Sliding wardrobe doors are fitted by screwing the top track to a level header, fixing the bottom track directly beneath it, then lifting each door so the top rollers engage in the track before swinging the base in so the guides locate in the bottom channel. Each door then has adjuster screws at the bottom that raise or lower that corner, and those adjusters are how you get the doors plumb and the gaps even. Fit the rear door first, then the front, and always work from the top track downwards.
Most difficulties with sliding doors come from one cause: the two tracks are not in the same vertical plane. If the bottom track sits even a few millimetres forward or back of the top track, the doors lean, the rollers wear on one edge and the doors judder rather than glide. Getting that alignment right at the start saves every adjustment afterwards.
Measure the opening width at floor level, at mid height and near the ceiling. Then measure the height at both ends and in the middle. In an older British property you should expect some variation, and 10mm to 15mm across a run is entirely normal.
The narrowest width is the one that governs. Doors need to clear the frame along their whole travel, so if the opening pinches at one point, that is your working width. The extra space at the wider points gets packed and covered with a scribe fillet afterwards.
Check the floor with the longest level you have. If the floor slopes away from the wall, note by how much, because you will pack the bottom track level rather than following the floor. Doors hang plumb from the top track: a bottom track that follows a slope produces a gap that widens across the run and there is no adjustment that will hide it.
The top track carries all the weight, so it needs a solid fixing. Ideally it screws into a timber header, or directly into ceiling joists if they run across the opening. Where joists run parallel to the wardrobe front, you need noggins between them or a timber header supported at both ends.
Never rely on plasterboard fixings alone for the top track. Two mirrored doors in motion put a real dynamic load on those screws, and plasterboard plugs will eventually pull through.
Set the track position out from the wall carefully. It needs to sit far enough forward that the doors clear the internal shelves, rails and anything hanging inside, and far enough back that the doors are not standing proud of the frame. Read the manufacturer’s setting out dimension for your specific system, as this varies between designs.
Get the track level before you tighten anything. Use a long spirit level along its full length, not a short one moved along in stages. If the ceiling itself slopes, level the track and pack the gap above with timber slips, then cover it with a slim fillet.
This is the step that determines whether the doors run well. With the top track fixed, drop a plumb line or hold a long level vertically against the front face of the top track, and mark that line on the floor at each end.
Set the bottom track to those marks along its full length. Check it in the middle as well as at the ends, because a long track can bow if it is only fixed at the extremities.
On timber floors, screw through the track into the boards. On concrete, use appropriate masonry fixings, or bond the track with a strong construction adhesive if drilling is impractical. Pack under the track with thin shims where the floor is uneven, and put a fixing near each shim so the track does not rock.
If the wardrobe is going over carpet, fixing to the subfloor and trimming the carpet to the track gives a much more stable result than fixing on top of the pile. Carpet compresses over time, and a track fixed to a compressing surface slowly goes out of level.
Start with the door that runs in the rear channel. Tilt the top of the door towards the track, lift it so both top rollers or top guides engage in the rear groove, then swing the bottom of the door in until the bottom guides drop into the bottom channel.
Some systems hang from the top with bottom guides only; others run on bottom rollers with a top guide. Check which yours is, because it changes the lifting sequence. Bottom roller systems go in bottom first, then the top tilts back into the guide.
Mirrored doors are heavy and awkward. Two people is not overcautious: it is the sensible way to do it, and a dropped mirrored door is both dangerous and expensive. Wear gloves, keep the door vertical rather than flat, and protect the floor.
Once the rear door is in, fit the front door in the front channel the same way.
Now the doors are in, they will almost certainly not be right, and that is normal. Every sliding system has adjustment for exactly this reason.
Slide the first door fully to one end. Look at the gap between the door edge and the frame upright along its whole height. If the gap tapers, the door is out of plumb. Find the adjuster screw at the bottom of the door on the appropriate side and turn it to raise or lower that corner until the gap is parallel top to bottom.
Repeat with the second door at the other end. Then slide both doors to the middle and check the overlap where they meet. The two door edges should be parallel and should overlap evenly along their height.
Work in small increments. A quarter turn on an adjuster makes a visible difference at the top of a tall door. Adjust, slide the door, look again, adjust.
Once the doors run correctly, fit any anti jump devices or top guide blocks supplied with the system. These stop a door lifting out of its track when it is pushed hard, which matters in a household with children.
Because you built to the narrowest width, there will be gaps at one or both sides and possibly along the top. Cover them with slim scribe fillets pinned to the frame, then run a bead of decorators caulk along the junction with the wall and paint over it. Done properly this line disappears entirely.
At the floor, a plinth fillet in front of the bottom track tidies the junction, but keep it low enough that it does not foul the door guides.
Clean the tracks before you finish. Dust and grit in a bottom channel is the single most common cause of a door that ran beautifully on day one and grates six months later. Vacuum the channel, and make a habit of doing so occasionally. A dry silicone spray or a light wipe of dry lubricant on the rollers helps; avoid oil, which collects dust and turns into a paste.
A door that jumps out of the track usually means the top track is not fully engaged, the anti jump blocks are missing, or the door has been adjusted so low that the top rollers barely sit in the channel. Raise the adjusters and check the engagement depth.
A door that will not slide the full width is often catching on a scribe fillet fitted too far into the opening, or on a carpet gripper under the track. Both are easy to trim back.
Doors that do not meet properly in the middle are almost always a plumb problem on one door rather than a manufacturing fault. Go back to the adjusters and check each door independently against the frame upright before comparing them to each other.
Rattling as the door moves suggests the bottom guides are loose in the channel or the channel is too wide for the guides. Some systems supply different guide sizes; otherwise a thin packer inside the guide takes up the slack.
Fitting doors into an existing frame or alcove makes good sense when the space is genuinely non standard: a sloping ceiling, a chimney breast recess, or a run that needs to reach the ceiling. In those cases nothing off the shelf will fill the space properly.
Where the wall is flat and the width is ordinary, a complete unit with the doors already hung in a factory built frame removes most of the difficulty. The tracks arrive parallel, the doors arrive square, and the setting out has been done for you. Our modern sliding wardrobes UK sale range covers the widths most British bedrooms need, including mirrored fronts that help a narrow room feel less enclosed.
It is also worth being honest about whether sliding is the right choice. Sliding doors need no swing space, which is why they suit bedrooms where a bed sits close to the wardrobe. In exchange you lose around 100mm of internal depth to the tracks and you can never open the entire front at once. Where floor space is not the constraint, modern 3 door wardrobes UK give you full access to the interior in one movement, which many people prefer day to day.
Whatever route you take, think about the finish alongside the rest of the room. A carefully fitted sliding door looks better beside storage of a similar standard, and matching modern bedside cabinets UK sale tie the scheme together. At Furniture in Fashion we hold coordinating bedroom ranges so the pieces work as a set, and you can shop modern furniture UK with free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes.
Fit the door that runs in the rear channel first, then the front door. Trying to fit the front door first leaves you unable to reach the rear channel.
Almost all systems do. The bottom track guides the doors and stops them swinging. A few premium top hung systems use a floor guide instead of a full track, but the door still needs some bottom restraint.
Use the adjuster screws at the bottom of each door. Slide the door to one end, check the gap against the frame upright along its full height, and adjust until that gap is parallel.
The usual causes are grit in the bottom channel, tracks that are not vertically aligned with each other, or worn rollers. Vacuum the channel first, then check the bottom track sits directly beneath the top track.
Lightweight panel doors can be managed alone. Mirrored or glass doors are heavy and awkward to control while engaging the track, so use two people for those.
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