Barn doors

[Robert_in_NY]

Depending on what you are filling a lot of times the fill dirt that road crews are dumping is not the best for your application. If you want a good base for a barn you want a gravel or crushed stone. Fill dirt, the guys start backing up trucks and dumping. Sometimes you get great stuff, other times you get muck, concrete chunks, asphalt and other garbage you might not want. If you just want to fill a drop off on your land it is fine but for around a barn I would rather buy my fill then worry about finding a steel stake was in one of the loads and found its way into my tire.

 

[JD3130]

Just depends on who you talk to and how you approach them. Spend a few minutes getting to know them, and you could be surprised. Got quite a bit of my drive did when they had a 1/2 load of pavement left on the truck. Cost me a couple pitchers of ice tea and some cookies. They did it on their lunch break! I let them park their equipment on my ranch when they work out this way, and I keep an eye on it.
It all works out!!!

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I do know a lot of the truckers, the problem is that when they are being loaded they are at the mercy of the guys loading them. Even then you still don't know what they might dig up. If they are working on a site where there was a lot of junk or an old factory I would not take the fill. If they were working on rebuilding a road and went down to rebuild the base layer then I would take it. You have to know what to ask for and even then you have to still be careful.

So don't take me wrong, we get fill quite regularly from towns and construction outfits but we use it to fill large voids on our property. When we did our barn and driveway we bought the proper material.

 

[cowboydoc]

They have standard sizes in every foot in width and length. You can get special sizes made but more $$$.

 

[PILOON]

What I did---
Needed 3 sets of 12'high X12" wide doors for a 60 X 240 ft riding arena.

I had a truss factory make me 6 each (square) trusses of 6"6" wide by 12' high.
I had the top and bottom done with 2x6's and the balance in 2x3 and 2x4's.

This made for a very strong frame (due to the truss plates) that I simply covered with the same metal siding used on the structure.
I then (with nail gun) attached 1/4 ply for the inside skins.
The result was a very sturdy and inexpensive set of doors.

All was hung with standard stanley tracks.
If desired styrofoam pannels can be inserted for insulation as well.
At the time (10 yrs back) they charged me about $40 for each 'truss' frame.
Guess that would be about$80 today! Still very econimical way to go.

 

[JimR]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( Willy,
Jim,
Like that barn, is that a window above the door? )</font>

Thanks, Yes that is a window over the door. I have the window in my heated garage as I am working on it. I just put 16 panes of old glass into it. The window is 12 feet long.

 

[JimR]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">(
JimR- Your doors are on the inside of your barn aren't they. If I'm remembering correctly, you are the guy refurbishing your existing barn... mortise and tennon joints on some of the framing... nice job! I would sure like to talk you into some pics of your top and bottom tracks on your door. Placing my doors on the inside may solve the wind problem. I'm thinking that a 3x3x1/4 angle with headed studs set in the concrete so that both legs are at a 45 degree angle to the floor and the heel is pointed up with a small wheel with no tire to run on it may make a good bottom track. Do any of you guys that have bad experience with track doors have them set on the inside rather than the outside of the building? )</font>

Yes, I am restoring this old barn. My doors are inside mounted. I will snap some pictures of the track and wheels for you today if I can. My doors do not requre an upper track. I have a board that I routered out that is fastened to the beam above the door. It hangs over the doors to hold them in place.

 

[JimR]

Here is a picture of my barn door wheels and track.

 

[JimR]

Here is a picture of the two routered oak boards that hold the top of the doors in place. I used two 6 footers so I can drop either door if neccessary to repair or whatever.

 

[willydillard]

Thanks JimR for sending the pictures. I think that I've found the way to hang my door. Thanks also to all of you for responding.