What is a pocket door?

Pocket door design is based on “door hidden in the wall” principle: door leaf, when being opened, is sliding inwards the door pocket.

Door leaf hidden inside the wall occupies zero space and enables you to apply more fantasy whilst locating your furniture.

Door in closed position performs its intrinsic function, closing the wall opening.

Almost any door in “Belwooddoors” product range may be designed as a pocket door. If you want one, our consultant will help you decide what door leaf is most suitable for you.

Pocket door. Cons and pros

Advantages

• Considerable space saving. Swing type door is always associated with what we normally call “dead zone”. Pocket door is a far-seeing creature, unlike egoistic swing door it moves aside allowing furniture or any other household item to be located nearby;
• it does not require any door sill which most of the time is a useless thing you constantly bump against;
• moreover, you may be sure you will never knock your head against the door edge and after that, being aggrieved, will not hit by the door your family member walking after you with a cup of hot coffee in hands;
• pocket door is a well-fixed structure which will never swing shut by the draught. It can also be left half opened;
• easy maintenance;
• easy way to mount/dismount the slide rails enables easy repair or replacement;
• silence in operation.

Drawbacks

• Poor acoustic and heat insulation properties;
• If you are the beginner you will obviously fail to install the pocket door. Therefore, it is essential to address professional installers;
• more expensive installation if compared with conventional swing type door;
• dust accumulating inside the pocket (can be removed by vacuum cleaner);
• rollers are prone to wear which results in replacement demand.

Operation principle of pocket door system

Pull-out mechanism is installed inside the pocket.

Rollers together with hanging door leaf are moved along aluminum slide rails fixed inside the box-casing.

Door leaf edge is fitted by decorative high-quality aluminum strip finished with special decorative-protective coating applied with the use of state-of-the-art technology.

Structure and materials

In order to create a pocket door, you should procure a ready-to-use cassette-pocket unit.

Cassette can be fabricated independently.

Rollers block, however, should be procured as an assembled unit.

The pocket constitutes a wall extension being used for holding the door leaf in the opened condition.

Installation procedure may differ depending on the type of wall the pocket door is intended for.

The load bearing wall, for instance, may not be used for it.

In the bearing wall case, you should first mount the frame (metal or wood) on the wall so that to encase it by plasterboard afterwards.

Mind that frame installed on the wall will slightly reduce the usable space of the premise.

Requirements put forward to partitioning wall are less strict. It can be completely removed and a new one can be placed instead of it with a special pocket provided therein.

A pocket-cassette set comes with:

A set of slide rails which are used to hold the moving door leaf. Тhis set of hardware, in addition to rails and rollers, includes two parts: a special limiter and a stopper.

• Cassette.
• Special fittings.

A pocket door kit includes

• Door leaf.
• Intramural pocket-cassette.
• Limiter.
• Door handles.
• Rollers.

Configuration types.

There are two main types of the pocket doors.

Single-leaf

These are normally installed in narrow openinings, maximum 1 meter wide.

Double-leaf

A wider, over 1 meter wide, opening demands double-leaf design.

This structure envisages a double cassette: each door leaf has its own pocket. These are connected by a common slide rail.

Thus, an interior door designed as the pocket system represents an ideal option both for small-area and spacious rooms in which classic type swing doors  are unwanted.