Barn door question....

[Henro]

Hi,

I am trying to decide on what to do for doors on my shed.

One opening is about 13.5 feet clear, and the other is about 11.5 feet clear. The total width to be covered including a center post is about 25 feet.

I am pretty sure I want to go with sliding doors. Double track, bypassing setup.

My GUESS is that regular hinged doors would be a challenge, since there would be two that were 7' wide each and two 6' wide. The height of the opening is 8 feet.

Am I on track with this sliding door idea? Is there an alternative I am missing? The only source of hardware I know of is either TSC or Agway...

Click here to see a photo of where the doors will go /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Grateful for any pointers, suggestions or advice.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> I am pretty sure I want to go with sliding doors. Double track, bypassing setup.
</font>
The only issue with the bypass setup is you will not be able to use the full width of the opening, right?

Any way of doing an overhead door?

 

[Henro]

Mike,

Yes, with the by pass setup I would only be able to have only one side open at a time...I don't think that is an issue, but...

I guess I could maybe use overhead doors...but would have to use them on both sides if I did. I sort of wrote them off as an option because I was thinking that I might want to hang something inside the shed and they would make that impossible to do since they require a footprint of ceiling space to be open...unless it was some kind of roll up door...but that sounds to exotic and probably expensive.

 

[MikePA]

What about (maybe this is what you were talking about) just two sliding bypass doors, each the same width, to cover the entire width of both openings? That way you would have full width access to each opening, just not both at the same time?

 

[cowboydoc]

I'd say get the rollup doors. Yes they are going to be double the price but you'll forget about that price long after the hassle of opening one door and then the other, etc. With the two rollup doors you've got full access to both sides at anytime. The rollup doors are very nice, convenient, and easy to use.

 

[rmorgan]

Bill--

Looks like a cool building. What's the structure inside the shed on the right-hand side? How do you like your KK box blade? I just got one and am still figuring out how to use it wisely.

Seems like a bit of a situation on the doors. Having had hinged barn doors myself, you definitely IMO don't want them--you have to figure out how to keep them open; you have to keep the sweep clear; they can blow shut (think of giant rigid sails /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif); they put massive stresses on the hinges, which in turn put massive stresses on the building itself; etc.

Lots of people have overhead roll doors on a barn, of course, but it sure is nice to be able to hang stuff from the rafters, and, well, they don't look like as much like a barn. They also have exposed hardware which can get whacked. And they block ceiling lights (of which you have an excellent number /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif) from illuminating the area under them when they are open. On the other hand they would solve your problem, and having a garage door opener mounted to your ROPS would be cool.

A common approach to doorways on the corner of a building is to extend the header beam out to the side so that one door can slide clear of the building, but that's obviously not happening here. Single sliding doors 11' and 13' wide would be very heavy, if they're made of wood. We have split sliders on a 12' opening, and they are manageable but at the upper limit for my wife. Sliders also get gravel, grit, clods, etc. stuck under them, which can grind them to a halt; doubling the weight from what we have would be pretty unweildy when that happens. I assume, but don't know, that steel sliding doors would be a way to go to lower the weight.

Unless I'm missing something, though, the bigger problem seems to be that you could never have your wider opening clear because the 13' door could only slide 11'6". One possibility would be to figure out a way to extend the track the necessary 18" to the right; that's might be a short enough distance that you could somehow extend your beam to supply enough support. Another possibility would be to put a man door in the 13' opening, if you don't need an opening that wide, thus ending up with, say, a 10' opening and a 30" man door; we use the man door in our barn a lot, and I can't tell from the picture if you already have one or not. You would then need to have the 11' slider slide in front of the man door, of course, but that seems doable.

Interesting challenge you have there!!

 

[rockinmywaypa]

Hi I am a brand new member and this is my first reply. Henro, Beauty shed. Exactly what I'd love to have. How much snow do you have to contend with? Would you have to shovel out the doors in order to clean the driveway? Have you seen bifold doors? The ones that hinge horizontally at the top header and also across the middle.To open you use a small winch to pull up the bottom as the middle folds out away from the frame. A number of companies sell them or you could probably build them yourself using square tube for the frames and steel sheeting.You also need a track to keep the bottom travelling in line with the doorway.

 

[rtimgray]

I would build two sets of swinging doors. In the last few years, we've put up a total of about 9 sets on various barns, built from scratch. The largest went on my Dad's barn shed, and they were 9' wide and 12' tall (Shed was 20' wide and we set posts to make the opening 18', so two 9' doors).

We usually just make the frame out of 2x4 stock (2x6 on the biggest ones), sometimes treated if you think its needed, angling the corner cuts and installing steel mending plates with lots of 1" screws at the junctions. Then we build a fake frame in the doorway opening and set the door frames up and get them plumb and level. Then we install the hinges, at least three per door and sometimes four. Don't skimp on the hinges: get the big, beefy ones and use the proper size and length of screws to attach them to the posts and door frame. After the doors are in place, we skin them with corrugated metal, usually staring in the middle and making the corrugations overlap where the doors meet, for a relatively weathertight seal.

That would be what I would do.

If that sounds too complicated, I would second the idea of using overhead doors. Yes, you would lose a little head room and they would cost a little more at the outset, but you'd be happy with them in the long run.

I think the cost of swinging doors versus sliding doors would be about a wash. The framing and skinning costs would be very close, and the hinges/hardware would probably cost about the same as the track/rollers.

Good luck

 

[Justaplain]

Farm Tek for double hangers, you use box track, the same as single. Just finished a pair.

As I understand it a roll up over head door is not the same cat as a std. slide up overhead. The roll up does just that, rolls up on the outside of the building on a roller in a box. Nothing on the ceiling inside.
If you ahve snow or ice---NO swinging doors! bcs

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> If you have snow or ice---NO swinging doors! </font>
Amen! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Our garage has swinging doors and it is a pain to have to shovel in front of the doors just to get the tractor out! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif