Sliding wardrobe doors

[Bone]

I will be building some wardrobes for a loft room soon, and looking at putting sliding door tracks on there to optimise usable floor space in the bedroom.

The sliding rail kits show they are built for 18mm panels, but my question is what material is standard?
I am think 18mm edge banded MFC would be the quick and easy way to go (this is a contemporary teanagers room, so coloured MFC will not look out of place), but not sure if the weight or 'flex' in the material would make it suitable for this purpose.

Any experience or advice ?

 

[siggy_7]

I made a sliding door wardrobe out of floor to ceiling 18mm veneer MDF, using the Mars sliding system by Buller. The sliding kit works well, but the runners bear the weight on the bottom track rather than being top hung. After a short while I encountered problems with the doors bowing due to the weight. I mostly solved it by screwing some box section steel behind the back face of the doors (there was just enough gap between the front and back door, and back door and wardrobe to do this) which has pulled then much straighter and prevented the problem getting worse. I think MFC is more resistant to bowing and sagging than MDF so you will probably be ok. I also have one of the doors with a full size mirror glued to the front; this holds the door much straighter so haven't had an issue on that one. If I were doing this again I would look at top hanging runner systems which shouldn't have these problems.

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[PassionforWood]

I think if the doors are full height, ie 2.2m to 2.4m MDF will bow not because of weight but because of the height. It is very flimsy. If you were to hang a 18mm door of the same dims on a pair of hinges the same would happen, so a third or fourth hinge would be needed. I would find a track that would take a thicker door and make the doors with stiles & top & bottom rails. Ie a 9-12mm flat panel grooved into 25mm stiles and rails. Thus should stop the sag.
Hope this helps!
Good luck.