Rough Opening For Sliding Closet Doors. The opening of the door depends on the size of your closet. Usually, a 6-foot closet opening is the most common size for a door. You can select your own width for the door depending on the closet size or your preferences for the door size.
I wanted to install a door in my closet, but I didn’t know what size to build the door. I removed the old door, as it was too large for the closet. The whole closet was just the size of the door, making it look strange.
I decided to look for a rough estimate to know the size that is suitable for my door. I found that the 6-foot wide closet opening was the opening mostly used, and I can change the size I want. I installed the new opening after having a rough estimate.
Read to learn!
Rough Opening For Sliding Closet Doors
You can measure the size of your closet door pretty easily. However, you will need to focus on getting the length completely right. The wrong measuring of the closet door can be seen after it’s completely installed, and that will make it difficult to slide, or it won’t fit.
The technique in the sliding door is to leave a little space above the door of the closet. The normal left space is 2 inches. You can leave an opening of the same length. You can leave a little more space for jambs and other elements. Read more below!
Rough opening meaning
Before you get to know how to make a rough opening, you should know the exact meaning of the rough opening. As many people take rough openings as simple holes and think that’s their rough opening.
You can leave that opening if you want mice or rats to get inside your closet, but it’s better if you know the meaning of the rough openings to be safe.
A rough opening is actually opening around a simple door. Usually, this opening is around a sliding door. It is pre to the installation of frames and other finishing touches.
The width or the length of the rough openings is bigger than that of finished openings. The rough openings have a bigger size, as they need to cover the jambs and other elements that are used for finding the openings.
You can open sliding doors easily, as you just need to slide their door. Rotating doors are much more complex than sliding doors, and you need to have space for screws. When it comes to bifold doors, it becomes more complex, and a larger door should be covered for these openings. Read more below!
Importance of opening sizes
If you don’t have rough openings, then you need to know their importance, as rough openings are opened before the installation of the door. There is space left for the door and the finishing elements so that they can fit, and the door can attain finished openings better than other gasps.
If you don’t leave rough openings, then you won’t have any space for the finishing elements, and if you low place or the hoping you left is too small, then you will setting problems as well. So the size of the rough opening size is really important. Read more below!
Size recommendations
48 x 80-inch sliding closet door is a common sliding door size, and it requires a rough opening as well. The recommended rough opening for this door is 49 x 82 inches. Other materials are added, and when the door is completed, the opening changes as well, and the recommended finished opening for the same door to which you left the rough opening is 48 x 82 inches.
This much opening should be left for a typical door. The space you left should be enough for the frame of the door, and even if you add drywall, you won’t have any problem with that much opening.
The bottom of the door can be different, so keep the model of the door you are going to install in check. A minimum of one inch of the opening should be left in all sliding doors.
Though the recommended size is about two inches, you can keep an opening of two inches in most of the doors. The floor of your closet, or rather the whole floor, will make size and opening difference in creation as well. You should be careful about leaving the opening size. Having an opening of over 2 inches is a waste if you aren’t installing a complex door.
Final opening meaning
I have mentioned the final open in the above paragraphs a lot. The final opening is not the same as the rough opening, but there is only a slight difference between them. The opening you get after the installation of the door frame is the finished opening.
The frame size will create a difference between the final and rough opening. You may only find a slight difference between the final and rough opening. The thicker the frame, the more the difference in both openings will be.
The last word
The opening you are going to leave in the frame door will have an impact on the installation of the fra,e. Estimating a rough opening requires all the factors like the wall and the frame size to be added, and even the future plans should be kept in mind. Read above for a rough estimate. Thanks for reading!
Related Guides