Barn Door/Sliding Door Options for Low Ceilings

Nadine
by Nadine
2 Materials
$200
1 Day
Medium
All of the rooms in my house have 8' or higher ceilings with the exception of one hallway, which is 7' foot(I think they forgot the run HVAC for the two adjoining rooms and had to shorten the ceiling to add it). I had three swinging doors in this tight hallway and felt that it was too many swinging doors. I wanted the main entrance door of the hallway to be a sliding door.

I have been wanting to the this project for a long time. But the popular barn door hardware with the wheels on top was not going to work because of the low ceilings. One day I was looking on Amazon and found this Johnson 2610F Wall-Mounted Hardware and it was perfect.

72" Barn door hardware https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Y74R86/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Suggested Barn door floor guide: (The barn door hardware comes with a cheap plastic one - but I found this much nicer one on Amazon)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CVXDMQ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cost:
Barn door hardware - $60.00 Amazon
Barn door guide - $13.00 Amazon
barn door handle - $20.00 Amazon
new custom size hollow core door primed at Lowes- $65.00
3 1x4x8 primed $27.00 - Lowes
I had the wood filler, leftover paint, nails and screws on hand.
From swinging door to sliding door
Here are the steps I took:
1. removed the swing door.
2. removed the old molding above the door
3. added 1x4 on top the entire length of the wall. (I continued the 1/x4 on the other side of the hallway as molding for cohesive look)
4. used wood filler to fill in the holes from the old door jamb



Here is what I did not know before this project:
1. Had to order a new 34" door. I really wanted a 36" door but did not have enough room on the landing side. The old swing door was 32" wide and not wide enough to cover side to side. I also made the mistake of ordering the door too short. I did fix that problem but that is for another post.) DO NOT GO BY THE MEASUREMENTS OF YOUR OLD DOOR. Measure the width you want the new door to cover (side to side) and height from above the doorway.



Sliding door hardware should be at least twice the size of the door.
Attached is a link to the instruction video on how to install the Johnson 2610F Wall-Mounted Hardware (This is a two person task).  Follow all of the instructions on the video with the exception on how to attach the rollers:  PUT THE ROLLERS ON THE DOOR FIRST THEN SLIDE IT ONTO THE TRACK.
Suggested materials:
  • Barn door Hardware, guide and handle   (Amazon)
  • Door, 1x4s   (Lowes)
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