[HoosierHandyman]

I have a customer that has double pocket doors going into her pantry. She can't open them when both her hands are full of pantry stuff. She wants to totally get rid of them and go with a pair of double-hinged doors. How difficult is it to remove the pocket doors and tracks? What is involved to convert the rough opening so that it will accommodate double-hinged doors (that swing both ways)? Will the walls have to be torn out and totally reframed, or am I overthinking it?

[Bljack]

The walls receiving the pocket doors are already framed to handle any load above and to provide sufficient support for the wall covering material, so no, you won't need to reframe the wall. You will probably need to make your own jams as pocket door walls wider that 2x4 walls. I like Poplar when I'm making new jams to be painted, straighter and clearer than pine, takes paint beautifully. Rip it down on your table saw and run a router or belt sander over the edge to knock down the corner. Depending upon the size of the opening, you might need to build out the wall just to accommodate stock door sizes or you could fabricate or order custom sized doors.