I’ve had a lot of pocket doors, including three in our current home. Some of the doors have been wood, others manufactured products, and all in houses that have experienced settling. I’ve never had a problem. To me the key is quality hardware and expert installation.
As for solid wood doors warping, I’ve installed many pairs of matching solid interior barn doors and never had any of them fail to line up over extended periods. I’m perplexed by the idea of how quality wood doors might warp enough to not glide correctly in a pocket door frame. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I’m scratching my head on what might have gone wrong.
@BunsenBurner - Brown window frames are a challenge. Working backwards, I’d start by considering a taupe trim and then work on the siding color. Maybe a warm grey?
Which Hardie siding are you using? We used a combination of lap siding, shake, and board and batten, all of which are the manufactured cement product, maybe Hardie, maybe a knock off.
Don’t know what to tell you, @sherpa. I’ve got regularly hung solid wood doors in my house that have warped enough that I had to plane a surface to be able to get them to close. I’ve seen enough pocket doors that were barely- or non-operable that I am leery about them. Maybe they just didn’t have good hardware, idk.
@notrichenough - I don’t know either. It’s confusing. If a wood door is warping enough to not glide properly in its pocket, then I’d expect swinging doors in the residence were also warping similarly, such that they don’t rest squarely in their jambs. Is that the case?
I don’t have any pocket doors in my current house. Two of the regular doors (out of 11) are warped enough to cause problems. Maybe they were poorly made? Most are 50 years old at this point.
Thanks @sherpa! It is lap siding and is apparently a James Hardi product based on the packaging and logos on the wrap; the window trim is a fibercement by some other maker. The house is a modified Craftsman, so we went with the simple stuff. Shakes, as much as I like them for accent, would have made it look too busy.
Brown windows are a challenge but a good one to have as they don’t show as much dust as the white ones. I think we will go with some sort of a cream color (or warm grey as you suggested) on the siding and chocolate brown trim. I have awesome red paint for doors that we tested on House1. I am glad that there is a SW paint store a short drive from our place… those guys will soon start recognizing me as a regular, lol.
Some colors can look good with a darker brown trim or accent, if you choose carefully. Sage green and lighter blues can look good. Even a more lavender or periwinkle color. There’s a house near me that is a pale sage green with wood trim that is stained rather than painted and it’s quite lovely.
The siding guys are almost done! Wow, the garage begins to look awesome. We will probably need new doors as the old ones from 1980s look pathetic… now Mr. is really itching to get that Tesla roof… I have to say that it would look awesome on the house, but what he wants and what we need are not always the same things.
Our flooring problem from 2 days ago is pretty much solved. Really impressed with our contractor! He took up the old planks, not an easy job since they were salvage and had extra nails, and found the original planks below. I’m still not quite sure why someone doubled up the flooring in the past but it helped us out. He leveled the underbelly, and replaced the planks, lining everything up and matching all the slightly different widths, and it’s mostly done.
He needs to call his flooring guy for a little salvage to finish off the last 2’ of length and then he will have them sand the whole floor overall. Phewwwwwwww!
I’ve never seen pocket doors warp. That’s interesting
Having high quality rollers and frame hardware makes a huge difference. I’ve got cheesy frame and roller hardware in my own house and I rarely bother opening or closing them, they are so difficult. Not to mention when there is some wayward screw scraping the door.
But, I have discovered higher cost Johnson frame and roller hardware I use on my projects. They are a dream, doors glide with barely a touch
We have 2 types of pocket doors here installed by two previous owners. Hardware is the same as far as I can tell, and quite heavy duty. One type works well because the doors themselves are heavy, the other, with much lighter doors, - not so much. But I hate those heavy doors with a passion because they are flat.
Starting our very small guest bathroom remodel this week. We live in a 1700 sf house and so this is the bathroom most people use. It should go quickly. We are replacing floor, tub and vanity. For the tub I want to do a marble subway tile. Then I want a stripe of marble hexagon tile down the wall with the faucet/shower head etc… and the hexagon tile in the soap niche Kind of like: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/65/51/52/6551525a8adfc455e35e9c29f5a6ec22.jpg
Our garage now looks so dressed up! The siding guys did a nice job. Waiting for the paint job bids now. Next on the list: hall bath. The prior owner had small kids. The bath was remodeled to a kids bath with the vanity barely above my knees! That part will be easy to remedy, but we are thinking the shallow bathtub might need an overhaul, too.
I spent an inordinate amount of money repairing our garage last year. It basically got rebuilt, but had to be done as a repair so we weren’t forced to move it. Underpinned the missing footings, put in a new ridge beam, covered with Hardiboard to match the house, got new doors, windows and a door. Oh and improved the drainage so the snow and rain don’t run in. It’s the view from my office window and it makes me happy every time I look at it. So that’s good.
