garage door headroom challenge for lean-to

[s219]

I am looking to add an enclosed lean-to onto an eave wall of my barn to park a car in. Been grappling with some decisions and tradeoffs and feel like I need TBN input.

In order to make this project "sane" and keep it to a short timeline with minimal disruption to the main barn, I want to have the new lean-to tuck under an existing eave and not disrupt the current roof or make my framing complicated. I have 10' of clearance under the eave. I want to make the lean-to 12' or 14' wide. Ideally I want a 9x7 garage door centered on the gable end, but do the math with minimal 2:12 or 3:12 roof pitches and framing (2x8 or 2x10 rafters depending on pitch and width) and there just isn't enough interior height to get a 7' tall garage door in there with the track and hardware even if I go with a low-headroom setup.

I've looked at this every which way and a 9x7 garage door just doesn't look doable unless I go with an even shallower roof pitch and I think that's a bad idea for shedding water and handling snow in the winter. Only other recourse is make custom swing-out doors, which is what I did on my other lean-to (picture below). Those work fine for day to day use of the barn, but clearly won't be as efficient as a garage door with power opener when it comes to pulling in with a car.

Anybody think of a better solution? I have also considered making a totally new structure that doesn't have to tie into the barn, but that has it's own set of disadvantages. I like the lean-to idea because they go up quick, cost is minimal, and I can easily tap into electrical power from the barn for lights, door opener, etc.

thanks,
219

---------------------------------------------------------
Picture: existing lean-to on rear gable end of barn.
3:12 Roof pitch. 12' wide.
8' wide door opening.
Doors opening height ranges from 7' to 9'.

 

[mrmikey]

What about a roll up door, this is the first pic I had seen doing a search, no idea about the brand: Overhead & Commercial Roll-Up Garage Doors in Dallas, Fort Worth Frisco ........Mike

 

[/pine]

You don't say by how much the too tight of fit is...is it headroom after the fact that is the issue?
Why not a modified or custom overhead door?

FWIW...the new firehouse they recently built here has a new type of bay doors that are not overhead doors but are similar to bi-fold doors...they open very fast...!

 

[Diggin It]

What happens if you go to 2x4s and beef up the roof system, sort of half-truss? Does that yield the clearance?

Second thought would be to alter the stock door height if possible.

 

[Gator6x4]

P

I am looking to add an enclosed lean-to onto an eave wall of my barn to park a car in. Been grappling with some decisions and tradeoffs and feel like I need TBN input.

In order to make this project "sane" and keep it to a short timeline with minimal disruption to the main barn, I want to have the new lean-to tuck under an existing eave and not disrupt the current roof or make my framing complicated. I have 10' of clearance under the eave. I want to make the lean-to 12' or 14' wide. Ideally I want a 9x7 garage door centered on the gable end, but do the math with minimal 2:12 or 3:12 roof pitches and framing (2x8 or 2x10 rafters depending on pitch and width) and there just isn't enough interior height to get a 7' tall garage door in there with the track and hardware even if I go with a low-headroom setup.

I've looked at this every which way and a 9x7 garage door just doesn't look doable unless I go with an even shallower roof pitch and I think that's a bad idea for shedding water and handling snow in the winter. Only other recourse is make custom swing-out doors, which is what I did on my other lean-to (picture below). Those work fine for day to day use of the barn, but clearly won't be as efficient as a garage door with power opener when it comes to pulling in with a car.

Anybody think of a better solution? I have also considered making a totally new structure that doesn't have to tie into the barn, but that has it's own set of disadvantages. I like the lean-to idea because they go up quick, cost is minimal, and I can easily tap into electrical power from the barn for lights, door opener, etc.

thanks,
219

---------------------------------------------------------
Picture: existing lean-to on rear gable end of barn.
3:12 Roof pitch. 12' wide.
8' wide door opening.
Doors opening height ranges from 7' to 9'.

View attachment 612537

Look at some of the mundane to fancy bi fold garage doors offered today.

bifold garage door - Google Search

 

[Lnk]

Any way to lower the floor to give you the headroom? Doesn't say whether there is an existing concrete floor or not. A picture of the area would help if you have one.

Lnk

 

[ray66v]

Reverse gable?

 

[EddieWalker]

I would abandon that lean-to idea and extend the existing roof line instead.

 

[not2old]

How about putting in a shorter door? How much clearance do you need for your car? Not many cars are over six feet in height. On the other hand I managed to put in a door and operator with four or five inches of clearance to the ceiling. You will need to use some ingenuity and do some light welding. When my door opened, it had about 1/4 inch clearance to the ceiling and then sloped down to provide more clearance. The bar and sprocket was attached to the ceiling rather than the header and the pull rod was five or six feet long. Worked fine for the few years I lived there.

