I don't know the answer to your question but we just decided to move away from a barn door and into a pocket door for our family room ( which opens off the entry hall). Our doors are 8 ft tall so the opening will be apprx 8 x 6 ft. We wanted to put a transom window above to let in light, which we couldn't do with a barn door. The (glass) barn door may have produced more light reflection as the doors were open on either side - light thru the opening plus the reflection of the glass doors against the walls. We were not doing a custom door, which would have involved different issues (nonstandard door sizes). However, our GC said larger doors have more problems with warping or other problems, and repairs can require taking out the wall. Of course you also have to have room on the sides for the full door to close and the track mechanism to fit. Talk to a carpenter or a door installer who does custom work with large doors. If money is no object there are gorgeous doors out there...

Elphaba, I'm in Houston. We have completely gutted our "new" house and are in the process of rebuilding. Throughout the house, we have installed pockets for 4 pocket doors. One of those is in the master bath. I am really excited to be getting those doors out of the way. I can share my experience. We have 3 pocket doors in our office here, and we have not had any problems. The office is on a slab, and the thermostat is only kept at a comfortable level 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. This means that it gets fairly humid in there on the weekends. The office pocket doors are rarely used, but when I do use them, they work just fine. They were installed about 3 years ago without any problems. It's true that it is humid outside, but I wouldn't think with central air that it would be any more humid than anyplace else on the inside of your house. Of course a bathroom is more humid than other rooms, but if your cabinet hardware isn't sticking or rusting, I would think that the pocket door would behave in the same way. At least that's what I'm hoping since we just installed 4!!! My vote is for the pocket door. Best of luck with your project! Enduring, that's great info on the pocket doors. Thank you for sharing. This post was edited by TXBluebonnet11 on Fri, Jun 21, 13 at 3:13

If you are building a new home and ordering doors, have the supplier make you slabs without the pre-hung option. As for an antique door, you could shop around salvage stores or have a painter or cabinet shop do the finish to a new slab. We used Real sliding door in the Prop style for this setup and were impressed overall with the quality and service. We have been having trouble with the plastic door protector pieces on the U-guides at the bottom. The peel and stick adhesive is not up to the task so we have been using 3M 77 spray adhesive for a better bond. The door slabs are 3 panel Trustile in walnut. Here is a link that might be useful: Real sliding door prop

"I went to work in an office that had a pocket door that never worked right because someone had driven nails into it at some point and it was never the same after" (palimpsest) Yes. This happened to us when DH nailed the baseboard on the wall between the laundry and kitchen. The door came off track. When we renovate I will replace or remove. However, this was builder grade. On our extension I added three pocket doors. The one I had put in for the powder room is a solid core door, not thinner than most doors, as I wanted as much sound-dampening as possible with such a device. We used Johnson Hardware - not the home depot variety which runs $ 40 or so, but commercial grade. Look at the Johnson site under 1500 Commercial Grade and you will also find non-standard size frames (door max thickness 1 3/4"). Use a good carpenter.