A local customer had his bathroom recently redone. He decided to install a pocket door for the bathroom. Pocket doors slide from side to side on a track and retract into a pocket in the wall. Pocket doors require specific types of locks that hook into the strike plate preventing the door from sliding back and opening.

As with most other products, there are cheaply made pocket door locks and there are also better quality ones.

Our customer realized he needed a better quality lock as he spent the time and money making a nice bathroom and an inexpensive lock would look out of place. We recommended a pocket door mortise lock for the door.

Photos 1 and 2 are two different views of the mortise pocket that needed to be created in the door to accommodate the lock body. Photo 3 shows the lock body placed into the mortise pocket. Notice the lock face is sitting beyond the door edge. The lock faceplate is traced onto the door. Using the lines traced from the faceplate, a mortise is then chiseled so the lock will sit flush with the door edge. Photo 4 is a view of the door edge after chiseling out a mortise for the lock face. Photos 5 and 6 show the completed install of the pocket door lock.