Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking

   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #1  

elvi

New member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
12
Howdy;
Finishing out my polebarn.
I am installing a pair of 10 foot sliding doors.
These rails
These hangers
Will fab the doors out of C channel.

How do you suggest I seal the sides and bottom of the door?
The shop will be heated \ cooled.

Suggestions for latches?

Thanx!
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #2  
I'm doing something similar but with a roll up, I'll probably go this route.

China_brush_door_seal2009521820080.jpg
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #3  
use hard board insulation (like plywood but insulation) and spray foam / nail with plastic washers, them into the doors 2x'4 frame work

have a small little stair step, were the inside concrete is higher, and then a patch of concrete below the door that is lower than inside concrete. this helps keep rain and high winds from blowing water up under the door into the shed.

were the 2 doors come together in the center. you need a couple pipes that go down into the ground. or metal piece. were you can slide a piece of rebar or something down. to lock the doors tightly up against edge of the step (mentioned above)

some folks use say a 2x6 or 2x8 or 2x10 across very bottom of door. and keep the metal sheeting up off the bottom of the 2x??. say 2 to 4 inches. so they can use 4 wheels that have spring tensioners. to hold the door tight. 1 wheel at edge of door opening, 2 wheels in center (as close to center as possible) and 1 wheel at the other edge of door opening. across the bottom on the outside. these wheels basicly push the bottom of the door up tight against the edge of the concrete step.

some folks get a U channel. and embed it into the concrete. and door just slides through it across the bottom. but you need to come up with a way to let water / snow / ice, to easy get out of the bottom U channel.

================
thing is non of the above. really takes into the account of any sort of weather stripping. and dealing with small air cracks. that you will want to eliminate as much as possible.
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #4  
The bottom of my doors have an inverted "U". There is a "T shaped piece at the center of the door opening (below floor level) (two doors for one opening) the holds the inside edge of each door when closed. There is a track the engages the inverted "U"from the outer edge of the door and it runs along the outside wall. That keeps the door from blowing out when opened. The is an over center latch to hold the doors closed mounted on the openning post. There is a stop bolted to each openning post to prevent the door from openning too far, or sliding the wrong way when the other door is open..
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #5  
You know I have a 16' sliding door and two 10'x12 garage doors. I have used that blasted sliding door ONE time since I built the building.

I ended up nailing a 2x2 weather strip around the sides and bottom, covered the entire opening with plastic. It's a big energy waste and I surely wish I hadn't installed it.

I keep it latched tight with turnbuckles.
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking
  • Thread Starter
#6  
I need the sliding doors for vehicle access; but thinking about embedding a single standard swing door in one.

Great feedback. I am picking up the steel today.
3x1.5 channel for tghe frame, 20Ga steel for the skin and bat\foam insulation to finish it out
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #7  
If you have snow or ice, dont even consider a slider! A role up door is not much better, over head doors seal up the best. If door opening and ceiling height will not alow overhead door, there are new hydralic lift doors, one peice door. Also 2 peice bifold, cable opperated doors, like on aircraft hangers would work.
They do make overhead doors for low clearance ceilings, they have dual thacks, and require less overhead space.

Dave
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #8  
Midland door company, has low head room tracks that require 7" ceiling clearance. also if you require a wider door they have a dual door setup with a split post that swings up. See vidio on ther wed sight.

Dave
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #9  
Check out the latch at btdconcepts.com. It lets you lock and unlock from inside or outside.
 
   / Pole barn, sliding door. Sealing and locking #10  
I have side sliding doors. Similar to above, a center T for the doors meeting in the middle. Where the doors meet, they have a square edge trim on one side, and a C track on the other. Available from any of the siding/trim manufacturers. I hope the C channel you bought is of the door frame/trim type. My shop doors use gluelam horizontal (think girts) supports and steel C channel for the perimeter (definitely formed sheet metal, not extruded steel; 12' tall). The horse barn doors (under 8' tall) are 2x6 framed. Both use generic barn sheet metal and trim. The horse barn doors are a PITA (they tend to warp).

The horse barn uses wheels along the outer edge of the doors. The shop uses the inverted T and track for the outer edge (out of the way of the pathway into the barn; the outside door ends are mounted in this). The shop is much sturdier. The shop uses a large inverted metal V on both doors at the center, with a hog ring (as it looks un-used) as a latch (slides over the V's and tightens up as you push it down). Works great, very easy to lock (cable works).

Where I have a problem is snow blowing past the door on the windward side. Some solutions I have had success with, and the problems with them:

-Horse barn: I used the plastic strips (with the molded on lath) used on generic house garage doors for the top. They work ok, but tore a bit on the primary door that gets opened. Fairly inexpensive. They are too hard to put real tight against the door. I added extension strips to the tops of the door frames (inside). I cut up some scrap panel pieces we had and screwed them to the existing door; looks ok, as it matches the door panels. I don't think the trim over the door hanger bar was sized large enough (to cover the doors enough -- the snow blows over it into the barn). I also used the trim on the sides (on the inside). I also made some 2x6 slid in pieces for the bottoms of the windward doors (we don't use these doors daily or when there is any weather). I laid them into the slot between the floor (as suggested above, it is above the bottom of the doors, which are above the outside ramps/aprons). On the bottoms of the boards, I nailed soft rubber door bottoms for a wood type overhead garage door. The fit snugly with the rubber. I screwed strips of OSB on top of the 2x6, offset so they hang over the door bottoms and slide over pins I installed on the door bottoms (2 on each door). I put old cabinet handles on top them to pull them off. The pins are lag bolts I put in and cut the heads off. This way they fit tightly, have an overlapping seal on top, and a rubber seal on the bottom (if needed, it should be offset to seal between the concrete and wood). The coup de gras is the over center latches on the door ends. That clamps the doors to the seals as much as I could. They also are useful to open the doors part way -- they hook into a cross support (2x) on the door, so it just takes drilling holes as needed.

This works ok. I still get leaks around the sides. This is because the side frames of the doors don't have much overlap with the seals and the seals don't have enough flexibility to conform to the doors when I really need them (when it's cold). Still, it works ok. No hay near the door opening anyhow (just in case, especially in the summer and a squall were to blow in with the doors open). My wish: I would add to the inside of the door frame and nail some of the soft rubber wood garage door bottom to the door side (and put some edging inside the door frame) to increase the contact area -- but the door opening is too small as it is.

My shop: as before, doors are a good and stable start. The sides of the doors have a strip of the wood-garage-door bottom seal nailed to it. I need to go over this and nail/screw some lath over it, as it is held with roofing nails and they sometimes pull loose (and not as even a contact strip as the rubber can move where not nailed tightly). I also need to follow up and make door bottom skirts (see my 2x6 creation above) and install the over center latches I bought for this a few years ago. I am glad the doors were made with heavy sheet metal trim (straight) and the horizontal gluelams (also straight, nailable and are a bit less cold). Almost forgot, there are J hooks (maybe a better description is interlocking hooks) along the outside edges when the doors are closed. Hmm, maybe I should look at fitting these on the horse barn. Took me a lot of years to put that thought together. Anyhow, the hooks are generic trim for the door opening (barn side) trim the hook into the trim on the door edge. Nothing but metal, so not weather tight.

I bought a couple of strips of the

Good luck with deciding what works for you.
 
 
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