Hi,
I’m considering replacing my bathroom door with a pocket door. The bathroom wall was framed out in 2×4 studs. Should i consider reframing the wall with 2X6 studs to have more depth and rigidity to the wall? I have read Jim Peterson’s article in Fine Homebuilding (January 2017 pg 47). In Jim Peterson’s article, he didn’t mention whether 2×4 or 2×6 walls are better for pocket doors.
The reasoning behind a pocket door is that the small 9’x5′ bathroom won’t have an interference with a door singing in to the bathroom, hitting a shower door.
Look forward to your comments,
Replies
I think you're fine with 2x4 framing, but be sure to buy a heavy duty pocket door hardware kit, so spend the money you save by not reframing with 2x6, on your pocket door hardware. I'm about to renovate a bathroom for one of my daughters, and the request is for a pocket door for the same reason you listed, so I'm considering a Johnson 1500SC (soft close) hardware kit for about $255, or without the soft close feature, the Johnson 1500 for $140 for 30" doors. Prices vary based on size and popularity of size... I like the soft close feature because there's little children's fingers that might benefit from that feature. These are commercial grade kits that have ball bearing rollers and are so much better that the cheap box store models.
For pocket door installation videos, check out YouTube videos by Insider Carpentry -Spencer Lewis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmTXgoEuxi0&t=739s
Also infill the area between the "ladders" with 3/4 cdx ply so you can screw drywall more closely ( it stiffens the wall a little) so you can use short screws to hang TP holder or towelbar.
We remodeled our master bath and had room in our bedroom to reverse the door to swing out. In our situation, it worked great. Picture shows the door fully open into the bedroom.
GrandPaul,
The bathroom looks great. We are going to put in a shower (in lieu of tub/shower) as well. Seems like you have no curb/small curb and a linear drain from the photo.
We can’t open out into the master bedroom or we’ll hit the entrance door for the master bedroom. So this isn’t an option for us, but I can seen how it increases the effective space of the bathroom.
Thanks for your contribution!
MisterEd,
Thanks for your comments. I did see Lewis’ YouTube video. I can’t remember if he commented on 2x6 or 2x4 walls. I’ll go back and check, however, i didn’t see him add any plywood like Jim Peterson in his article. Bing0328 mentioned something similar to this below. I assume that this plywood is to avoid the wall racking (left to right) and throwing the door slide/level off. It seems like a good idea and easier to do in a 2x6 wall.
Getting back to Bing0328’s comments, I haven’t bought a pocket door/hardware kit before. I assume that the ladders come with the door+kit. I have used pocket screws to add plywood between studs for cabinets. This has stiffen framing and provided a secure place to hang cabinets. Bing0328, would you consider this a good way to proceed?
Thanks for all of your input!
Yes the kit has the ladder assembly and I order it with the heavy duty rails. My source of supply can also get the kit with full plywood on each side. Can't do much about plumbing in the wall ie shower but I do use the Lutron Caseta switches so I can mount the Pico switch right on the pocket door wall.
Hi Kevin,
It looks like Spencer Lewis was installing pocket doors on 2x6 framing, and he uses pocket door hardware from heavydutypocketdoorframes.com, which are rather pricey. He doesn't use plywood to stiffen the assembly. It's never a bad idea to stiffen up an assembly, as suggested in Jim Petersen's article, and by Bing0328, but I don't know how important that would be for this assembly, and my pocket door experience is limited. As Bing0328 pointed out, the plywood backer makes it easy to attach drywall with short screws and any bathroom accessories that might be attached to the wall into which the pocket door retracts. I really like Bing0328's idea of using a wireless Lutron setup so the switch is mounted on the pocket door! (I'll probably steal that idea for the bathroom I'll be building at my daughter's house!!! Thanks, Bing0328!!!)
You are welcome. The city inspectors seem to like it too
you may want to consider just buying the track hardware and making your own frame. The kits are quite flimsy, but they can be re-enforced.
Hi efz,
Thanks for your input. The approach you described maybe similar to Jim Peterson’s approach. Perhaps his plywood is the frame. He even described making the doors himself. In our case, it might just allow us to get a custom size to maximize the opening. GrandPaul’s door looked quite wide (I’m thinking 36” in his case) and that’s a plus.
Thanks again,
2x4 is plenty fine. I did 3 doors this way a few years back. If I did again I would go witht he soft close feature.
Everyone except me has trouble witht the bathroom lock. Its pefectly eligned but you need a strong pinch grip to make it work. Choose your hardware carefully.
Sawdust_Steve,
Thanks very much for your input. Soft close does seem to be a good, safe choice - no grand kids yet, but better to do it now than be sorry!
I've attached another Fine Homebuilding article on Pocket Doors, where there is discussion on the flimsy standard units, which is why you want a better set of hardware, especially since a pocket door inherently weakens a wall because a header is needed that is approximately twice the width of the door...
In the article it also mentions that a 2x6 wall permits the use of shallow electrical boxes...