How Hard Is It To Install a Pocket Door?

How hard is it to install a pocket door if you use a kit? How tricky is it to make the hole in the (plasterboard, interior, non load-bearing) wall?

Pocket doors are great.  They provide privacy and they contain sound, yet they disappear when you don’t need them.

Too often they are used only in extreme circumstances:  that tiny downstairs bathroom where the door hits the toilet, the kids’ bedroom where an extra few square feet of space is premium, etc.

Often I’m amazed that builders don’t put more pocket doors in homes, so that homeowners like you don’t have to install them retroactively–a far messier job than if they were installed in the first place.

How hard?  Pretty hard, even if you use a pocket door kit.

Instead of making a hole in the wall, you remove the entire wall section where the pocket door will go.  Everything:  plasterboard, studs, header, trim.  Then you build a new wall section that has the pocket door framing in it.

Yes, it does help that your wall is not load-bearing.

At least you’re not dealing with the problem of maintaining your house’s structural stability.

Plasterboard or drywall, it doesn’t matter, since it all comes out anyway.

If you relish a semi-big project with lots of carpentry, you can do it.  But if you have any trepidation about your abilities, then hire a carpenter.