Long road to home.

[dave1949]

Dave,

I checked with the OHD company and was told even with the double track i still need 15" of clearance to accommodate the door and future opener. Plus the door would be an odd size, which of course means more money.

Opener? You plan on living large. :laughing: My tractor cave door is 9' x 16', no opener. It isn't any sort of struggle to open and close in case you wonder. Openers are worth their weight in gold on a house garage for sure. I guess it depends on how much going and coming you will be doing whether an opener for the barn/shop is needed. They are nice to have.

The opener on our house garage door is 8" tall, so to give it some ceiling clearance, it would need 10" from the ceiling down, minimum.

I measured my tractor cave door to see how that compares with the requested 15".
The floor to ceiling height is 116-1/2".
From the floor to the top of door when closed is 109-1/2". 9' door plus ~1-1/2" for the seal at the bottom of the door.
The double track drops 6" below the ceiling. That is outside the door width anyways, it doesn't limit the clearance.
The bracket that holds the shaft, springs and tracks is 10" tall, but again that is beside the door opening, not in it.
The top of that bracket is ~2" above the ceiling surface, that is what I boxed in up in the truss space, and ended the ceiling sheathing on the next to last truss.
The door when open gives 102" of clearance, I could get 3" more if the springs were adjusted to pull the door all the way back, an opener would be even easier to adjust.

So, I have a 9' tall door installed in a 9'-8 1/2" ceiling height. I did fudge a couple inches with the boxed in spring shaft above the ceiling, and my door extends a couple inches more than necessary above the opening when closed; I could never get the full 108" of open door clearance--about 105" maximum.

I think if you wanted, you could have an 11' tall door with an opener--given your 12' high walls--and have most of the door height usable.

If that was of interest, you could shop around on door manufacturers. For example Overhead Door Co. will apparently make any height door you want up to the limit for the given door model. I don't know if they charge more for an oddball size, and you may end up with one odd height panel that doesn't match the others.

Just info, useful or not.

 

[ENG18LT]

Interesting, I am going to have to look into Overhead Door. If there's an odd sized panel it won't show on a plain flat panel. That could be a good option. Thanks

 

[dave1949]

Interesting, I am going to have to look into Overhead Door. If there's an odd sized panel it won't show on a plain flat panel. That could be a good option. Thanks

You are welcome. Lots of detail to nail down when building anything it seems. The choices can drive a person nuts.

One thing I didn't mention, the height of the door header is what prevents me from getting the full 9' door clearance when it is open. The door is on a gable end, so it isn't carrying the roof, but some sort of header is inescapable. My walls are framed with 2x8 studs, the header is a built up beam made from 2x6's plus a 2x8 flat across the bottom of that beam. The total header height is 7".

 

[ENG18LT]

Spent a couple days working on some things at the farm. Got the zoning permit, was quite easy. Applied for the building permit, that one is pending further review. The inspectors were all out of office, so the secretary was going to give it to them Monday. Then I prepped the garden for next weekend when the girls go out. I did manage to get the shower valve installed. Also moved the camper to where the old cabin used to be. Nothing major to post, just a bunch of little stuff.

And of course, the obligatory pictures :drink:

 

[dstig1]

Pretty much all garage doors come in a million sizes. I am going with Clopay on mine and most models have sizes every 3", within limits. For tall doors (above 8') it seems like you need to go to their commercial lines, but they still offer every 3" in those. I suspect they are almost all made to order, so "custom" sizing shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

You can go to HD website and get clopay quote with installation price. they come in 3" incrments . install price goes up a lot after 8' high

 

[ENG18LT]

I have been looking into the taller doors, and came across an opener called a Liftmaster 3800. Does anyone out there have one or know about them? Are they any better then the "i-Drive" openers that Wayne Dalton used to sell? I had a couple of those and they were horrendous to keep working, wound up removing them after 6 months. If they are any good that would remove the need for an additional 3" above the door to accommodate the opener rail. Would definitely like to hear from you guys on this.

Thanks

 

[dave1949]

No experience with those, Lee. It would definitely remove the opener from the clearance calculation.

 

[ENG18LT]

Yes! Both permits are approved. Had to get a permit from town for "zoning". Really they just looked the set backs. $25 not bad. Then went to county for building permit. All set there too, $335 ouch. Ordered gravel for the pad, will be delivered next week.

 

[ENG18LT]

So, I bent one of the QA mechanisms on my loader this weekend. I was changing to the bucket from the forks and there was enough tension on the mechanism that when I went to unlock the forks it held one of the pins in place. Well since hydraulics are a great thing of much force I actually twisted a 1/2"x1/2" shaft in the mechanism. Quite impressive actually. :shocked: I will take pictures this weekend when I make the repairs. I was quite frustrated with myself for not making sure there was no tension on the pin before hitting the hydraulic cylinder that I didn't even consider taking pictures. I emailed my favorite dealer and the parts should come in by the weekend. Which is good as there is supposed to be 7 loads of gravel sitting there waiting to be leveled.

I did order the Prema-Column posts today for the barn. They are expected in about 2 weeks time. So the plan is to level the gravel this weekend then work on the bathroom in the house. It will be nice to have a regular shower when I start working on the barn, way better then the one in the camper (and no tank to empty). If all goes well I should have the poles up and at least some of the purlins on by the end of May. And yes, I promise plenty pictures of the build!

Can you tell I am getting excited about this? Almost like a kid on Christmas morning if you ask my wife!