Pocket Doors: Why Contractors Hate Installing Them (And When They’re Worth It)

The Truth About Pocket Doors

I’ve installed exactly 43 pocket doors over my career. I remember the number because each one taught me something about why contractors groan when clients request them. They’re not impossible—they’re just harder than they look, more expensive than swing doors, and prone to problems that take years to manifest.

But sometimes they’re exactly what a floor plan needs. Here’s the honest story.

Why Contractors Hate Them

A swing door hangs in an afternoon. Frame the opening, install the jamb, hang the door on hinges, add hardware. Done.

A pocket door requires building a frame twice the width of the opening, with precise parallel rails, specialty hangers, floor guides, and integrated stops. The wall cavity that receives the door must be completely clear—no electrical outlets, no plumbing, no structural members.

Then there’s the hardware. Pocket door rollers and tracks work perfectly for about five years. Then wheels wear, tracks collect debris, and the door starts sticking or jumping off the track entirely. Fixing this requires opening the wall—the very wall you carefully finished five years ago.

Standard pocket door frames use flimsy split-stud construction that flexes over time. You can spend three times as much for commercial-grade frames with full studs, but few homeowners know to specify this upgrade.

When They’re Worth It

Despite the drawbacks, pocket doors solve problems that swing doors can’t. They’re the right choice when:

A swing door would block traffic or access. Bathrooms off tight hallways, closets in corners, and pantry doors in galley kitchens all benefit from doors that disappear rather than project into space.

The wall already exists and is wide enough to accept the pocket. Retrofitting a pocket door into a new wall is simpler than carving one into existing construction.

Privacy matters but the door will remain open most of the time. A pocket door to a home office, for example, slides shut for calls but otherwise stays out of sight.

Aesthetics demand it. Some interior designs look better without doors projecting into rooms. The clean lines of a pocket door in the open position create visual simplicity.

How to Get Them Right

Specify a commercial-grade frame from manufacturers like Johnson or Hafele—not the contractor-pack frames from the home center. Pay the premium for solid construction.

Install soft-close hardware. The number one pocket door complaint is slamming. Soft-close mechanisms eliminate this entirely.

Plan electrical around the pocket. Outlets and switches cannot go in the pocket wall. Plan adjacent walls to compensate.

Use solid-core doors. Hollow-core doors work, but they warp over time. Solid-core doors run truer and last longer.

Include access panels. A small panel at the top of the pocket wall allows future adjustments without full demolition.

The Final Verdict

Pocket doors cost 2-3 times as much as swing doors and require more maintenance. But in the right applications, they create functionality that no other door type can match. The key is using them strategically—not because they seem fancy, but because the floor plan genuinely requires them.