Sliding doors can add a rustic touch to your home and give you a way to close off an open area. Building and installing your own sliding door can easily be done as long as you have some time and the right materials. Here, our door installation experts give you a step-by-step guide for how to do it.
Follow these simple steps to learn how to build a sliding door:
- Begin by using your tape measure to measure the opening you want the door to cover.
- After that, add two inches to each measurement (you’ll want your door to overlap the opening by at least two inches on all sides).
- Next, cut your wood pieces: cut two pieces of wood that are 1″ x 2″ x your door height and four pieces of wood that are 1″ x 2″ x your door width.
- Apply wood glue to the edges of your two tall pieces of wood and two of the shorter pieces of wood. Attach them together to make a rectangular frame and reinforce with screws.
- Place the other two shorter pieces of wood horizontally inside the frame at even intervals to create supports.
- After that, cut five more 1″ x 2″ pieces that are the height of the space between the horizontal supports.
- Attach these pieces vertically to the horizontal pieces (one in the middle third, two on the outside thirds) to create reinforcement.
- Cut and mount a 1″ x 2″ x 11″ piece of wood on either side of the frame at the height you want to install your door knob.
- Next, cut two plywood sheets to the measurements of the door frame.
- Using wood glue and screws once the glue is dry, attach one plywood sheet to the back of your door frame.
- Flip the door over and cut pieces of foam insulation to fit in the open areas of the frame. You can use expanding insulation foam to fill in the crevices around the pieces and secure them in place.
- Repeat step 10 on the other side of your door frame.
- Once the door is complete, you can sand it down and paint it the color you would like.
- After the paint is dry, measure 6″ from either end on the bottom of the door and attach your rolling casters.
- On the top of the door frame, measure 6″ from either end and attach 1″ circle brackets.
- Next, install your door knob.
- After that, run a galvanized pipe through the circle brackets and hold it up as high as possible.
- Use your measuring tape to measure between the top of the casters and the middle of the pipe to get the height where you’ll attach your round base plates to the wall.
- Thread the end and secure it to the wall, then thread the 90-degree elbow onto the pipe.
- Attach one base plate to the elbow and the second to the wall.
- Hang your door and voila!
*Photo courtesy of hgtv.com
