Pocket Door

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theaggie

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In my basement remodel I am planning a large (8' wide) pocket door to seperate the mud room from the main living room. The reason for the wide door is to allow large items to be moved in (such as a pool table). Normal swinging doors would consume a lot of space given that the doors will probably be left open most of the time. Also, one side is too close to the exterior wall to allow for a double pocket. The door is there mostly to hide the mud room when we need to, to block out the cold from the mud room during winter, and to provide a light block for home theater.

The design does mean that the back wall of the mud room will intersect the pocket. Has anybody done this before? The frame I plan on using is a Johnson 2000 series and they give a rough sketch of how to do an intersecting wall so I know it can be done. Note also that the only 48x80 door I have been able to find is a 1-3/4 birch solid core door from my local Lumber store (Ring's End). Home Depot still has its limits.

Thanks,
Mark
 

Jimbo

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I see that your model supports a max. door weight of 300 lbs. A 4/0 X 6/8 SC door should be under that, so it looks like a good choice. I assume from your description that neither of the walls is a bearing wall.

One other suggestion depending on the "look" you are going for in the remodel is to use a surface mounted sliding door. This gives a bit of a 'barn' or 'industrial' look. The advantage is ease of installation and ease of periodic maintenance of the rollers. But your pocket system looks like a good one, so I would not be uncomfortable with that, either.
 

theaggie

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I'm pretty sure my wife would never go for the surface mount slider. I chose the Johnson 2000 series over the 1500 series because I really like the extruded I-beam design over the traditional folded sheet-metal channel. It only costs about $50 difference and I can remember all the grief my parents had with their pochet door coming out of the channel. I agree that it should be OK on weight. I had estimated the door weight at 120lb but I don't remember how (don't remember if i did it off the density of birch or off another solid core door). That is less than 1/2 of 300lb so I didn't go any further.

One other thing is that the 2000 series rail hangs from the studs and doesn't require a header for ceilings 8' and under. I might put one in anyway but it seems like a waste since there would be very little space between the header and the top plate of the wall (only 5" if I do a single 2x4 laying down for the header).

Jimbo, have you ever had a wall intersect a pocket before?
 

Sulconst2

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johnson frames come with 1 x 2 wrapped in metal to make the pocket. they tell you to space evenly. but for the intersecting wall screw a piece of 3/4 plywood offset on both sides of your first stud. that will give a sheetrock nailer. if the pocket wall is short i would frame the wall with 2 x 6 so you could beef up both sides of pocket by 1 inch. plus if you install the frame at ceiling height you will need a taller door. better off using their guided height for the stock door you purchase.
 

theaggie

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To achieve the function and look I'm looking for, dual bypass doors seems like it would be more work not less. The overall wall is 15' long but there is an intersecting wall just after the door. This allows for a 48" door with about 18" on each side. No way my wife will go for a track on the floor like a standard bypass door. Also, standard bypass doors don't typically hide in a pocket. To do that anyway, I would need to build a 2x6 frame wall which would raise cost and complexity. Also, as I noted before, I want to use it to seal out the cold during the winter and sealing a bypass would be a lot tougher than a pocket (which will already be tough).
 

hj

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door

I looked back at your original message to see how you were going to insert an 8' pocket door into that wall, and why you kept referring to a single 48" door. In the original, you said you were going to install an 8' pocket door, when you really meant it was 4' pocket door. The 8' was the wall opening to insert the pocket. That makes all the rest of it more plausible.
 

theaggie

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Good catch hj, sorry for the oops. :eek: The 48" is correct and the 8' door width is wrong; I must have been thinking of the opening when I said 8'. An 8' wide door would indeed be huge and way more than the Johnson Pocket Door Frame could handle.

The depth of the mud room will be 11' (the pocket door will centered be on one side). So that means a 48" door with 18" on either side. One interesting concellation is that the pocket extends back into my shop which will be unfinished to I will still have access to the inside of the pocket once everything is done.

Another side question:
I plan on Hilti-gunning all the walls to the concrete basement floor. Will that be OK for the floor anchors for the split-studs as well?
 

Sulconst2

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the split studs attach to a spacer clip which attaches to the floor. i think the hilti gun might be to rough for the clip. maybe a hammer drill and some plastic anchors and screws
 
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