How to Hang a 450-Pound Barn Door By Yourself

[jcaron2]

I recently finished building the doors for my horse barn and was faced with the task of hanging them without help from anyone but my tractor.

There are four main doors (a pair for each end of the barn), each measuring 6'x10'x3" and weighing around 450 lbs, along with two side doors into the wash rack which measure 9'8"x4'8"x3" and weigh around 350 lbs apiece.

If I had superhuman strength or several helpers, I'd simply lift each door up to the end of the track, then slide it sideways into the track. With my tractor I could accomplish the lifting part by strapping the door to the bucket, but I would then have no means of sliding it sideways. What to do?

I had to give it some thought, but the solution was fairly simple:

Step 1: Mount the rails on the outside of the barn.

Step 2: Roll/slide/build in place or otherwise manhandle the door over to the door opening.

Step 3: Stand the door up on end and lean it against the tractor bucket.

Step 4: Strap the door to the bucket, lift it, and tilt it toward.

Step 5: De-mount the rail from the outside of the barn, install the door slider hardware onto the door, and slide the rail onto the top of the door.

Step 6: Position the entire door/rail assembly in place with the tractor.

Step 7: Remount the rail onto the barn using the same bolt holes as before. Remove the straps and back the tractor away.

There you have it!

 

[wasabi]

nicely done...

 

[woodlandfarms]

Uhmmmmmm Ok..... You really win... There is no way my tractor would not leak down to begin with, second, there is now way I could realign the door rail perfect enough to get the holes to line up.

Frankly, I am very impressed.

Where did you get your door hardware BTW?

 

[JB4310]

Another great use of a tractor, 2 guys would of really struggled with that thing.

Beautiful looking building.

.

 

[theboman]

He cheated...the dog was helping thru use of a harness that he kept outta site of the camera to try to impress us.

Great job and nice barn!

 

[Ezlivn]

12pack or 30pack? Your dog had it all under control anyway!! Nice job!

 

[jcaron2]

Uhmmmmmm Ok..... You really win... There is no way my tractor would not leak down to begin with, second, there is now way I could realign the door rail perfect enough to get the holes to line up.

Frankly, I am very impressed.

Where did you get your door hardware BTW?

Keep in mind that the rail is free to move left and right by several feet, so lining it up in that direction is trivial. There's maybe an inch of play with the height since the inside of the rails is about an inch larger than the diameter of the roller wheels. The biggest challenge is getting the door plumb, so that the rail will be level and will line up with the holes all the way accross. At first I tried whacking the door with a sledge hammer to knock it plumb. Then I realized I could just back up a few feet, put down a scrap board or two in front of whichever rear tire had to come up, and just drive up onto it. Add in the extra inch of slop and it's really not too hard. It does help that my loader doesn't leak down though! That would really make it a challenge.

I bought the hardware at Tractor Supply. Just their standard National line. It seems to work pretty well, but TSC doesn't seem to stock any of the extras like bottom guide rails or flashing kits, so I'll need to find those elsewhere I guess.

 

[Lloyd_E]

I think he did it all with Photoshop!!!!

Very impressive... been there.

Lloyd

 

[radioman]

nice! you got er done!

 

[GPintheMitten]

Great use of the equipment and great looking doors and barn.

I'll say those doors are heavy. The doors I built years ago were lighter BUT, I nearly killed myself putting them up with no help and no loader. Yuk.

I put the rail up, positioned the door next to the rail with boards under it and got the trolleys close to going in, had the door angling down hill away from the rail. Then climbed a ladder and "persuaded" the trolley in a little bit. Then got down the ladder and tried to lift the opposite corner to get the trolley to slide in. But most of the time, it slid out. After about a half dozen tries, I might get lucky and get one trolley in the rail. Then it pretty easy from there with the rail holding up about half the weight.

I'm sure my back would be in better shape today if I had bought a front end loader a long long time ago. Built 2 horse barns and managed my "kids" horse farm for 2 decades without a loader. Silly me.

For those guys out there saying they don't have any use for a loader. You really really do.

 

[RedDirt]

Creative use of the tractor and great looking barn too. Always nice to see ingenuity at work. Good job!

 

[sodamo]

Outstanding. I'm always looking for creative 1 man solutions and have come to love my tractor as helper.

 

[SpringHollow]

Hi Carl,

The needle valves i have installed on the lift and tilt circuits allow me to "lock" them preventing any leak down.

Ken

 

[weldingisfun]

Great job and good use of your head and tractor.
TSC never seems to have all of the parts needed to finish a job. At least the one near me doesn't.
Great looking barn!

 

[SARG]

What do you build over the gable end door to protect the door ledger board from rotting out over time ?

 

[jcaron2]

What do you build over the gable end door to protect the door ledger board from rotting out over time ?

Nothing yet, but my plan is to build a small pentroof above the ledger boards that extends down over the front of the track. Hopefully, that should also keep rain from getting in behind the door at the top and running down the inside.

I'm open to ideas if anyone has a better one.

Josh

 

[SARG]

I'll be interested in your solution. Up here in the Northeast the T-11 siding has fallen out of favor because it is just so difficult to seal up and most of the buildings I've seen constructed with it usually end up getting a secondary siding after a couple years.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Josh,

Nice looking barn! I read your building thread with much interest. I am planning to start mine as soon as I sale my fifth wheel camper.

David

 

[mojoinco]

Nice looking doors. My wife wacked a door on her horse barn. She bent a rail, so off came a door (two piece rail). In this case, the siding is metal (about all you see around here), so changing out a warped 2 x 6 was easy, as was rail removal/straighten/reinstall).

I have found that the metal flashing cover on the horse barn doesn't hang down far enough. Particularly tough on the prevailing wind side (snow in winter, thunder storms in summer). The flashing on my shop (similar construction, better outfit: Lester buildings) is much better, hangs lower. Adjustment of the trolleys is then done on the inside.

I have used a couple of things to make the horse barn better (I should probably call the local Lester people and see if the flashing is the secret, or something else detail wise). But nothing has made it perfect. I added a piece of flashing to the door face to stick under the rail flashing. Better, but snow still gets in. Then I installed a side strip for a roll up door on the bottom of the header (conventional house/garage door side strip). Better, not perfect, but rain is not an issue any longer (at least not enough that I remember any issues from last summer).

I like the look of the wood siding, but it is a lot more work to maintain. Nice job!

 

[gno242]

NICE JOB