Sliding Door Dilemma

zig

Hi,

We are currently getting a renovation done on our house, this includes new floorboards in the sitting room and tiles in the kitchen.

Currently there is a concrete wall between these two rooms. We'd like to put in sliding doors here. We're aware this would require knocking the whole wall and building some support structure around the sides.

However the floor/tile guys are now going to be starting quicker than expected so we obviously wont be able to get this job done by a builder before then. We are struggling to even get someone to come and quote. If they were to do the rest of the house and come back later they are saying it could be February before they could come back.

The guys working on it now have offered to put in normal doors there but to be honest we would love sliding ones.

If we went with normal ones they would make sure the kitchen tiles and sitting room floors join up nicely etc.

My question is, is it possible to do this kind of job after floors are done and it still look good?

Also is it true that sliding doors would require loss of space and a larger wall? Or does it depend on how the job is done. One builder looked at it and didnt seem to see a problem but the guys doing the renovation are making a very big deal out of the sliding doors and are recommending against it.

looksee

Well yes, you only get half as much door, or you need twice as much space for sliding doors. Unless you build a cavity wall and have the doors slide into it (if there is enough room either side of the door space to accommodate a door) you have to have one door slide over the other. Obviously this means that you will only have space of one door to walk through - and it will have to be on one side, you can't make it central.

Edit - well it could be central but you will need a lot of dead space to slide the doors into.

If you get the floor tiled through you would have to have a raised sill between the rooms to carry the bottom rollers, unless you had hanging doors. If the doors were put in first then the bottom sill could be made flush with the floor, you are going to have a channel that will collect dust and bits of lego though.

I'd go with ordinary doors.

Dudda

I’m going to have to disagree with looksee above. If you want sliding doors then it can be made work but might be more work. The issue here is the existing wall. You said it’s concrete (or blockwork) which indicates it might be load bearing. If it’s not load bearing and not holding up the floor above or roof it’s very easy. If it is then it’s going to depend on a number of items like ceiling height, width of room, etc. If the wall can be knocked and a steel beam put up or a goal post frame then the hardest part is done. Any good builder could do this but it’s best to get an engineer to size the steel (if it’s load bearing).
Then the easiest thing to achieve the sliding doors is to get a pre manufactured pocket door set. This is one example from Google.
https://pocketdoors.ie/products/double-pocket-door/

I’d get an engineer to size the steel and look at the data sheets in the above link or whatever product you can go with. I’d be a bit worried about the builder sizing the steel and then putting it in. 95% of the time it will be fine but I wouldn’t risk saving a few euro as he could undersize to save a few euro which might cause problems later.

A compromise could be to get the builder break out an ope and put in a lintel. Then use barn style sliding doors. This wouldn’t require as wide an ope but won’t have the doors disappear into a recess. Here’s an example from google. https://www.pchenderson.ie/product/husky-100-low-headroom/

zig

Thanks for the replies so far folks, interesting, so I see the problems alright. It is load bearing alright as far as I know as the guys doing the renovation have indicated as much.

@Dudda

A compromise could be to get the builder break out an ope and put in a lintel. Then use barn style sliding doors. This wouldn’t require as wide an ope but won’t have the doors disappear into a recess. Here’s an example from google. https://www.pchenderson.ie/product/h...-low-headroom/

This actually looks quite well in my opinion and has the same effect in terms of the doors not swinging into the sitting room. I am just wondering, construction wise, in terms of the job to be done with the wall, is this the exact same as just doing normal doors? Im asking because they have offered to do the normal doors which means this could be the perfect compromise.

Dudda

zig wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far folks, interesting, so I see the problems alright. It is load bearing alright as far as I know as the guys doing the renovation have indicated as much.

@Dudda


This actually looks quite well in my opinion and has the same effect in terms of the doors not swinging into the sitting room. I am just wondering, construction wise, in terms of the job to be done with the wall, is this the exact same as just doing normal doors? Im asking because they have offered to do the normal doors which means this could be the perfect compromise.

Construction wise it's the exact same as if they were to put in a set of double doors that open into the room and should cost the same or fairly similar. I don't want to hear of an extra €2000 or more to go this route.

zig

Thanks again, although things have evolved a bit since posting. So the barn style is a non runner (from our side).

However the floor/tile guys (who happen to have different tradesmen with them) have actually done a bit of a u-turn and are offering to do it.

They realised something about the wall, that the concrete stops or something at the top, so perhaps its not load bearing.

I just have a new question if thats ok

So they are warning me I will lose up to 8/9 inches going into the sitting room by doing this, I dont think they will be knocking the whole wall. He described it in relation to the new gap being created and the plaster and a few other things.

However another builder seemed to contradict this (tbf they hadnt actually looked at it yet but knew the houses). We trust the floor/tile guys and for obvious/practical reasons would prefer just have them do it but its sort of wrecking my head hearing opposing points.

What do ye think? For what its worth its a very big sitting room and we dont really mind losing that bit of space.