Are there any code implications to using a pocket door at the head of a set of basement stairs?
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Replies
I have no clue about your actual question but assuming you go ahead with it, make sure you think about it before you hang the door. I have a slider that goes into a bedroom. Everytime my family is over, my nieces and nephews push it off the hanging bolts (and this door weighs well over 100 pounds). Make sure you hang it such that if it is pushed on from the top of the stairs, it cannot come of the hangers and send someone down the steps.
Buy good hardware and you won't have this problem. I have Johnson 400 hangers on the converging pocket doors in the play room and the kids ride on them.
The problem isn't the quality of the hardware its the intelligence of the kids. The doors work properly when you slide it as designed but when you are too stupid to slide it and you and run into it headlong trying to push it open because you can't figure out how to slide it, it will come off the hangers.
A Johnson 400 won't come off the hanger, no matter what you do. It is captive on a heavy extruded "T" shaped rail with 2 wheels on each side per truck.. You hang the door on the truck and it locks in.
The 200 is similar except it is a a rail with tracks on each side and 3 wheels. The truck is still captive on the rail.
The trick when you install it is to leave a gap at the open end big enough to get the truck off and then mount the door hanger far enough down the door so the truck won't get to the gap when it is connected to the door. (about 2")
The door should be "trapped"
The door should be "trapped" by the trim such that you couldn't push it off the hangers, even with cheap hardware.
It sounds like yours is hung on cheap closet door hardware instead of good Johnson pocket hardware. When hung properly it is not possible to unhung it that easily
IIRC, there is a standard code item that requires a landing at the top of the stairs if there is a door. But I don't see how a pocket door would be any worse than a door opening towards the stairs.
If sructural header is needed, it must be sized for an openning twice as wide as a normal door