Renovation project - How to build a sliding door

Renovation project - How to build a sliding door

There’s lots to do today (I know I put on yesterday about the new baby, but the rest of the blog is a little behind) John changes the living room windows, we had been planning to leave the underneath of the windows as stone, but the stone had been covered in cement, once we had removed this we found that the stones were not the same quality as the rest of the wall (which explains why they had been covered in cement!)

John fixes a small window sill and plaster board underneath, we also add some more insulation. It’s a shame that we cannot have the stone but the new walls look good and once painted white will make a striking contrast with the stone walls.

 Next it is on to building a door for the back bedroom area, we currently have a large open landing which would be lovely if the house was staying as a house, but because we are going to be a B&B we need to make sure that the back bedroom and separate bathroom are private. To do this, we, this is the royal we again, are going to build a sliding door.

By having a sliding door the entire area can be split off, but when empty can remain open plan.

The door is made from floorboards which John connects together and then secures with cross braces. We had already bought the running kit; this is attached to the wall inside the small landing area connecting the bathroom to the bedroom.

Once in place and fully working we hit a small problem, how do we lock this door? We cannot use a normal door lock as the door slides, so I head off to the builders merchants to find a suitable lock, we have decided on the sort of catch that you use on a gate. At the builders merchants I cannot find anything suitable and even with my new found French language skills I cannot find a suitable word. I end up with 4 shop staff trying to help me before one is found that can speak English, at this point he tells me that they don’t sell anything like that.

I have no idea what we are going to do, if the door cannot be locked it will not be secure (each bedroom door has a lock, but I want people to be able to secure the entire area.

Wandering around I spot a door security chain, this is ideal, with this, people in this room can use the chain to secure the area. I must admit that I was starting to panic a bit at this point.

I take it back and it is attached, I’m still not 100% sure, but we invite friends around, who say that they would be perfectly happy with this arrangement.

This means that the house is almost finished; we are getting there, which is good as the photos are getting taken in 3 days!!!!!