Pocket Door Hardware Is Three Purchases, and the Edge Pull Is the One That Gets Missed

Pocket door hardware for a house door is really three purchases: the track and hangers hidden in the wall that carry the door, the pulls on each face that move it, and a latch or lock if the room needs one. For the pulls and the latch, my recommendation is a single pocket door mortise lock set, which puts both flush pulls, the edge pull and the latch into one body set into the leading edge of the door. One condition changes that. If the door already has a round bored hole through its face from an older pocket latch, a tubular pocket lock that uses the same prep is the easier route, and the door needs no new cutting.

Push the door into the pocket and see what your fingers can reach

Slide the door all the way open, until it parks inside the wall, and try to pull it back out. On most pocket doors the only part still showing is the leading edge, a strip of wood the thickness of the door. The flush pulls on the faces are now inside the pocket, out of reach. Whatever you grab in that moment is the hardware that matters most, and on many doors it is nothing but a fingernail.

That is the job of the edge pull. It sits in the leading edge itself, so it is the one piece of hardware you can still reach when the door is parked. Some edge pulls are a shallow recessed plate with a lip to hook a finger behind. The ones built into pocket mortise locks are usually a small plate that pops out when you press it, giving you something to pull, then pushes back in flush so it does not stop the door entering the pocket.

The alternative is a stop in the pocket that keeps the door from sliding all the way in, so a sliver of the door and its face pull stay out in the room. It works, and it costs you some of the opening width you installed a pocket door to get. I would rather fit the edge pull.

There is a public-building rule that makes the same point. Section 404.2.7 of the 2010 ADA Standards requires that when a sliding door is fully open, its operating hardware stays exposed and usable from both sides, and it places operable hardware between 34 and 48 inches above the floor. Those standards are written for public and commercial buildings rather than most private homes, so treat them as a sensible reference at home and check your local code or your contractor if the project falls under them.

Nothing on a pocket door can stand proud of the face

A hinged door can carry a knob or a lever because it swings clear of the wall. A pocket door slides past the split jamb at the mouth of the pocket with very little room on either side, so any handle that projects from the face stops the door right there. That rules out ordinary passage knobs and levers. The sliding door pulls that work here are recessed into the face, so the surface of the door stays flat from edge to edge.

Pocket locks come in two constructions. A mortise pocket lock is a rectangular body set into a deep slot cut in the door's edge, with face plates on each side lined up over it. A tubular pocket lock goes into the same holes as an ordinary door knob: Emtek lists its tubular pocket locks for a standard 2-1/8 in bore with a 2-3/8 in backset, on doors from 1-3/8 in to 1-3/4 in thick. Some tubular sets include a pop-out edge pull and some need one added, so confirm it on the specific product before you order. Either way, two recessed pulls back to back share the thickness of one door, which is why that thickness is the first number every one of these sets asks for.

Privacy, passage or keyed: decide the latch before the look

Pocket locks are sold by function, like hinged sets, though each function behaves a little differently on a sliding door.

• Privacy. Locks from the room side with a small turn or toggle. On mortise sets the bolt is usually a hook that swings out of the leading edge and catches a strike in the jamb, so the door cannot be slid open. This is the set for bathrooms and bedrooms.
• Passage. No locking mechanism. Whether a given passage set holds the door closed at all varies by maker, so read the listing if you need the door to stay shut.
• Dummy. No latch. On a pair of pocket doors that meet in the middle, the dummy version goes on one door and acts as the strike for the latch on the other.
• Keyed. A keyway on the outside and a thumb turn inside, for a pocket door that needs more than a privacy hook, such as a home office or a storage room.

Before you order a privacy set, check how it opens from the outside in an emergency. Emtek's tubular privacy pocket lock, for example, has a small turn on the outside face for that purpose. Do not assume every pocket set works the same way; read the product details.

Be honest with yourself about what privacy means here. A hinged door closes against stops on three sides. A pocket door seals only at the jamb it slides into, and the faces run past guides with a gap, so it blocks sight and keeps someone from walking in but passes more sound than a swing door. The lock controls entry, not noise.

For solid bronze, Rocky Mountain Hardware's pocket door locks, found among our sliding door lock sets, come in privacy and dummy functions in silicon bronze and white bronze.

The door's thickness is the number the lock is built around

Emtek lists its pocket door mortise locks by door thickness, with versions for 1-3/8 in and 1-3/4 in doors, and the thickness has to be specified when you order; 1-3/8 in is the minimum. Measure across the door's edge, not the jamb or trim. If the door is somewhere between the two, stop and ask before ordering, because a mortise body that is wrong for the door either will not fit or leaves the face plates sitting wrong.

Two more checks before anyone cuts. A mortise lock needs a deep, clean pocket cut into the edge of the door, and the maker supplies a template for it; follow the template, not a measurement from a different set. And a hollow-core door is only solid where its maker put solid wood. Confirm there is solid material where the lock body will go, or plan on a solid-core door. This is precise work, and a carpenter with a mortiser is a better bet than a freehand chisel.

The tradeoff of the mortise set is exactly this cutting. A tubular pocket lock fits standard bored holes and is easier to fit and to change later. The mortise set gives you a matched pull, edge pull and latch built as one part and a cleaner rectangular face, at the cost of a slot in the door's edge that is hard to undo.

The track is a separate purchase, and new pulls will not fix a sticking door

The hardware on the faces does not carry any weight. The door hangs from rollers on a track in the header, inside a frame that is sized to the door's height, width and thickness and has to be square and plumb to run well. That system usually comes from the frame maker and goes in when the wall is built, long before anyone chooses pulls.

So read the symptom before you buy. A door that scrapes, rolls hard, jumps the track or drifts open on its own is telling you about the track, the hangers or the frame. New pulls will not change any of that. Sort the rolling first, since fixing hangers can mean taking the door down.

Matching a pocket door to the hinged doors around it

A pocket door usually sits among hinged doors with knobs or levers. It cannot share their shape, so let it share their finish and level of detail. Emtek offers its pocket door locks in finishes drawn from its broader door range, which makes it straightforward to carry one finish from the hall into the pocket door; you can browse its pocket door pieces alongside the rest of its door hardware. If your hinged doors use a plain rectangular rose, choose a plain rectangular pocket plate; if they carry a decorative rosette or a period backplate, look for pocket trim with the same character.

If the pocket door you have in mind is on a cabinet rather than a room, the parts are different, and so is the advice; our guide to pocket door hardware for cabinet doors covers that.

What to settle before you order pocket door hardware

1. Measure the door's thickness at the edge.
2. Decide the function: privacy, passage, dummy for a meeting pair, or keyed.
3. Decide whether the door should disappear completely. If yes, you need an edge pull.
4. Check whether the door is already bored for a tubular lock, and whether it has solid material where a mortise body would go.
5. Open and close the door a few times. If it drags or drifts, fix the track before buying anything for the faces.

Once those five are settled, finish and trim style get the final say.