesty_pinto]

Ahhh, is that the name for those? I'm okay with those, to be honest. Any future pets will probably be annoyed since it takes valuable corner space for them, but for me I would like the extra swing room and would make mirrors a little more easy for me to utilize.

Of course, if we're going into the fantasy realm where I can even afford a house, let alone put time into projects like this, then I might as well also keep wishing for a big workshop, too, hah.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

One of their names. A pocket door has to have a pocket, while there are a number of track doors without pockets. There were exterior versions, and those were normally on very utilitarian buildings, like horse barns, foundries and other places having a swing radius Could Be Very Bad. I've found that if you localize them, knowledgable tradesmen will grok what you are referring to and will start providing what further niceties are needed/available.

Of course, exterior and interior are fungible when it comes to loft doors. ;)

[dine]

my parents' house is v. old, and had gorgeous, with multiple panes of glass, pocket doors between living and dinging rooms - though I only know that from photos of my toddler years, as one came off its rails. the walls are actual plaster, and the only way to get to them was to rip up the hardwood floorboards upstairs - which dad absolutely said 'no' to. so he just nailed up narrow boards over the gap in the framing, painted it to match, and it's now part of the woodwork. when they finally sell the house, I've no idea if the new buyers will be willing to put in the time/work to get them fixed, but I kind of think they might just become a bit of history. wonder how long it'll take before they're forgotten altogether?

[conuly]

That was the right call here.

[jack]

I never heard of them before this. That really is a glorious idea that I agree is terrible.

[conuly]

There are some few situations where they make a lot of sense. You're not likely to be in one, though.

[dark_phoenix54]

Not only are they a massive pain because they stick, drag, and break, and are a massive pain to fix, but you can't hang anything on the walls where the pocket is! And god help you try and get a spider out of there.

And, yes, cutting into the drywall is how it starts.. (was a housepainter for like 30 years- I had to deal with those f***ers all too often)

[conuly]

Our walls are all original, lath and plaster.

[dark_phoenix54]

Gah! You're effing doomed.

[cactuswatcher]

Like dine above, my experience with a pocket door, was in a very old house with lath and plaster walls. It was in my grandmother's house, and I think it was between the kitchen and the dinning room. I was very young and warned not to play with the pocket door.

My parents house had a swinging door between the kitchen and dining room, which meant it had a hinge that would allow the door to swing into either room, to assist carrying things back and forth as in a restaurant. Most restaurants have two; one to go into the kitchen and one to come out. There is nothing like walking briskly up to a swinging door as someone is doing the same on the other side. You don't need to be carrying anything to get slammed pretty good. After a few 'eventful' years that door was kept open at all times.

[conuly]

We had a swinging door in our apartment when I was very little. Not very good for fire safety, I'm told.

[dine]

ha! I'd completely forgotten the swinging door. our house also had one between kitchen & dining room, but it was removed when the folks remodeled the kitchen in the mid70s. I don't recall too many traumatic accidents, but think it was mostly kept propped open, so mom could keep an ear out for kid noises.

[gatheringrivers]

Just to be devil's advocate here:

I grew up in a house with pocket doors. I LOVED them, and I miss them terribly! But then I also like vintage homes in general, they have more nifty character to them than these modern clean ones. (I just assume the electrical needs work at this point, after seeing some of the horrors of how electrical wires were originally run...)

We've got a couple swing doors now with stuff in front of them, so they're either perpetually open or perpetually closed until stuff gets moved. Pocket doors (or any other track/barn door setup, really) would make dealing with that SO much easier.

That said, we've got a track door (not with a pocket) in the basement of the current house, and I should probably look up how to fix it. Now that I know "breakdowns happen", it explains what happened to the one door in the house I grew up in.

I like the idea of building in a removable section to be able to access it to fix!

[silveradept]

Thankfully, only have the one, and if it breaks, it's not a critical door that has to stay closed.

[cellio]

Pocket doors are nice for small spaces, where a hinged door would get in the way, but yes you have to plan for them. My first house turned out to have pocket doors (that had then been sealed in, and then wall-to-wall carpeting was put down); had to remove trim to get to them, but the mechanism worked fine other than that the darn carpet was in the way, so they had to be sanded down. It was a pain to get to that point, but nice to have in the end.