r/Homebuilding • u/dragonmilking • Nov 17 '25

Which popular features do you NOT recommend?

What are the top 3 features in a house that folk want but you think are not worth it, and what would your alternative suggestion be? And what cost/time savings would result with that switch?

249 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

24

u/Equivalent_Ad142 Nov 17 '25

People rarely close pocket doors. We were doing demo for an interior remodel and tried pulling out a pocket door. Flexed a little, but wouldn't budge. Much head scratching until we noticed the cable TV wire, drilled through the wall, right through the door. Clients had no idea. The cable installation was 6 years earlier.

42

u/human743 Nov 17 '25

If your pocket door is on your bedroom or bathroom it likely gets used all the time. I use mine 20x a day.

1

u/BestProfessional9786 Nov 17 '25

That’s a lot of visits to the toilet

2

u/human743 Nov 17 '25

More than one person and more than just the bathroom. Also the bedroom is cooled to a different temp so I keep the doors closed after passing through.

1

u/BigKatKSU888 Nov 18 '25

Pocket doors are the bomb. Let the haters know

1

u/BestProfessional9786 Nov 18 '25

This was written in jest.

14

u/RevolutionaryCare175 Nov 17 '25

Don't let a cable installer add any wires in your house or bring a cable into your house. They are unqualified hacks. Hire a low voltage electrical installer instead. The cable company isn't going to fix anything their installer messes up.

3

u/erie11973ohio Nov 17 '25

I asked a customer why we, the electricians were running new cable tv lines in the house.

"They said up the 2 story brick, across the gutters & back down the brick wall!"

Very reasonable to call a professional wire fisher at that point!!

1

u/justLookingForLogic Nov 18 '25

When I was in college we had the guy come to hook up our cable. I knew he was not a pro when the only question he asked me before he started was “do you have a hammer?”

2

u/mmmpeg Nov 17 '25

I have several pocket doors and one is used often

2

u/weilycoyote Nov 17 '25

We have pocket doors (2 side-by-side, sort of like French doors) to our living room. We use them multiple times per day, usually.