After disassembling the transoms, we had to cut release pockets near the bottom of the doors to clean out decades of fallen plaster that was holding the doors tightly inside the wall. The next big challenge was actually getting the doors off their pulleys so they could be cleaned and repaired.
Steps:1. Because the tracks and rollers appeared to be present, we began by unscrewing the diagonal adjustment screw on the roller. We completed the removal of the door by pulling it forward, perpendicular to the floor, at about a 45 degree angle and lifted lightly to remove the door from the track.
- Each pocket door has three elements. At the top inside the wall is a rail or track that is attached to the header (figure A). Two pulleys for each door roll along the rail and attach to the door, itself, by a slide that’s permanently fixed on to the top of the door (figure B).
The pulleys can adjust a half-inch both up and down (figure C) , giving us a little leeway when we cut the bottom of the doors to fit over the new flooring (figure D).
2. Once the doors were out, we removed all of the plaster inside the pockets. We were then ready to actually measure the doors. 3. We measured the distance of the opening less a half-inch to allow for the doors to move smoothly over the floor (figure E). Then on the doors, we measured the distance from the bottom of the pulley to the bottom of the door (figure F). This showed us how much needed to be cut off the door. We taped the bottom of the door using masking tape. We then placed a mark along the tape and proceeded to cut the amount off using a circular saw (figure G).
4. When we removed the pocket doors, we had to take off the old doorstops...the thin strips of wood on either side of the frame that kept the door straight and secure. Here we used a router to shape a profile on the edge of the new doorstops (figure H). It was then time to trim the stops to the same thickness as the originals. For this we used a wood planer, passing the wood through several times, taking off a little at a time until we reached the needed thickness (figure I).
5. Remember those ugly gouges that were in the door (figure J)? We chiseled them out and took a piece from the bottom of the door that we cut off, cut it to size, and glued it into position. After some careful sanding, the patch was in place and ready to be refinished (figure K).
| 
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
