Building and Installing Closet Sliding Doors

  • 4-6 hours
  • Beginner
  • 250-500
What You'll Need
Two Doors Sized to Fit Closet Doorway
Top Tracks
Bottom Tracks
What You'll Need
Two Doors Sized to Fit Closet Doorway
Top Tracks
Bottom Tracks

Building and installing your own custom closet sliding doors is not a challenging task and can be done in a weekend by a motivated Do-it-yourselfer. Bypass closet sliding doors work particularly well for closets, because they do not cost you any floor space. They're made to fit any sized opening, as long as the sliding door hardware is able to fit. If you are interested in creating your own unique custom closet sliding doors, then this how-to article is for you.

Step 1 - Choose Your Doors

The doors that you choose for this project can be made of glass, mirror or wood depending on what your individual needs and tastes are. The doors that you choose or build yourself should be between ¾ of an inch and 1 3/8 inches thick for the best possible results. You can take any properly sized door and turn it into a sliding door as long as you have the proper sliding door hardware installed.

Step 2 - Install Overhead Track

The first step is going to be to fit and properly install the overhead track for the closet sliding doors. You should be fitting this track against the door opening's head jamb. If necessary, make use of shims in order to properly level the track in the right position.

Step 3 - Attach Door Rollers

The next step is going to be to attach door rollers to the tops of both of the doors. The rollers are designed to fit within the closet's overhead track, and are adjustable to make sure that the doors are capable of hanging plumb.

Step 4 - Install Tracks

Now, you should install a track or install a set of guides in the door opening's bottom in order to make sure that the doors are kept in line. It is vitally important that you take steps to make sure that the top tracks and bottom tracks line up completely so that the closet sliding doors operate in the way that they are designed.

Step 5 - Hang Doors

Now you should hang the doors from the track on top of the closet. You may need to bring the doors up into the tracks at an angle to get them to line up properly, with the wheels hanging from the inside tracks so that the doors slide freely.

Step 6 - Adjust Tracking Guides

Now you should adjust the bottom tracking guides so that the bottoms of the doors straddle the track on the bottom properly. This will make sure that the doors are kept from swinging freely inward or outward. You may also fit the doors inside a set of guides on the floor to prevent this from happening depending on what your needs are as well as depending on what the guidelines are from the manufacturer.

Step 7- Finishing Up

Finally you should install the decorative trim, taking care to cover any hardware as well as any misalignment of the door jambs and the doors themselves.