Pocket doors have a negative reputation since this piece of hardware is difficult to alter afterward and may experience certain problems in durability owing to poor installation and inexpensive hardware options, making it more expensive to fix.
When it comes to pocket doors, most builders or even homeowners do not consider what they want until it is too late.
As a consequence, unless a builder or architect, or even the homeowner, decides to do something out of the ordinary with their pocket door installation, simple hardware is often fitted, leading to irritation, failure, and excessive expenses later on.
That is why it is frequently underlined that pocket doors must be done correctly from the outset.
How to Fix Pocket Door Scratching?
You are now fully aware of the numerous causes of a pocket door scraping against a wall.
However, it might be a broken roller or anything in the track. It’s more likely to be a nail or bolt.
Let’s take a step-by-step look at how you can get out of this scenario!
Step 1: Look Around and Determine
Examine the pocket door frame using a flashlight. If a nail or bolt in the drywall is too long, it can scrape the door. This problem may be solved by simply removing the screw or nail.
Check to check whether the door has come loose from the sliding hinge. Trolleys and wheels must be adjusted from time to time since they may move outside the sliding cavity. To fully adjust them, you’d need to remove the entire door.
Step 2: Inspect the Sliding Guides
If the sliding cavity is faulty, utilize a door guide. These may be found in the hardware area of your local Home Depot.
They should go at the bottom of the door frame. You may need to perform some cutting to get the door guides to operate correctly with your pocket door sliding.
However, if you already have a sliding guide, you may remove it and clean it with candle wax.
Step 3: Take out the inner baseboard
Remove the pocket door completely and check to see if you’ve fitted a baseboard. If so, that’s most likely what’s causing the rubbing and itching.
You may simply repair it by removing the baseboards on both sides of the pocket door. Also, instead of using nails to refinish the baseboards, use glue.
Step 4: Examine the Wood Warping
Even after all of your efforts, if you hear sounds and scrapes, it’s probably due to wood warping. Sanding the door will most likely cure the problem temporarily. However, for a long-lasting impact, you should replace the pocket door entirely.
Step 5: Examine the wall
Finally, before replacing the pocket door, you should rule out the possibility of an out-of-square wall. Holding the spirit level up to the wall, the lateral bulb will indicate whether or not the wall is straight.
If the bubble in the vial is exactly in the middle of the two markers, the wall is plumb.
Otherwise, the wall is not perfectly straight. You’d have to straighten out the crooked wall.
Why Is Your Pocket Door Scratching?
Warping in the wood is the source of this issue. Older types of these doors were difficult, owing to the properties of wood. Many would become trapped and would be costly to fix.
This is one of the reasons they fell out of favor with builders and homeowners to begin with. Whenever a problem with the door arose, repairing it necessitated access to the ‘pocket,’ which was a time-consuming and costly endeavor.
One of the most typical problems is when the door grinds against the frame as it moves in and out of the pocket, making a persistent noise and damaging the paint on the door.
The door might be warped, in which case it must be replaced because distorted wood cannot be repaired.
Even if you were able to sand the door or make some repairs, warping is a constant process that will not cease. This will not address the problem, but replacing the door should.
If the door is in good condition, the warping is most likely in the frame studs or the timber slabs that make up the compartment.
If this is the case, the frame must be removed and replaced, which is a difficult task because the wall must be removed and replaced.
Even if the faulty stud is only one piece, the wall must be cut away, as in the case of drywall, in order to access the stud, remove it, and replace it.
The fact that another similar operation may be necessary in the future if yet another piece of wood stud warps is a cost that many homeowners are unable to bear, thus the doors become an unpleasant alternative once more.
If the rubbing is neglected, the door will ultimately jam, and you will be compelled to deal with the problem and replace the mechanism.
It is important to mention that repairing a pocket door that has experienced a warping issue is not a DIY job if you have no understanding of woodworking and the design of a pocket door can appear deceptively simple.
Measurements are particularly tricky and the repair process if attempted could result in even further damage necessitating more repairs.
If you have no prior woodworking skills, you should hire a professional.
Sometimes the door has worked properly for years only to start rubbing in recent months. It is doubtful that there is a warping issue because wood does not warp after decades of unproblematic use.
The most typical cause of rubbing in such a scenario might be traced back to house renovations or repair work that touched or displaced the frame or pocket door.
When scratches emerge on the bottom of the door, it usually implies that something new has been introduced that was not previously present.
Installing a baseboard against a pocket door with nails that run clear through the drywall and scrape against the door as it moves is a typical design problem. The nails may also deform the frame’s position, causing it to move and begin to rub against the door as it slides.
This may be remedied by removing all of the baseboard on each side of the pocket door and collecting the objectionable nails. Replace the baseboards with glue rather than nails, or with smaller, shorter nails that will not reach the frame.
The glue is the superior choice.
Conclusion
You now understand how to repair pocket door scratching. Now hurry up and follow the procedures to protect your pocket door against scuffs and dents.
A straightforward suggestion for old pocket doors. Moisture is the most likely cause of warping.
So you may have them properly treated to avoid warping.
Best wishes on your cleanup project. Have a wonderful day!
