How to Make a Slide Closet

Installing sliding closet doors can be an attractive solution, particularly for bedrooms with shallow closets. Although many contractors build custom sliding doors for up to $1,000, installing them yourself can be a rewarding opportunity to save quite a bit of money without sacrificing quality. Installing your own sliding doors will make your room seem less cluttered, more roomy and remove a little stress from your life.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tape measure
• Level
• Door panels, 2
• 1/4-inch screws, 12
• Top slider brackets, 4
• Floor guide
• Door tracks

1. Take measurements of your closet's open face. Knowing the width and height of the open closet space will determine the size of the doors to be installed and the length of track you will need.

2. Screw slider brackets on the top two corners of each door panel. The slider bracket is the wheeled piece that will allow your door to be installed into a track. Slider brackets will have a predrilled screw hole and a double-layered design. Screw the bracket down with the wheel facing up. The two-layered design will find its use in the very last step.

3. Center the track on the underside of the closet overhang and screw down with 1/4-inch screws. Use the tape measure to make sure that the track is centered on the underside of the closet frame. A full length of track will probably require six to eight screws.

4. Glue down door matting. This piece is purely cosmetic and can be affixed to the top and outside of the closet frame to hide the track mechanism from sight. Most matting of this type has a pull-away strip that reveals a sticky surface. Use a level to make sure the matting is applied evenly across the top of the closet door.

5. Install doors into top tracks. Cant the wheels on the slider tracks in toward the track at about a 45-degree angle. Push the door until the wheel is up against the back of the track, then slowly lower the door until it is in the proper alignment, perpendicular to the ceiling. Install the first door panel on the back track, then the second on the track immediately in front of it.

6. Center the floor guide between the doors, and slide the doors into the grooves on the floor guide. When the doors can slide smoothly without touching the edges of the floor guide, drill the guide down into the floor.

7. Adjust the door slider bracket's height using the half-moon crescent shape on the face. This half-moon is part of the double-layer construction and will allow you to rotate the face of the bracket, thereby altering the door's height up to an inch.

Tips & Warnings

• Used mirrored doors in a small room to increase the sense of space.

Resources

• Sliding door kits