Inside Home Design – Accessible Systems, Pocket Doors

INTRODUCTION

• This e-article is about interior design of accessible systems in a home; namely, home plan design and construction of accessible pocket doors 

BACKGROUND

• Before The Architect's (BTA's) majority custom home design market involves mature couples planning their ‘forever' home and attends to matters of design and construction more easily adaptable in later years of potential, physical challenges

• Pocket door accessibility is only one signature of such design and construction attention, e.g. among others,
  • Lighting design for aging eyes, including "Home Lighting Design For Aging Eyes. Part 1: the Basics" at http://searchwarp.com/swa124510.htm and 4 others hereunder of which 3 are case studies, all hereunder
  • Portals with sufficient clearspans, even with single-swings
  • Friendlier staircase unit rise and run at "So You Want an Adaptable House for Your Golden Years?" at http://searchwarp.com/swa138457.htm hereunder
  • Fire safety considerations in stairways at "Home Fire Safety - Interior Stairway Design Fire Safety Guidelines" at http://searchwarp.com/swa125060.htm 
  • Residential elevators – their layout and fire safety at "Home Fire Safety - Home Elevator Design, Fire Safety Guidelines" at http://searchwarp.com/swa125054.htm hereunder
  • Safety lighting for certain switches, including "Home Electrical Design, Electrical Devices - Home Switch" at http://searchwarp.com/swa216892.htm hereunder
  • Safety layout of lighting switches, ibid.
  • Extended application of safety glazes
  • More convenient layout of receptacles, including "Home Electrical Devices - House Receptacle" at http://searchwarp.com/swa216899.htm hereunder
  • Safer coefficients of friction in tile flooring – inside and outside, op. cit. ". . . Golden Years"
  • Two-walled handrails on wider staircases
  • Modified metrics for designing-in adequacy of kitchen function and storage, ibid.
  • Limits to floor elevation transitions, ibid.
  • Modified and modifiable bath layouts in plan view and elevation

• On Before The Architect's website, this custom home designer has published materials and methods to design and construct accessible pocket doors and designs them into custom home plan sets commonly 

SO WHASSUP WITH POCKET DOORS ANYWAY?

• Efficient use of space
  • No space-gobbling swing; therefore, nearly zero intrusion to interior space, most notably in baths 

Comment:  Noteworthy, some clients love pocket doors, some hate ‘em.  There is a general tendency among clients to disallow them in community-personal passages, ok them in community-community passages, and think it over in personal-personal passages. 

Comment:  Once upon a time, an architect allowed in writing to this custom home designer about how dare he (yours truly) think that federal government satraps' rules on the hallowed 5 linear feet of diameter to an unobstructed circle within an accessible bathroom should include avoidance of a single-swing's travel.  For shame on this old custom home designer.  For shame.  Hideous heterodoxy, thou weasel, thou wart.  For shame.

     Reply:  You're free to lower your design standards to codified levels and proudly stand in your own pitiable and eristic defense; would that it were ever not thusly so with thee and thine one might suppose.  If thoughtful designing can improve functionality of space – in this instance – not ever obstructing the big circle with a door traveling through it – this old boy's going to do it, no matter the inconvenience foregone to clients or its highlights on your for-pay incapacities. 

THE WAY THINGS WERE

• It used to be that the subject of accessible pocket doors involved handles for grasping that protruded into the pathway and from a leading stile.  Several types of handles were made back then for just such purposes.  And it looks like they're all gone.    Poof.
  • Safety concerns for the hard metal protrusions?
  • Intrinsic difficulties in mounting or operating?
  • New methods and materials came to pass by way of a labile, open market?

• The old way's no more

• And there is a better way, albeit with baggage 

WHAT'S NOT UP WITH AN ACCESSIBLE POCKET DOOR?

• Retrofitting any pocket door in an already, fully-framed partition is physically disruptive [read: mucho messy] and fraught with structural considerations

• Fitting anew still requires about twice door width of wall space – not always available outrightly
  • Not always available without careful crafting

• Poor hardware yields poor performance for all time and will make you sorry for what you've done, as in another good deed's punishment 

ACCESSIBLE POCKET DOOR SYSTEM

• The only manufacturer presentation of an accessible system of design and construction for pocket doors known to this custom home designer is by L. E. Johnson Hardware in a one-pager of text and illustration (see http://www.johnsonhardware.com/install.htm:  left click on "Pocket" (top of webpage), left click on "Install Instructions" (second line from top of page), scroll down to "Pocket Door" within which listing you left click on "Handicapped Accessible Opening")
  • The author refers to this webpage during most every custom home design enterprise, adapting it to specific applications

• There will be no attempt herewith at repeating all the contents of L. E. Johnson's seminal work; rather, hereunder there'll be conceived design and construction adaptations of it involving
• Shored stops
• Open and weak corners
• Quadruple pockets
• Derivative design modifications
• In-wall electrical devices cheek-by-jowl

Comment: Note well, please, that each of these accessible pocket door design and construction aspects involves adaptive framing.

