When sliding closet doors are working properly, they give you effortless access to your clothes, shoes and furnishings. Unlike entry doors, sliding closet doors rarely have a bottom track. Instead, they hang freely from rollers that glide along a top track. This creates a problem -- there's nothing to stop them from hitting and rubbing against each other. The door manufacturer usually solves this by suppling a plastic bypass guide to attach to the floor. If the guide is missing, you can easily find a replacement, but until you do, metal corner brackets make suitable substitutes. Take one of the doors down by lifting it and angling the bottom toward you until the rollers clear the top track, then pulling it toward you. Inspect the rollers, and tighten them with a screwdriver if they're loose. Do the same with the other door, then replace both doors and make sure they glide smoothly. Push both doors over to one side and let them hang freely. Mark the inside edge of the outer door by laying a piece of masking tape so that its edge aligns with the door edge.
Mark the outside edge of the inner door in the same way. Take the doors down again. Put a 1-inch metal corner bracket that has rounded edges, such as you would use for light cabinetry, on the ground with one side facing up and align it so the bend is on the edge of the tape that marks the back edge of the front door. Arrange the bracket so the other side goes under the door. Mark its position, remove the tape and screw the bracket to the floor with 1 1/4-inch wood screws. Install another corner bracket to guide the other door in the same way. Hang the doors and check their operation. Things You Will Need Screwdriver Masking tape Two 1-inch metal corner brackets Four 1 1/4-inch wood screws Tip References Don Vandervort's Home Tips: Sliding Door Repairs Suggest a CorrectionFew things make a bedroom seem shabbier than a beat-up sliding closet door that's hanging crooked or that won't open and close smoothly. Inexpensive closet doors often are installed to cut down on building costs, but doors made of low-quality materials and hung with inexpensive hardware can lose their alignment and become difficult to operate.
And they sometimes don't wear very well, so they can become stained and scratched. A reasonably handy person can correct most minor closet-door problems fairly easily. And if the door is too far gone or too ugly to save, replacing a closet door is also a simple project.Closet doors come in three basic styles: sliding (sometimes called bypass), bifold and swinging-hinge doors. Swinging-hinge doors are like the other interior doors in your home, but bifold and sliding doors are hung from tracks and might need extra attention.The side of a bifold door is attached to the door jamb with hinges or pins in brackets. The side of the door opposite the hinges is suspended from a sliding mechanism that moves along a track.Sometimes the slides stick. If the sliding mechanism contains a wheel, a little light oil in the works might improve the operation. If there is no wheel, try rubbing a little candle wax on the track.Sliding closet doors, which are used in pairs, are not attached at their sides but glide along overhead tracks.
They can become sticky, too, but they almost always have wheels that can be oiled.Sliding doors usually have at least one floor bracket that keeps the bottoms of the doors in line with their tops.A common problem with sliding doors is misalignment. If the doors are higher on one side than the other, or if they are hung too low, they might drag on the floor or snag at the floor bracket. If they're hung too high, they can swing out of the floor bracket and come completely out of the track.The alignment of sliding doors usually can be adjusted without removing the doors.Step inside the closet and look for the brackets that attach the sliding wheels to the top of the door. The bracket should be held in place with screws set in curving slots.With a partner holding the door, loosen the screws in the curving slots but don't unscrew them completely. Move the bracket up or down as needed and partially retighten the screws. Test the door to see that it slides properly before retightening the screws.
Replacement brackets and wheels are available at home-improvement stores. Replacement components run from about $2 for simple wheel assemblies to $20 for new brackets and tracks.Some closet doors are made of a lightweight wood called lauan. Such doors usually have a framework of pine or other wood around the edges, and the center part of the door is hollow.The wood in the doors sometimes deteriorates, and screws can become loose, making hinges and brackets rattle.When a screw refuses to tighten in deteriorated wood, you have to dismantle and remove the hinge or bracket and plug the old screw hole.Put a little wood glue on a wooden golf tee and tap the tee into the screw hole. Allow the glue to dry a while, preferably overnight, and then cut off the extra part of the tee with a utility knife.Closet-door sizes are standardized (24 by 80 inches, 36 by 80 inches, for example), and it should be easy to find replacement doors where lumber and building supplies are sold. Measure your existing doors and look for replacements with the same dimensions.
To remove sliding doors, unscrew the floor bracket and slide it from under the doors. Swing the bottom of the door up and lift the body of the door to disengage the sliding wheel from the track. If the track and wheels are in good shape, you can attach the wheels to the new doors and keep the old track.Bifold doors are removed by disconnecting the hinges. The slide holding the top of the door should then slide out of the track.Bifold doors come in a variety of styles, from plain flat panels to paneled hardwoods or full-length mirrors. Prices start at about $35 for an unfinished, 36-inch-wide door and go to about $150.Sliding doors tend to be a bit cheaper, with 36-inch lauan panels going for about $25 and other woods mostly in the $35 to $90 range.Often the hardware to hang a door comes with it, but some doors are sold as plain panels. The hardware to hang a pair of 36-inch sliding panels or bifold doors in a 72-inch-wide closet opening costs about $20. New Owner Demolishes O.j. Simpson MansionDark meaning of bubble-gum Pumped Up Kicks is tough to chewHandshakes For All, Including Simpson, As Fung Ends Testimony