pocket door vs. sliding doors?

The advantage of the 36" pocket door is that you'd have room for furniture or a closet to the side/sides of the door (depending on where you place the opening).

The advantage of what I understand to be essentially similar to "Arcadia" patio sliders could be (depending on material) more light getting in. But alcoves typically have a wall of windows anyway.

I'd go with the pocket door.

I'd do pocket door if at all possible.

I like the pocket door better but there are trade-offs. The pocket door will make the wall less stable/weaker. You will not be able to hang any items on the wall that need screws or nails because they will go into the pocket door. The pocket door is a cleaner look and takes up less room.

The wall needs to be thicker to accommodate the structure and pocket -- with only 8', even a few inches matters. Pocket doors are cleaner, but also not all that convenient to use. I would do a barn door if you have the room, or some exposed sliding system. There was a sliding door place in Chelsea called Raydoor that we considered a few years ago that has interesting stuff (note: not cheap).

Tough to form a good opinion without a sketch. Two 36" sliding doors require 12 feet of space when open; where are these going?

Pocket doors, built properly, are perfectly strong and do not make the wall "less stable/weaker." You're essentially building two walls on either side of the pocket and tying them together around the door in its stored position. There is room on either side of the door for electrical boxes (and even fasteners for hanging art, assuming you aren't using 6" lag bolts to hang pictures), but as nyc_sport pointed out, you're going to have a thicker wall. Budget about 7-8" for the finished thickness.

Thanks everyone - very helpful advice.

Pockets doors have a bit of je ne sais quo. If you can do a pocket door, do it.

Keith Burkhardt
TBG

Whatever KeithB said, assuming this is in NYC, not in C0lumbia C0unty where they don't speak Greek.

so... not to worry?

you won't have to give back the money?

Lacking. Any. Wit. At. All.

Aboutready, something is wrong with your keyboard, it keeps putting punctuation between each word. Makes you sound like a little valley girl, which we know you aren't.

No, but you are. That's my point.

Oh, no, you got me wrong Aboutready, I'm a New Yorker.

no...

you're hfscomm1.