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I am looking at a sliding door with the hidden track door system. The closet opening is 47" across, but as one edge of the closet is so close to the corner of the wall, the door can only slide one way, to the left, hence one giant sliding door. I don't have the space for bi-fold or out/in swinging doors.

I am referring to a barn-type sliding door, with the hidden track system installed in backside of door vs seeing the giant track above the closet frame that the door hangs onto to slide.

So my dilemma is the only doors I can find over 48" wide (the hidden track system requires 8" extra over the opening, so would need a 55" wide door) are expensive custom wood doors.

My contractor said it would be cheaper and easier for him to make my 47" closet opening narrower by 4" on each side so I could fit one standard 48" wide door with the clearance needed for the track hardware.

It seems like I'm removing a big chunk of my open closet space just to fit the one sliding door, and I am not sure what other options there are for a nice sliding door (not the cheap hollow sliding ones from home depot that sound like a train rolling through on the shoddy track system).

Any other options you can think of to cover this space with a sliding door without messing with the current width, besides biting the bullet for one giant heavy door?

Thanks so much.

isherwood
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gonatodes
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  • " would a 39" closet opening be too small for daily use?" There's no objective way for us to answer that question for you. A 39" opening into a 48" wide closet is only 5" of 'hidden' space on each side, so that's probably workable, but... that might not be acceptable for you. – FreeMan Sep 14 '23 at 15:00

2 Answers2

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I would purchase a pair of common door slabs to match your existing doors in 2'-4" (28") width and bind them together, giving you about 55-1/2". (Slabs are commonly ~1/4" undersize to clear the jamb.) This could be done with dowels, metal plates on the back face, or metal rails along the top and bottom edges, for example. They'd look like a standard double door, but they'd slide in unison.

Note that most slabs have a bevel on the latch edge. You'll want those oriented outward, so that the mating edges are both square. If you purchase one right-hand and one left-hand swing you can face the bevels in or out on each outer edge so they're symmetrical:

 ___________________________  __________________________
/___________________________||__________________________\

I would double-check the oversize requirement, though. No sense installing a wider door than you need. Two 24" doors might do the job.

isherwood
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  • Thank you! I thought about binding the doors together, I was trying to think of ways to make the transition betwee the two seamless to look like one solid door. I saw they have wood stick on veneer, but was unsure if that would look professional or not, as I was trying to google examples. I really appreciate the "drawing" to make it make more sense. – gonatodes Sep 14 '23 at 15:17
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    You don't want it to look like one large door. That would be odd unless it was actually styled as a barn door, per Ecnerwal's suggestion. – isherwood Sep 14 '23 at 16:05
  • @gonatodes Some of us are perplexed by the title asking for a "barn door slab" if you don't want a barn-style door! In any case, going a step beyond isherwood's excellent description, if you choose a pair of plain, flat door slabs you can use them as the base plate upon which to mount other finish materials. – Greg Hill Sep 14 '23 at 18:25
  • Thanks Greg perhaps I should have just called it a sliding door, but when I googled those I got more ideas for glass type sunroom doors than solid slab wood doors, so I thought "modern barn door" was the proper term. The door will function as a barn door, but without the exposed track above the entire door frame. – gonatodes Sep 14 '23 at 18:29
  • The title was my attempt to clarify the sliding door type. Maybe it wasn't ideal. Revise as you like. – isherwood Sep 14 '23 at 18:50
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Make it like an actual barn door, which are built from narrow vertical (usually) boards with a top and bottom horizontal board and a diagonal or two diagonals forming an x-brace on the hidden (or sometimes the exposed) side between the horizontals.

Some do get more interesting with diagonal boards or various patterns of boards on the face, which require slightly more in the way of other side support boards to hold them together.

These are easily DIY'ed to any size you like, or a competent finish carpenter should be able to whip one up in short order.

Ecnerwal
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  • Thank you - I thought about that but I dont like the look of barn doors in suburban houses at all- I thought a nice stained solid piece of wood would look much better and much cleaner/modern than the typical barn door. I did find a nice door that I could try to replicate the style of, but it would require joining 2 4x8 sheets of material together to get the base width that the boards could go on top of. Definately something to consider. – gonatodes Sep 14 '23 at 18:14
  • MDF and veneer seems like what you'll want, then. Though nothing says the above method needs to be particularly "rusticated" - you can use clear planed boards. – Ecnerwal Sep 14 '23 at 18:49
  • Thanks, I think this is the route I will go - I really appreciate the ideas, especially the joining of 2 smaller sized doors together looks wise. – gonatodes Sep 14 '23 at 18:59