Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Pocket Door transition. Help !

I'm putting a click lock floor in. There is a pocket door between the tiled floor bathroom and the room I am flooring.

I have a piece of transition for between the tile and the flooring. But because of its curve it contacts the bottom of the pocket door and keeps the door from pulling out.

Any suggestions ?

I don't want to pull the pocket door out to trim it if I can avoid it. The obvious fix is to trim the bottom of the door a little (all it needs is about 3/16 or so. Yet I don't know how I would get a neat horizontal cut all the way across the 1 1/2 inch thick (hollow core) pocket door.

I am willing to buy a tool since I SO MUCH don't want to pull out the door to trim it. I've seen a Rotozip with saw attachment for making space along baseboards for flooring. And a similar Fein tool (a little pricey). Is this the best way to do it though ? The tile is already set and can't be moved. And I tried angling the transition down but the door still doesn't trim.

Can you just butt the wood floor piece up against the tile and fill the joint with some kind of wood putty/grout ? If so, what would you recommend ?

Thanks, Bob

does your pocket door hang from pins that may be adjustable to pull the door tighter to the header rail?

There is a roller track above the door. And I assume there indeed are rollers on the top of the door that might be adjustable. But even if I remove the upper trim on either side of the door, the remaining upper part of the door framing would still be flush with the top of the door so I couldn't get at any adjusting nut anyway. It looks like the door was slid in the track during the install

And I tried lifting the door from the bottom to see if I could lift the door rollers out of the track to get the door out of the pocket. No dice.

So alas I keep coming back to how to trim off some of the door at the bottom... Even if I trim off the downward extending underneath middle piece of the transition (the part that goes between the tile and the flooring) it won't help (it was never contacting the floor anyway) because the tile is too high. The transition edge sits on the tile such that the curved transition upper surface is just high enough to prevent the pocket door from moving. Grrrrrrrrr..........

Hmmm. The tile guy is coming back on Wednesday. Maybe I could just have him cut the tile back about 1/2 inch so that the (thinner) wood flooring extends all the way under the door and then angle the threshold uppwards to meet the tile...

Bob

Boy, cutting the tile will be a mmuch bigger pain then trimming a door. And caulking the joint won't look very good.

Most newer pocket door tracks and rollers have some sort of release mechanism. How old is this door?? If it has rollers and a metal track, I'm guessing not so old that there isn't a release built in. Johnson and Stanley both have ..hmm... small levers (?) that you push over with a screwdriver to release the door from the rollers. Are the rollers on both sides of the track? or single side?

They didn't build the house around that one door, there has to be a way for it to be removed.

Trimming the door is a 15 min job once its out. If you have the tools to put in the floor, I'm betting you have the tools to trim the door.

Door is maybe 7 years old. Only one track. I'll look with a flashlight and stepladder but as previously noted even with the trim strips off I can't see into the track with the door pulled out of the pocket, let alone get up there with a screwdriver or whatever.

Only reason I mentioned trimming the tile is that the tile guy did the tile work and is coming back Wednesday for some more work and might saw off 1/2 inch of tile quickly at little or no charge.

A builder today told me to install the transition and then sand/plane it down as necessary and restain/varnish. That also is a pain and it may have to be taken down so far the transition looks funny, and I may not be able to make the stain match as I don't know what color they used for the floor and transitions which both came prestained.

Still thinking....

Bob

There is a flat wrench designed for this situation, - tight area above the door, to adjust the height of the rollers. You might be able to find it seperately, or it comes in a replacement 'roller kit' for pocket doors.
Can you tell if it's a 2 wheel or 4 wheel system? 2 wheel system is where only 2 are rolling on 1 side of the track vs 4 wheels rolling in the track. 1 wheel system is much easier to remove the door, tho you do have to remove the side and top stops to push the door away from the frame when pulled out.
Altho it may seem to be a pain, I would remove the door to facilitate the install of the flooring.

Check to see if the door's head casing on one side of the track is removable for better access:

http://www.paragoninspects.com/images/interior/door/pocketcasing.jpg

Awesome.. I wish!!
Never seen that b4.

Awesome.. I wish!!
Never seen that b4.

That's pretty much the way most pocket door instructions suggest installing the head casing:

http://www.paragoninspects.com/images/interior/door/pocketcasingdiagram.jpg

Johnson Hardware Pocket Door Instructions (http://www.johnsonhardware.com/images/pdf/install/100PD%209-05.PDF)

Now that you mentioned/pic'd it... Ive seen that before on a restoration job.
Thought it great then too!! . - On the double wheeled system only tho..' - For apparent reasons...!