Converting closet to sliding closet doors

Question

We have two hall closets side by side with regular outswing doors. We are converting it to one large single closet (knocking wall down that separates them) with two sliding doors.

My problem, the new opening will be 63.75 inches. Overlap on the doors for sliding closet should be 3-4 inches. Ideally two 34 inch panel doors would provide what I need, but 34x80 doors don’t exist.

Would you recommend two 36 inches and rip them down to 34? Or one 32 and one 36 inch door.

I’m concerned about ripping down the doors to size, we likely will do hollow doors so they are lighter to hang for sliding purposes, and don’t prefer to rip down a hollow core door, there should be enough actual wood on the edge but it still concerns me.

I’m also concerned about 2 different sized doors, and the 36 inch will overlap more of the opening making the middle hard to access. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Answer 1

Some ideas.

Who says they need to overlap 3 to 4 inches? The nice thing with less overlap is better opening. Think about bifold doors, they don't overlap at all where they meet. So if sliding doors overlap by whatever you want, who says that's bad?

Sugggestion: Buy two 32 inch doors and try different things til you like it.

• Try 1/4 inch overlap. If it works, it works. The issue might be if the doors aren't dead straight, there might be negative overlap at the top or bottom and that would look bad.
• OR Add 1/4 or 1/2 inch rubber bumpers to the outside edges. This will avoid slamming and will increase the overlap slightly, at the expense of creating small gaps at the outside edges.
• OR Add a decorative strip of some kind to the back edge of the outer door at the overlap to hide the quarter inch overlap. It can be a white strip of wood or plastic or brass or a brush strip.
• OR increase the overlap by padding out the edge of the inner door with a 1 inch thick strip of wood, top to bottom, painted to match, that will improve the overlap. Nobody will ever see this because it's the rear overlap, and the finish won't be worse than trimming down a larger door.
• OR since you're knocking down walls anyway, this should be an easy one: Shim out one side of the closet opening by one inch to reduce the size of the opening and have a 1.25 inch overlap with two 32 inch doors
• OR make the opening wider to accommodate two 36 inch doors without trimming.

A further idea: Don't buy the terrible, horrible, cheap track that you get from big hardware stores and that you see in many new homes and all rentals. A good heavy duty sliding door kit is about ten times stronger, operates much more smoothly, and lasts forever. If you buy good hardware you don't have to worry about the weight of solid doors.