To save money, the pocket door should tuck into the side with the least amount of things that would have to be moved, usually electric. Take a look and make sure of where the water, a/c ,electric and anything else that could be behind the wall is located. It would be less ecpensive to change the double door into a single swinging door if there is anything that would have to be moved.

To add a pocket door is not cheap and I agree the spce needs to go where there is the least amount of stuff in the wall Maybe post a to scale plan of the whole space too. The pocket will need to intrude into one room or the other so some planning is needed . Why not just do a single door. As for the TV what other furniture do you have in the space We need pics of the whole space too.BTW the jacuzzi would be a much bigger issue for a redo than the doors if it was my space

Why would you have a double thick wall? mine are normal depth.

There are french doors on our master bath at camp. Why??? If I ever do any remodeling I would put in a single door. Pocket doors are noisy and cost more to install. I wouldn't want one in a bedroom.

I'm in the process of changing a single swing in bathroom door to a pocket door. The contractor said you don't need a thicker wall, just a header over the entire span (open part and pocket part) and as M Riz said, move one outlet a short distance in my case. There is nothing else in the wall. He said it's no big deal. He is a very experienced contractor for both remodeling and new construction.

In your case, if those doors are full size door, you probably already have a header the width of the span. Most simple is to lose one door, build out the space the second door occupies now with likely a slightly wider and maybe shorter header over a slightly wider space.

It would get more expensive I think, if you go to the area behind the TV as the framing would be more involved but probably not a lot more. But you'd want to validate everything I said with a pro.

I don't know how big your remodeling project is, but what I had originally hoped would be a $20K modest remodel (no passion project) is coming in more at $30K, so if I can squeeze out $500 here and there with the most reasonably priced solution, I'm happy. Not sure how much you intend to do in the bathroom, but it all adds up fast.

Good luck on your project, I"m sure you'll love it!

Thank you all…yes, our space as-is is not ideal. I’m trying to think of ways to optimize. Currently, we aren’t even using our master because it has the worlds tiniest shower and a giant tub we want to do away with. I’d like to re-do the entire bathroom, and I thought trying to figure out the door situation would help me envision how to fix the bathroom (larger shower, smaller tub).

One thing to consider also, is that you do not want pocket doors sliding behind tile walls. Our contractor refuses to do that - he is concerned about the constant banging of the door behind the tile. If we have no choice , then we frame out a second wall in front of the pocket door area so that you can have the tile there without issue.

I don't see any benefit to a pocket door there. Just change it to one swinging door. It can swing in or out.

The actual space of the bathroom is large, 11.75' x 7.75. I'd come up with a list of what you actually need/want i.e. just a shower, do you have to have a tub too, larger vanity, linen closet, etc. Then come back and have the smart folks here offer the most cost effective way to achieve it. Also, is the room on a crawl space, second floor, slab? In other words, what's under it? Critical when thinking about moving plumbing.

Here's a very, very rough idea of what you could do with that space without moving a lot of plumbing. Change the door to a pocket door that slides to the right and this will work. This is rough just to get you thinking. Change the sinks to floating sinks and the room will look huge. I'm sure there are far better layouts, this is the straw dog to kick things off. Please Houzers, don't pick it apart, I know it's not a final. Just showing you can make this a bath you love. And yes, you're looking at 20 - 30K

If you do go with a pocket door, get a solid one for the bathroom.

I really appreciate the effort, ideas and insight!! The bathroom has 2 exterior walls and is above our garage. I didn’t think I could make a shower happen where the large tub is now (because of the windows)…so ultimately I was thinking I’d need to expand the tiny shower space by building out where one door is now. I really love the idea of a linen closet, because we are lacking one now. If I could switch (and afford) a more modern-looking upright soaking tub, hopefully it would lessen the footprint the current tub is making.

Yes, you can do a window in a shower, it becomes spa like. You can't slap any old window in the shower because you don't want it to rot out so you'll need to do some updating to your windows, but a quick search of Houzz photos shows many of them.

Calistoga Farm House · More Info

This one below has a soaker tub with a shower. Soaker tubs don't have to be free standing with their own space. This one looks like a small footprint. In the comments the designer says it's from this company. https://hydrosystem.com/ The comment is 9 years old so I'm sure they've gotten even better now. If you go to a plumbing supply store (with a showroom) if there's one in your area, I know you can find one that will fit your area.

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Here's another one with what looks like a soaker tub. The comments say tub is by Duravit

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Yes, but in my case, where would the shower head be?

It looks like shower head on the wall that backs up to linen closet.

After receiving input from this group…it sounds like the best, least costly approach is to just change from a double door to a single door (not pocket). I like the added linen closet. Bigger shower is the goal, and I don’t want to lose a tub altogether (in favor of one with a smaller footprint). I assume that there would be lower costs associated with keeping the shower plumbing where it currently is….as well as the tub. I probably wouldn’t have to change windows either with this idea:

Or, how about a bi-fold door? That's what we did.

A little tweak. The door will need to swing the other way. The light switch will need to be on the wall on the right as you walk in. Also that way when the door is open you don't view the toilet. Not that it is any big deal to see a toilet in a bathroom. Lol

Don't change out the door now if you're planning to redo the whole bath eventually. The door is part of the bath and it should be reimagined (and probably moved) when you remodel.

In the meantime, start doing drama and fling those doors!

I like the ideas! Keeping the plumbing in the same place is always the least expensive way to go, but no matter what, it's going to be a $30K remodel if you are buying a tub and creating a new shower, vanity, etc. So putting in a pocket door will not add that much if you're going that route. I have a situation now where I have a linen closet door and bathroom door opening as your drawing. They are always banging into each other and the doorknobs get tangled up together because I leave the linen closet door ajar because the cat likes to sleep in there. I'm changing it to a pocket door and linen cabinets. The foot print is smaller for a tall cabinet and for me, a lot more functional although Kitty will have to find a new place to sleep. I'm actually using a tall kitchen pantry cabinet as it already has roll out shelves. But it does add to the cost, $4K. The closet is just framing, drywall, shelves and a door. Probably less expensive than $K.

Take your time, find someone who knows the building code and keep playing with your plan.