At some point the doors in my first floor had been removed or never existed. I’d like to install doors between the front hallway and kitchen, hallway to living room and living room to dining room. The LR and DR entrances are double wide and tall with the original trim molding. On the second floor there is a similar layout and one entryway does have a pocket door. During some electrical work we took a peek inside the plaster walls and saw they were hollow with no support beams and was wondering if pocke doors could go in. Has anyone done this, how much of wall demo is involved and any recommendations for a person or company that can do this. thanks.


Comments

  1. I do this kind of work all the time. You have to demo the wall on either side of the entranceway because you have to frame the wall to make the pockets. The new top track systems work best. They are super quiet and move really easy. The old doors can be used if they are the right size. Many salvage yards have them. Pocket doors are great for bedrooms when using A/C. If I were doing a gut renovation I would have all the doors changed over to pocket doors. They save a great deal of floor space for furnature since you don’t have to reserve space for a door that swings. The same is true if you give up your radiators and go with a forced air heating. Now, don’t get me started about Murphy beds!

  2. Our neighbors are adding pocket doors to a room off their hallway. To do so, they had to demo the wall on either side of the entranceway and rebuild to include the doors. They didn’t say why, but I suspect it had to do with making sure the doors track evenly.

    As for cost, my neighbor would only say “expensive,” and they’ve got a lot of money.

  3. i am looking into adding pocket doors to my hallway area. They were here long ago. Eddie who has the shop on Grand and Gates (i think) might know of someone to do this work. he did recommend that i use Omar for making pocket doors for me. I can tell you this much. new doors = 14k. ouch.