How to choose compatible accessories for your pocket door system

The pocket door has evolved to become one of the most popular interior design features of the 21^st century. Not only can it provide more space in a building, in order to create new rooms or multi-purpose rooms, it also provides the ability to create flexible spaces. This maximises the efficiency of a building because you can use the same space in different ways, according to the time of day, and means you can use pocket doors to open and shut-off space according to your needs for large communal spaces, or small intimate spaces. The pocket door can be customised to become even more practical and even more suited to individual needs, by the incorporation of accessories. But it is important to note that not all accessories are compatible with every type of pocket door system.

What are pocket door accessories?

Pocket door accessories are a range of products that can be added to your installation to customise its operation and to make it personal to your needs. These can be retrofitted in most cases or included along with the initial installation. They include features such as:

• Soft close/anti-slam – A feature that controls the closing action of the door so that it rests softly in the closed position and therefore doesn’t slam and make noise, damage the door or injure someone. This can also be supplied as a bi-directional accessory that has soft-close and open capability.
• Touch latch – A feature that enables you to push the leading edge of the door in the fully open position, so that it ejects from the pocket and allows you to grab it and close it.
• Door edge pull – A type of door handle that is built into the structure of the door so that you can pull the door closed with your fingers.
• Self-close – A feature that ensures the door closes automatically behind you once you have passed through it.
• Double-door coordination – When installed, this feature links two double doors together and allows you to push one door open, which then ensures both doors open together.

There are various benefits to these accessories, some of which are merely convenience and making the action of opening a door much easier. But they also help in situations where doors are regularly slammed shut, perhaps where there is a wind tunnel created. They also prevent safety issues with people getting fingers trapped in a narrow door cavity, and also help people with accessibility or mobility issues. But it is important to note that not all accessories are compatible with every type of pocket door.

How to identify what accessories are compatible with your pocket door

At the Pocket Door Shop we have created a helpful table to visually demonstrate the compatibility of our range of accessories. This references the type of pocket door and the accessories that can be used on them. In many cases this is straightforward, in that you would only use a double-door coordination accessory on double doors and not single doors, for example, but in other cases it is not quite so obvious.

There is a specific touch latch system for the Unico and the Syntesis pocket doors, for example, because of the different design features of each product, and how the Syntesis type of pocket door system is designed with no surrounding architrave. The soft-close feature can’t be used on the telescopic pocket door also, because of the way this door operates. The door edge pull can’t be installed on a glass pocket door because this requires the unit to be built as an integral part of the edge of the door, and obviously you can’t do that with a glass door. The self-closing unit can also only be installed on the Unico range, and not the Syntesis, and the soft-close and touch latch systems can’t be used on fire-rated pocket doors.

Selecting the right accessory for your pocket door

So you can refer to this table and see very clearly which accessories you can install, and this is detailed further in the product specifications for each pocket door accessory. This enables you to select the right accessory for your needs based on its compatibility with the pocket door system you have installed, or are about to install.

Our product specifications also outline where two accessories are compatible with each other. So the soft-close mechanism can be installed with the self-close mechanism, for example, but the touch latch system can’t be used with the bi-directional soft open and close mechanism or with the double-door coordination system. This is important information to consider and therefore compatibility is referred to in each of the individual product pages to ensure you purchase the right accessories and that they can be used with your pocket door system. So check out our pocket door accessories at the Pocket Door Shop and order online today.