Bypass Doors

Bypass Doors (also known as sliding doors) slide past each other, one behind the other. The doors don’t slide into walls like pocket doors and therefore don’t save as much space, however they do provide extra floor space than regular swinging doors. When a standard door is open on a closet for example, it takes up its width in floor space - however bypass doors don’t take up any extra floor space as they simply slide across the length of the closet.

They are designed primarily to be used in closets and normally raised panel doors will be used. However if you want bypass doors to divide rooms, you may wish to use French doors with glass panels to let the light flow through. The doors can be made of wood, glass or mirror - almost any door can be made into a sliding door by installing it with sliding door hardware.

Bypass doors are fitted into tracks, one at the bottom of the closet and one at the top. These tracks are usually hidden with some kind of decorative trim and the doors simply hang between the two tracks. Rollers are used to allow the doors to slide from side to side and installing these doors is relatively easy (compared with pocket doors for example).

The only drawback with bypass doors is you can’t access the full length of the door opening, however if you simply need to shut off a closet and save door swinging space bypass doors will be perfect.