A glass pocket door looks simple on a drawing: one sheet of glass, one opening, one wall cavity that swallows the leaf when it is open. That simplicity is exactly where disagreements start. The designer sees a visual effect; the buyer sees a price line and a delivery date. Both are right, and both are describing different parts of the same assembly. When these two views are not reconciled before production starts, the problem surfaces on site as an opening that does not match the wall thickness, a track that cannot carry the leaf, or a finish that no longer matches the joinery beside it.
Our Santerson Glass Pocket Doors are made to measure for residential projects, with finish, layout and dimensions specified per space. The following checklist covers the points we ask designers and buyers to settle together before an order is placed, so that what appears on the schedule is what arrives in the crate.
Start with the wall, not the door
A pocket door spends most of its life inside the structure. The leaf only performs if the cavity around it has been built to receive it, so the first alignment point is dimensional: finished opening width and height, clear wall thickness, and the depth of the pocket the leaf travels into. Pocket depth needs to accommodate the leaf plus hardware clearance and any stop detail, which means a nominal stud wall is often not enough on its own.
Where the two parties usually diverge is "finished" versus "rough". A designer may show an opening dimension on a plan; a buyer receives a structural dimension from the builder. Ask for the finished dimension, taken after plasterboard, tiles or cladding are accounted for, and confirm it in writing against the shop drawing. For glass leaves this matters more than for timber, because there is no trimming a leaf on site the way you would plane a timber edge.
Agree what the glass has to do
"Glass" is not one specification. Before quoting, decide which job the leaf is doing in that particular opening:
- Privacy. Clear, frosted and reeded glass behave very differently in a bathroom or study. A clear leaf that reads as open and architectural on a mood board can be unusable once someone is standing behind it.
- Light transfer. In a corridor, pantry or home office, the reason for choosing glass is usually borrowed daylight. Note which direction light needs to travel and whether any part of the leaf should be obscured.
- Frame and edge detail. A framed leaf and a minimal-edge leaf carry different hardware loads and produce different sightlines against the adjoining wall and skirting.
- Tone against neighbouring finishes. Bronze, clear and frosted glass pick up the colour of the frame metal and the wall behind them. Confirm the tone next to the actual paint or stone sample, not on a separate board.
Our pocket door range is not limited to glass. Classic Pocket Doors and Santerson Wood Veneer Pocket Doors are specified the same way — made-to-measure sizing, material and finish options, layout tailored to the project. A common and effective resolution is a mixed set: glass leaves where light needs to pass, veneer or panelled leaves for bedrooms and bathrooms, all on one hardware family and one detail language.
Hardware is a shared decision
Glass is heavy relative to its area, and a pocket door carries that weight on a suspended track for the whole life of the fitting. The track, rollers, guides and floor guidance must be rated for the leaf as built — glass type, frame, dimensions and any integral handles — not for an assumed standard leaf. This is where a designer's preference for a concealed or minimal detail has cost consequences that the buyer needs to see early rather than at order confirmation.
Two questions settle most of this: what is the finished leaf weight and size, and what does the floor build-up look like at the opening? A thick tile bed or an underfloor heating detail changes what can be fixed below the leaf. Get the floor construction from the buyer and give the hardware selection back to them with the load rating stated.
Sequence the order around the building work
A made-to-measure pocket door cannot be measured accurately until the wall build-up, floor levels and opening linings are resolved. That creates a scheduling dependency worth putting on the programme in plain terms:
- Design intent fixed — glass type, frame detail, tone, which openings get glass and which get a solid leaf.
- Builder confirms finished opening sizes, wall thickness, pocket depth and floor build-up.
- Shop drawing issued with hardware selection and load rating; designer and buyer both sign the same version.
- Production, then delivery and installation against that signed drawing.
Where a project is being furnished and fitted out across several trades, ordering doors as part of the wider package rather than as a late standalone purchase removes a common failure point: the joinery, wall panelling and flooring are specified against the same set of dimensions, so the reveal around the pocket door frame matches the skirting and architrave already on site.
Put the specification in one document
The practical fix is a single schedule per opening, carrying the same fields for every door in the project: opening reference, finished width and height, wall thickness, pocket depth, glass type or panel material, frame finish, hardware set, and the date the dimensions were confirmed. One document, one revision number, signed by both sides.
If you are specifying glass pocket doors for a villa or residential project and want the openings reviewed against your drawings, send us the schedule with your finished dimensions and we will confirm the configuration, hardware and what still needs to be fixed on site before production begins.