Pocket Door Latch Hardware & Lock

Done on a daily basis all over the world, the installation of a sliding pocket door is not exactly rocket science. But despite this fact, our builder turned this rather ordinary procedure into another botch job.

When we did up our design, we figured that conventional pocket door hardware and related materials would be used. Like I've said before, why re-invent the wheel. We had one of these doors in our Class A motorhome, and it worked perfectly for the five years that we owned the coach. So when we took delivery of our truck, it rather surprised us to see what they had done.

Sliding Door Safety Lock

Having an eye for detail as I do, the first thing I noticed was the fact that there was nothing to lock the door in the open position for when the truck was in motion. When we inquired about this, we were told that it wasn't necessary because the door was held in the open position by magnets. Right, the magnets hold the door open when driving, yet we can open it with a simple tug on the finger pull. I guess the builder's engineer was absent from class the day they taught them about mass and G-forces. If a simple tug on the finger pull will open it against the magnets, what makes them think that it will remain open when making a tight turn that causes G-forces to act on the door's mass. Of course, the first time we went around a left hand corner, the door did exactly what I expected. It flew across the opening, smashing into the metal door jamb on the opposite side, leaving a rather large dent.

All that was needed to prevent the door from moving was a simple pin lock. Our motorhome had one at the bottom of the door, and it wasn't an improvised solution. It was a commercially available door hardware item that is mounted in the door edge at the bottom, and engages a small hole in the floor. However, since our door wasn't a normal door, but rather something the builder dreamed up on their own, none of the standard door hardware items would work. Our ultra sophisticated solution for this was to go the marine supply store and buy a stainless steel barrel bolt, weld an extension on the end of it, and screw it to the wall at the top of the door. When driving, we just slide the barrel bolt across the door opening.

Other Hardware Modifications

The second little gem that I discovered was something they did to the latch hardware on the door. Since they chose to invent their own "proprietary" sliding door solution, they weren't able to use commercially available hardware, or at least not before making heavy modifications to it.

They did select a quality, Italian brand of latch hardware, we'll give them that, but it wasn't made for use in a 1" thick door. Nor was it made for use in a pocket opening that cleared the sides of the door by only 1/8 of an inch (3mm). Since the door was too narrow for the conventional hardware, it meant that the two brushed nickel escutcheons couldn't sit down tight to the door surface. The escutcheon return that protrudes into the door thickness was too deep, and hit the actual latch body installed inside the door. This held the escutcheons off the door surface on both sides. In order to get the two escutcheons to sit tightly onto the door face, they had to take a grinder to the return portion that pokes into the door thickness. They also had to cut the square shaft that engages the latch mechanism shorter, since the two halves of the surface mounted assemblies were now closer together.

Then, upon trying to reassembly the modified parts, they obviously discovered that a key component that’s screwed to the door surface underneath the escutcheons, and which holds firm the parts that one has to turn to open the latch, also no longer fit. So they just cut off the bit where the screws were supposed to go, and discarded the rest. Now they could get the escutcheons to lie tight to the door surface. Of course the bits on the escutcheon that snapped onto the plate underneath, and the bit on that plate that holds the escutcheon, were now both gone. So to attach the escutcheon, they had to glue it on.

Oh, we're not Done yet

Since the door is so much thinner than what the hardware was designed for, and the pocket that the door goes into, so much tighter than normal, all the butchery to the hardware so far still didn't allow everything to work smoothly.

The narrow door, and the modification of the door penetrating escutcheon return, now meant that the little flip up handle that one turns to open the latch now pokes out past the face of the escutcheon. Normally, it's recessed well down into it. So of course when the door is slid back into its pocket, the protruding flip handle bangs into the pocket opening.

Well we've all heard the phrase, "In for a penny, in for a pound", right. So it was with our builder. They just kept grinding away at things. But now it was on the outside of the brushed nickel finish. To get the flip handle to enter the pocket, they ground bevels on each side of the flip handle to create a ramp to try and force the door sideways enough to let the flip handle enter the pocket. Of course we're left with a rough ground surface, and yellow brass colour showing on the decorative brushed nickel finish. Lovely.

When we redid the interior of the camper, we removed the ugly white aluminum strip that covered the edge of the wall at the pocket door opening, and replaced it with proper wood moulding. But before we installed it, we did what the builder should have done. We chiseled out a recess in the pocket wall that accepted the flip handle without binding.