To install sliding cupboard doors is more than than merely having a convenient manner to open up and shut the closet. These nifty doors also save upwardly space and don't have the usual creaking and squeaking hinges problems that regular cupboard doors have.

The sliding cupboard doors are like shooting fish in a barrel to open, placidity, and requite you easy admission to the space within of the closet. No affair how pocket-size your sleeping room is, you tin have a large closet that holds all your clothes with doors that don't take up one-half the space in the room. With that gained space, y'all can make your bedchamber cozy and more than comfortable.

Install Sliding Closet Doors

So how would you lot become nigh installing sliding closet doors on your own? First, you need to find the right door types for yous.

Sliding Closet Door Options

Sliding closet doors come in dissimilar shapes and styles. That's skillful news if you have a specific design in mind and you wouldn't like the closet door to wait out of place or stick out like a sore thumb. Merely apart from the designs and styles, sliding closet doors either hang by the top and bottom tracks or just the summit track. They each have their advantages.

When you lot take meridian and bottom tracks, the sliding cupboard door is more than secure and stable. Y'all won't accept issues with the door falling off the tracks or giving you lot that jittery slide when you lot open and close it. However, the bottom tracks double the work of installing the door and, in many cases, are only redundant additions.

Many doors come with a top track and a bottom plastic guide. That gives y'all the same stability yous'd get from a double-track door while minimizing the installation process. To continue the bottom of the door secure, these doors have a plastic guide. Eliminating the bottom runway ways the door is much lighter and easier to maintain.

The Evolving Process of Installing Sliding Closet Doors

As you might await from a DIY project that involves forest, there will be a lot of measuring and cut involved. Fifty-fifty before you have purchased the sliding closet doors, you'll need to mensurate the cupboard opening to make certain the doors volition fit.

The style these doors work is they slide on tracks, usually at the tiptop. That top track carries the whole weight of the door. Both doors tin slide in either direction. That fashion, you have admission to the inside of the closet. However, y'all tin only have access to one side of the closet at a time. If you desire to get to the other side, then you lot'll take to slide both doors in the contrary direction. When you're done, y'all slide one door shut.

That means y'all'll have double tracks at the top of the closet to allow both doors to move freely in either direction. The bottom will also either have double tracks or double guides. In the case of light doors, y'all might have neither tracks nor guides at the bottom of the cupboard to guide the doors.

This is usually a chore for two people. Yous'll need someone to concord the door for you while you guide it onto the track. If you're working lone, this function could be a fiddling tricky.

What You Need

Tools

Materials
  • Metal hacksaw
  • Tracks
  • Chalk line
  • Sliding doors
  • Measuring tape
  • Roller brackets
  • Pencil
  • Screws and nails
  • Drill driver
  • Floor guides

How to Install Sliding Closet Doors

Closet with Sliding doors

With all the materials and equipment at hand and hopefully someone to help you, you are ready to start. The first step is to get the exact measurements to aid yous cull the right door for the bachelor space.

1. Measure the Space

Start by getting the measurements of the finished opening of the closet. First, measure the top of the closet and mark it down. Then get the measurement of the bottom of the cupboard and write information technology down as well. Do the same for the height of the door in ii locations, from the flooring to the top edge on the right and once again on the left.

Write downward the thickness of the frame in ii locations. That should tell you what type and style of closet door yous volition need. Base your decision on the smaller measurement, non the higher i. You'd want the door to fit confronting the thinnest part of the frame, non stick out.

2. Install the Tracks

The height track is normally the trickiest office to install. Information technology carries the weight of the door, and if not adapted well, information technology will either stick out of the wall or sink into the frame. And then, measure the top opening of the closet and mark the spot on the left and correct for the pinnacle track.

With the aid of the hacksaw, cut the guide rails of the track according to the measurements. Place the track in place at the top and make sure it aligns with the cupboard. You can use wood shims to get the correct alignment. When you're satisfied with your work, employ screw nails to secure the track in identify. If the walls are likewise difficult to screw the nails in, utilize airplane pilot drills instead.

3. Install the Floor Guide

Sliding cupboard doors without a bottom track usually accept a floor guide that you need to install. Only in the instance of very light doors that yous would accept neither bottom tracks nor floor guides. To install the floor guide, mark the centre of the closet door on the floor and drill a hole into it. Align the flooring guide with the edge of the lesser of the cupboard opening. Use a screwdriver to screw the floor guide into identify.

Fit the parts of the floor guide that go into the doors. Make sure you get out virtually ane-eighth of an inch of space to give the doors enough room to slide hands.

iv. Secure the Roller Brackets

If the sliding closet doors don't come up with pre-installed roller brackets, then y'all'll accept to fix them yourself. Usually, the doors will have instructions from the manufacturer about how to install them. Follow these instructions. In general, you'll need to install the roller brackets well-nigh 2 and a half inches from either end of the door.

For the door endmost to the correct, fix the roller subclass on the right side. And for the other door that closes to the left, install it at the tiptop of the door to the left. Examination the rollers and make sure they are non also tight.

5. Install the Sliding Cupboard Doors

This part will require some lifting and adjusting to get information technology right. Hold the back door and aim the top at the track. Lean the door at an angle so that the bottom sticks out of the closet. Now slide the roller at the top of the door into the guide rail. If the door has a bottom rail, slide the roller into that i, otherwise, slip information technology into the floor guide. Test the door and make sure it moves freely from ane cease of the closet to the other terminate.

Practice the same for the front door. If the doors are heavy to hold, you tin lift them up and make them residual on a stool or a low chair as y'all adjust the pinnacle roller into place.

6. Brand Necessary Adjustments

When you're done with installing the sliding cupboard doors, survey your piece of work. Check if the doors align with the walls or exercise they need to exist adjusted.

The roller brackets are responsible for the stability and smooth sliding movement of the doors. Then inspect them and make sure they're securely screwed into the doors. If they're a trivial loose, this might give you problems downwards the line. The doors go jittery and unwieldy. So tighten the screws of the brackets with a screwdriver.

7. Install the Handles

Sometimes the handles will come pre-installed. If not, check to see what blazon of handles they are. Adhesive handles don't demand screws. Place them on the designed space on the doors and remove the protective layer then printing them confronting the surface of the door firmly.

If the door handles, need to exist screwed in, mark the spots with a pencil and utilise a screwdriver to screw the handles in. Use small screws that are nigh half the thickness of the doors so that you won't have sharp nail ends sticking out of the within of the closet doors.