FIRST, A BRIEF OVERVIEW

• L. E. Johnson's prescription for an accessible system for a pocket door involves -
  • Setting a pocket door frame wider than the end-desired clearspan opening such that
  • When 3 ½ linear inches are subtracted from that opening, the opening is not less than 32 linear inches wide (ADA/ADAAG minimum for accessibility)
    • Such subtraction is a 2x buck at the trailing rough jamb, which forces the 30XX door 3 ½ linear inches into the 3 linear feet wide pocket door framed opening, still letting over minimum accessibility in clearspan 

Minimum Accessible Passage Opening Applying Pocket Door, Plan View
  

Comment:  Note well, please, that partitions in this presentation are assumed to extend in a straight line and considerably past the two pairs of studs in section. 

SHORED STOPS

• BTA shores up pocket doors in two aspects, in order to enhance partition and door stability and durability
  • Rough framing
    • Any framed opening at 4 linear feet or greater clearspan shall be framed with double jack studs and double king studs at each terminus of the header  

Comment:  In the world according to this home designer, fastening jack and king studs to headers shall involve the following as minimums:  

Headers to Jack Studs. (Toe-nailed), number of nails at each end. 2 nails: 2.50"x 0.131" (8d common); 3" x 0.128" (10d box). 4 nails: 2"x 0.113"; 2"x 0.113"; 3 nails: 3"x 0.120"; 3.25"x 0.120".

King Studs to Headers. (Face-nailed), number of nails at each face/ King Stud. 2 nails: 2.50"x 0.131" (8d common); 3" x 0.128" (10d box). 4 nails: 2"x 0.113"; 2"x 0.113"; 3 nails: 3"x 0.120"; 3.25"x 0.120". 

OPEN AND WEAK CORNERS

• Where walls soon "T" with a passage immediately up-coming axially or "L" where walls take a new, one-way direction close to a door jamb, top plates at either intersection shall be fastened to ceiling structure, in order to dampen wibble-wobble ho-hum-ho instability and lessen opportunity for wall and door finishes - especially at joints - to fail from lots of little mo over time. 
  • As for hand-framed ceiling structure, fasten either to joists or bridges between joists directly and variously and firmly. 
  • As for truss ceiling frames, that is, for bottom chords of floor or roof trusses, annotate the site and nature of framing fastening for advice of the truss manufacturer (for example, as presented in the next pic) and don't fasten otherwise to structure on your own. No amendment shall ever be made to manufactured trusses without the express consent of the engineer of record. 

• Both beefed-up framing structure and fastening are noted in the pic to follow 

Minimum Accessible Passage Opening Applying Pocket Door, Noting Doubled Stud Structure and Open Corner Fastening, Plan View

Key: CLG=ceiling; DBL=double; FSN=fasten; STRC=structure; TYP=typical 

Comment:  Usually, it's the leading jamb that gets the open corner, but not always.  If either jamb is nearby an opening in the axial, or in-line, framing, then design-in fastening the top plates thereabouts to ceiling structure. 

DOUBLE POCKETS

• The accessible system designing for double pocket doors is literally the mirror-image mating of two single pocket doors
  • Headers need to be more substantial
  • Double jacks and double kings all over again
  • Open corners get treated similarly
  • A beefier version of a pocket door frame will be required and available again from Johnson Hardware.
  • Leading stile reveals will be at opposing jambs
  • A floor rail may be applied (as it may be even for a single pocket door) 

QUADRUPLE POCKETS

• This custom design author has observed this application just once – in a New Orleans residential interior, so he calls it "New Orleans Style"
  • Structurally, this is about a pair of bifold slabs meeting on clearspan centerline, which passage, when open, lets the slabs to in-wall pockets flush leading stile-finish jamb on both sides
  • Functionally, this is about mobile window walls
    • If there's a time for beveled, leaded, in-style, and art glass and high relief, it is now
• The notion is similar to the oh-so-California, humongo, exterior doors popular in locales such as Rancho Mirage. 
  • The difference herewith? 
    • The doors must be accessibly revealed at their leading stiles when the passage is fully open

• Matters can get more complicated with quadruple pockets rather than single or double pockets, accessible or not; nevertheless, accessibility takes it up another notch, as well.
  • Clear spans are potentially beyond BTA's maximum, sawn lumber headers
  • Unless ceiling height thereabouts is uncommonly high, any headers – engineered or not - can pose fitting problems
  • To overhead slopes
  • Protrusion to floor structure above
  • Extra lengths beg for hanging and floor rails
  • Common interest in transoms puts added pressure on shortening door heights below 80XX (possibly unwelcomed as not consonant with other door heights at same level), customizing transoms to fit (can get pricey), adapting structure to most importantly stabilize the hanging rail (requires close, creative attention to detail).

Comment: In the example to follow, BTA relies on ‘eng. lat.' to achieve salutary structure and function with a continuous, steel flitch plate and reduced-depth lumber – engineered or not. 

