Inserting French or pocket door between girls' bedrooms

[Anonymous]

My 4YO DDs have been sharing a room since birth. We are planning to move them into separate rooms in about a year. The bedrooms are right next to each other, and the "extra" bedroom is somewhat smaller than the one they are currently sharing. (A 4th bedroom downstairs will be used for guests when renovated.) We have considered inserting a French door or pocket door between the two bedrooms so that they can have a single bigger room that can be closed off into two rooms when they are older and want some privacy. The wall between their rooms is not load bearing. Anyone ever do this? What type of contractor would we need? Ballpark range for cost?

[Anonymous]

Does each room have a window (i.e. a way to egress in an emergency)?

If, eventually, you want to sell the house, can you (or the next owner) have an option to undo this? I can see a realtor suggesting you to undo it so that it appeals to potential buyers who want to have fully separate bedrooms. (But, again, perhaps the realtor thinks it's a great idea to have the door).

I would do pocket doors -- less space.

[Anonymous]

Pocket doors will cause you to loose some space in the room. ( wall needs to be thicker than a regular wall.

How do you incision fights open if the doors should be open our closed?

Are you willing to reseal the wall if they become more indipendent and want their own rooms?

If you're really creating a bedroom with sitting room maybe just open the wall and add a curtain to see how they like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pocket doors will cause you to loose some space in the room. ( wall needs to be thicker than a regular wall.

How do you incision fights open if the doors should be open our closed?

Are you willing to reseal the wall if they become more indipendent and want their own rooms?

If you're really creating a bedroom with sitting room maybe just open the wall and add a curtain to see how they like it.

Not true.
http://www.homedepot.com/buy/johnson-hardware-1500-series-pocket-door-frame-for-doors-up-to-36-in-x-80-in-153068hd.html

[Anonymous]

If you use French doors, expect to have drapes or blinds too. Have lived in houses that made excellent use of both types of doors. I loved the light advantages enough to prefer French even though they need swing space. If you use top down/bottom style blinds, you'll always be able to have some part of the light pass through from room to room.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses -- all good points. I was thinking pocket doors so that they could close them to have their "own" rooms, but maybe this is short-sighted. They won't always want to be near each other and sleep in the same room. I also hadn't thought about them fighting over having it open or closed...

[Anonymous]

Would a folding screen be a good trial perhaps?

[Anonymous]

Designer here - to have a pocket door you do not need a thicker than normal wall. A 6'' interior wall should be just fine.

I'd go that route. You can get pocket doors that lock, and with girls who will eventually be teens, I'd think that's essential!

I'd estimate about $1,000 given that they have to break through the wall.

[Anonymous]

pocket doors in a non-load bearing wall is relatively simple (but that doesn't mean it is cheap).

ideally you would break through the walls on both sides, frame out the pocket door kit and close up the wall and refinish it.

- pocket door kit (pretty good quality) $500
- carpenter or GC to put in the door
- dry wall person to close up the wall - use a drywall person and not a carpenter / GC as, while the work is minor, lack of skills will make the seams / bumps self evident
- GC or painter to finish paint on both sides

I think the majority of the costs will be in the drywall finishing and finish painting. This is a lot of skill and labor. There is a reason a lot of plumbers / GC / servicemen types do not do drywall. It's an art.

[Anonymous]

As someone who had a pocket door done in new construction, I would highly discourage this. They are PITA to install correctly and our contractors were great. We had to adjust 6 mos later b/c we got a wood door and it had expanded. Besides, I don't know if you want kids slamming the door (which is more tempting than a regular door for whatever reason). I'd go with french doors because they're wider/prettier and you could hang curtains over them.

[Anonymous]

We lived in an apartment in Europe that had this...two rooms divided by a wall and pocket doors. We used both as bedrooms, one was for our daughter and the other was a guest room, and when we didn't have guests she could keep the door open to a larger room. But, the noise travels more easily through the door than a wall, so keep that in mind. At some point you or they would probably want to undo it. A friend of mine with twins put a door between her kids' rooms and it ultimately became a less desired feature.