Had a real bad time with a pocket door frame in a 1970s house last month.

I was putting in a new pocket door for a bathroom remodel in this old split-level. The existing wall was a mess of plaster and weird blocking. I cut the opening, got the frame in, and everything looked good. Then I tried to slide the door in. It wouldn't go. The track was level, but the door was binding hard at the top. Turns out the old header wasn't straight, it had a slight bow over decades. I had to pull the whole frame back out, shim the top track out about an eighth of an inch on one side with some washers, and re-secure it. Took an extra two hours, but the door slides smooth as butter now. Anyone else run into a hidden bow in an old wall like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

parkermorgan2mo ago

Heard that's common in old plaster walls.

uma_baker882mo ago

Totally see that pattern everywhere now, @parkermorgan. Feels like half the stuff in my house is just old materials doing weird, specific things (the floorboards have their own language, for example). Makes you notice how everything's kind of built on quirks.

hernandez.brooke1mo ago

That eighth of an inch feels like a mile when you're holding a door up by yourself. I swear old houses settle just to mess with us on a Friday afternoon. I had a similar fight with a closet door where the whole wall leaned in, like @uma_baker88 said about floorboards having their own language. The plaster just decided to go its own way over fifty years. You did the right thing with the washers, that's the kind of fix that looks wrong in the moment but feels so right when it finally works. It's all about making peace with the house's weird history.