Why does my closet door swing out at the bottom?

You slide the door and the bottom edge kicks out into the room, or back into the closet. The top stays on its track. Push it the other way and the same thing happens on the return.

What causes it

A sliding or bypass closet door hangs from rollers at the top. Those rollers carry the weight. Nothing at the top controls the bottom edge. That job belongs to the floor guide, a small bracket screwed to the floor in the middle of the opening with a post that the doors pass on either side of. If the closet never had a guide, or the guide is there but its post has snapped off, the bottom of the door is free to swing. Left alone, a swinging door eventually lifts a roller out of the track.

How to fix it

1. Slide both doors to one side and look at the floor in the middle of the opening. You are looking for a small bracket, or for two filled screw holes where one used to be.
2. If a guide is there, look at the post and not the base. A plastic post can snap off at the base and a metal one can bend flat. Either way the base stays screwed down and does nothing.
3. Measure the door thickness at the bottom edge, face to face, to the nearest 1/16 in. Most bypass closet doors are 1-3/8 in. thick.
4. Pick the bracket. For a standard 1-3/8 in. door, use theCloset Door Guide Bracket. For a door that is not a standard thickness, use the 3-Roller guide, which has an adjustable guidepost width.
5. Unscrew the old guide. Set the new one in the opening so the post sits centered under the line the doors pass on, with one door on each side of it.
6. Mark through the counter-sunk screw holes and fasten the base to the floor. Slide each door end to end and check that it stays on its own side of the post the whole way.

When the answer is not a guide

• The door rubs the floor for its whole travel. The door is too tall for the finished floor height. Take the door down and trim the bottom. A guide holds the door in line; it does not lift it.
• The door binds or jumps at one spot. That is a track problem. Check for a bent track, a loose track screw, or a worn top roller before you buy anything for the floor.
• The whole door leans in the opening. The top rollers are set at different heights. Adjust the hangers so the door hangs square, then fit the floor guide.

If the floor under the doors was replaced recently, readmy closet door came off the track after new flooring instead. That is a height problem, not a missing-guide problem.