Home Improvement: Sliding Door

Jia Nin's home office also houses her bunnies. On one end, it opens to the kitchen though a narrow doorway (left). The house layout suggests that it was meant to be a formal dining room, so a door would have blocked food service.

The absence of a door allowed bunny fur to migrate into the kitchen. Not too badly since the air return vent for the east side of the house is in the office. Still, the beeps, dings and clatter from the kitchen would be audible to over conference calls and such.

The plan was therefore to install a door. We wanted to match the french doors in the other entry to the room. A regular door that opens in an arc would block the AC control panel and thermostat, as well as reduce the doorway by 4 cm unless we use complex hinges. Also, swinging the door open/close will stir up dust and fur on the ground.

So we decided on sliding doors, in the barn door style. These have metal railings from which the doors hang and open or shut on rollers. The more expensive options were drool-inducing, but wallet sense prevailed, thankfully.

From the sunroom

From the kitchen

A few mistakes were made: My measurements to the vendor were off since the instruction graphics were not specific enough. The steel bars mounting the rollers to the door was too short and therefore the door was hung about 4 cm too high, leaving a larger than desirable gap from the floor. I may have to add a section to the bottom of the door, but it works ok so far. There is supposed to be little guide screwed to the floor that prevents it from swing back and forth, but the extra height means I need to modify it somehow.

I also need to add a rubber-pad to the metal door stop so that the roller doesn't slam too hard against the stop.

Status: 90% done.