Framing A Pocket Door In A Load Bearing Wall

You can determine this by the wall s placement in the house.

Framing a pocket door in a load bearing wall.

And our contractor told us that that s a bearing wall and we can t do that. Glue and screw together the 2 by 4s to build a pony wall a smaller non load bearing wall for hanging the track for the pocket doors. Doors in these walls will have headers usually laminated beams over their openings. The width of the door frame trim becomes about 8 which actually looks quite nice.

Well look even if it s a bearing wall you can frame for it but here s what you have to do if your door is 2 feet wide the finished width is say 24 inches the size of the opening that you need for this is double that. Make sure the frame is level. For header spans see tables r502 5 1 and r502 5 2. Obviously this one doesn t need a fancy header.

To install a pocket door you must modify the framing of the wall which is safe to do if the wall isn t bearing any load. The wall needs to be wide enough to accommodate twice the door s width plus 1 inch 2 54cm. Generally load bearing walls will be in a central location and they will be perpendicular to the floor joists. I built a 2x4 framed wall parallel to the load bearing wall.

If the wall is load bearing consult a structural. The project includes assessing and taking out a section of a load bearing wall a pocket door building framing a wall installing double french doors and semi custom built ins. You ll also need to know whether or not the wall is load bearing. Attach to the ceiling by screwing through the frame into the ceiling joists.

Consulting a structural engineer or building professional is advised when attempting a project where inexperience has the potential to cause property damage bodily harm or death but utilizing the recommendations of a building professional and properly. Chapter 6 wall construction section r602 wood wall framing. For part one you ll watch me demo do some light electrical work build a quick temporary wall install a load bearing header and install a pocket door. Installing a pocket door in a load bearing wall requires replacing the old header with a longer one.

So if you re on the top floor you can use 2 2x4 s unless the building is 36 wide in which case you ll need 2 2x6 s.