Article and photos by Gregory Havel
When we need a door to separate two spaces, it is not always practical to install a door frame and a swinging door. A swinging door may block a corridor, the light or view from a window, occupy needed floor space, or simply be unattractive in that location. One solution, used especially in houses and apartment buildings, is the pocket door. Common locations today are in closets, half-baths, and utility areas. In the 1800s and early 1900s, they were often installed in pairs to divide the dining room from the formal parlor, a private sitting room or study from a bedroom, or the foyer from the parlor or sitting room.
A pocket door is finished to match the rest of the doors and woodwork in that part of the building, and slides or rolls on a track at the top. When it is open, it looks like a framed door opening with no door, because the door slides into a pocket in the wall and is concealed except for one edge. When it is closed, it looks like an ordinary door, except that there are no hinges and no doorknob. It cannot be used as a required exit door in an apartment building, hotel, school, or commercial building, where the exit doors are required by building, fire, and life safety codes to swing in the direction of the exit.
Photo 1 shows a prehung pocket door unit for a closet installed in a wall with 2 × 6 framing. The door opening is at the left in the foreground, the track that will support the door on rollers is at the top, and the pocket is toward the rear. For strength, the framing members on both sides of the pocket are horizontal rather than vertical.
Photo 2 shows the header and upper wall framing that supports the same pocket door unit. Note that:
- The span of the header is at least twice the width of the door opening, since the pocket door framing members are not strong enough to be load-bearing;
- The stud framing between the top of the header and the top plate of the wall is conventional;
- The space between the two faces of the header supporting the door unit is separated by pieces of wood blocking rather than filled with solid lumber; and
- The pocket is two inches wide, to accommodate a 1.5-inch-thick door.
This door unit will be covered with gypsum drywall board attached with screws, as will the rest of the wall framing in this house, and will have wood door frame and trim finished to match the door.
A hundred years ago, pocket door units were not prehung, but were built on-site by a joiner (a carpenter trained in precise trim-work and cabinetmaking). They would have been enclosed with wood lath and plaster; or more recently by expanded metal lath or gypsum-board strips covered with plaster. Many of these were so soundly constructed they are still functioning in buildings after 100 or 150 years. Two pocket doors in the dining room at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello (built 1770-1808; www.monticello.org), have been restored, and are fully functional after more than 230 years.
It is unlikely that any pocket door is fire-rated, or that it is located in a fire-rated wall. These doors do not seal tightly enough to prevent passage of the products of combustion. The headers that support the door tracks may not be solid lumber, but two pieces of lumber separated by wood blocking. These features could permit smoke and fire in either room to pass around the door into the other room, into the concealed door pocket, into the interconnected void spaces above the header and door unit, and throughout the rest of the building.
Firefighting through or near a pocket door requires extra attention to the overhead: The structural span supporting the top of the door is twice as wide as it appears. If the fire involves the header inside the door pocket, a partial structural collapse is possible.
For more information on pocket doors, Internet search “pocket door”, “pocket door hardware”, and “pocket door history.”
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Gregory Havel is a member of the Town of Burlington (WI) Fire Department; retired deputy chief and training officer; and a 30-year veteran of the fire service. He is a Wisconsin-certified fire instructor II and fire officer II, an adjunct instructor in fire service programs at Gateway Technical College, and safety director for Scherrer Construction Co., Inc. He has a bachelor’s degree from St. Norbert College. He has more than 30 years of experience in facilities management and building construction. |