Accessible Passage Opening Applying Pocket Door, Noting Quadruple Doubled Doors Paired in By-Pass, Plan View over Section in Elevation

Key:  APX=approximately; BM=beam; DBL=double; CONT=continuous; D=depth; GLV=galvanized; H=height; LI=linear inch; MAX=maximum; OC=on center; R=rod; STL=steel; TRNSM=transom; T&B=top & bottom; TYP=typical; W=width 

Comment:

• Passage clearspan is 6'-11"
• Hanging and floor rail variously extend at lower right
• Double-stud framing to interior jacks and flanking jacks and kings
• Sistered wall studs to hold down wall thickness thereabouts
• Substantial, solid, full-depth bracing
• Custom-ripped bottom and top plates 

• This annotated and dimensioned drawing was accompanied by 433 words of both design and construction guidance (excluded herewith for lack of direct relevance and for proprietary motive)

DERIVATIVE DESIGN MODIFICATIONS

• Derivative modifications to date regarding accessible systems of interior pocket doors have embraced –
  • Floor rail to further stabilize the travel vector
  • Steel flitch plate to majorly lessen header depth with in-lieu, sufficient structure
  • Slightly uncommon finish jamb width dimensions to avoid in-wall obstacles or to let for casing and proximate wall reveal by adapting Johnson Hardware pocket door packages
  • Beefed-up pocket door packages from Johnson Hardware to handle 80XX doors significantly glazed
  • Adjustment to the trailing, rough jamb blocks on the horizontal depth, in order to get about 3 ½ linear inches to oddly-sized passage widths
  • LSL materials for framing, in order to be assured of exactitude in both dimension and stability in square and true
  • Framing to conform same-level or same-position wall depth
  • Header taken to nearby corner for added stability to partition and amendment 

Comment:  The same-level reference is common sensical (unless the design style is English Manor or a countrified cousin), that is, same living level = same depth walls. 

     The same-position reference is not as readily recognizable.  It is an every-project matter to vary constructed wall depth hereabouts.  Usually, unobservable wall depth, as in a continuous partition to abutting spaces, gets x4 linear inch dimension rough frame.  Observable wall depth, as in a wall amended by a door or window or more, gets x6 linear dimension or bigger rough frame. 

     It's a look.  For example, at 10000 square feet of home, x4 walls look dinky; thereat, x6 depth is de minimus for observable wall depths, or thicknesses.

     Please note that there are other reasons to ‘thicken' walls than just this one, but they're not relevant hereunder.

     In pocketing doors, it'd be devoutly to be wished that wall thickness at the jambs was the same as observed elsewhere.  So, in a situation involving both a pocket door and a sufficient let for an electrical outlet box in the same partition, design carefully. 

IN-WALL ELECTRICAL DEVICES CHEEK-BY-JOWL

• Electrical and lighting rules of the home design road can stir up some creativity
  • There are publicly codified requirements for spacing receptacles only so far from passage jambs, which requirements might possibly oblige an outlet box in the area of a pocket – an intolerable intrusion to pocket door travel in common framing practices
  • BTA has its own rules about siting of lighting switches, which rules can create similarly intolerable intrusion on pocket door travel, op. cit. ". . . Home Switch"

     
• That is, unless there is designed-in relief in wall depth to let for outlet boxes outside the door travel footprint and still within flush-to-finish wall 

• Objective:  maintain 5 ½ linear inch rough wall thickness plus ½ linear gypsum wallboard on each face, while installing a pocket door frame and electrical devices on one face of wall such that there's no physical obstacle to door travel
• The Math:  pocket door frame for x4 wall over and under x6 plates with true x2 studs sistered on device-resident side under sheetrock planes = 3 ½ linear inches frame + 2 linear inches sisters + ½ linear inch rock = + ½ linear inch rock = 5 ½ linear inch rough frame & 6 ½ linear inch finish wall thickness
• The result: a standard switch or receptacle outlet box is 2 3/4 linear inches deep; 2 linear inch sisters plus ½ linear inch rock = 2 ½ linear inches, or ¼ linear inch shy as inset to pocket door frame and still outside the traveling doors footprint   

Comment:  Keep a close eye on fill count – better to wire to than through for such applications of devices.  In extremis, please consider partial blank decorative plates, using lacuna(e), or empty device bay(s), to offset overfill . . . or a j-box with plaster ring. 

Accessible Passage Opening Applying Pocket Door, Noting Sistered Studs to Permit Observable Wall Depth in Conformance to Same-Level and Application of Electrical Devices to Guest Hall Face, Plan View  

 

Key:  CNRS=corners; CONT=continuous; GLV=galvanized; LI=linear inch; R=rod; STL=steel; T&B=top & bottom, TYP=typical 

Comment:  This drawing in plan view was in the original accompanied by a section in elevation as unique as the quadruple door pic above, and not especially relevant herewith.  Additional to the annotations, further text of design and construction guidance ran to 395 words.

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Comments on this article: (1 total)

» left by Chris Jones ⁽⁰⁾ (5 hours 49 minutes ago.)
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Hi, this is a very detialed article, many thanks for sharing it with us.

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