 

[s219]

What about a roll up door, this is the first pic I had seen doing a search, no idea about the brand: Overhead & Commercial Roll-Up Garage Doors in Dallas, Fort Worth Frisco ........Mike

I looked into those, and they are good when there isn't a lot of backroom, or you don't want tracks/door/etc overhead, but they don't save much headroom (if any). There were a couple that saved a couple inches but not enough to matter.

 

[s219]

You don't say by how much the too tight of fit is...is it headroom after the fact that is the issue?
Why not a modified or custom overhead door?

FWIW...the new firehouse they recently built here has a new type of bay doors that are not overhead doors but are similar to bi-fold doors...they open very fast...!

P

Look at some of the mundane to fancy bi fold garage doors offered today.

bifold garage door - Google Search

Bifold is an interesting idea -- I will look into that. I could probably build doors myself but I wonder about rigging up an automatic opener. Would take some sort of linear actuator on the top I imagine. Could also maybe do it with cables and springs.

 

[s219]

Any way to lower the floor to give you the headroom? Doesn't say whether there is an existing concrete floor or not. A picture of the area would help if you have one.

Lnk

I am getting the 10' clearance assuming I bring the floor of the lean to up to grade so that I don't have issues with water coming in. I would have preferred to go a couple inches above that to really be safe.

 

[s219]

Reverse gable?

Explain more!

 

[jaxs]

There's places for lean-tos,gable end isn't one of them. The added material and labor to extend existing roof will be more than offset by accomindating the door, overhead storage space and better appearance.

 

[s219]

I would abandon that lean-to idea and extend the existing roof line instead.

I looked at that, see attached sketch -- would have run 2x8 rafters up into the barn eaves next to existing truss tails. Then tied them to the existing header with rafter hanger brackets. Had all the details worked out and it looked doable with minimal disruption, but in the end it only bought me about 3-4" of extra clearance! Not enough to really help to make it worth the trouble.

The only way I can truly get as much vertical clearance as I want would be to tie the lean-to roof into the main roof up above the eaves -- the lean-to roof would end up coming off the main roof like a shed dormer. But that gets complicated as I'd need to work out the framing so that the new rafter loads transfer down onto the existing trusses and the wall header in a reasonable way. Generally you can't put a point load on a truss like those rafters would cause without reinforcing the truss.

 

[s219]

How about putting in a shorter door? How much clearance do you need for your car? Not many cars are over six feet in height. On the other hand I managed to put in a door and operator with four or five inches of clearance to the ceiling. You will need to use some ingenuity and do some light welding. When my door opened, it had about 1/4 inch clearance to the ceiling and then sloped down to provide more clearance. The bar and sprocket was attached to the ceiling rather than the header and the pull rod was five or six feet long. Worked fine for the few years I lived there.

What happens if you go to 2x4s and beef up the roof system, sort of half-truss? Does that yield the clearance?

Second thought would be to alter the stock door height if possible.

I could go to a 6' tall door at greater expense (I guess it's not standard like 7') but long term I see that as being a bad idea since I could never get a truck in there, or even my UTV. I really would like this space to be versatile for future uses. Another option could be taking a 7' door and remove about 6" from one of the sections to get the overall height down, then combine that with a low headroom kit (which saves 6-8" depending on who you believe).

 

[s219]

There's places for lean-tos,gable end isn't one of them. The added material and labor to extend existing roof will be more than offset by accomindating the door, overhead storage space and better appearance.

This new lean-to needs to go on one of the eave walls of the barn. That previous one I did went on the rear gable wall, and due to the slope of the ground, I gained ~16" extra vertical by terracing the lean to down below the barn floor (look in the photo and you'll see the extra skirt boards on the back of the barn). That was somewhat of a unique situation I think, otherwise I agree with you about extending that gable end roof.

 

[s219]

I think I am in love with this idea, and it seems to use standard barn door track hardware for the top support. I would do just one-half of what this guy shows for my 9x7 opening. Now how to set this up with an automatic opener....

 

[jaxs]

This new lean-to needs to go on one of the eave walls of the barn. That previous one I did went on the rear gable wall, and due to the slope of the ground, I gained ~16" extra vertical by terracing the lean to down below the barn floor (look in the photo and you'll see the extra skirt boards on the back of the barn). That was somewhat of a unique situation I think, otherwise I agree with you about extending that gable end roof.

Ok,I got it. You actually said that in original post but I had a brain fart. I see lots of 30'-40' rv shelters with 1:12 and less shed that must be working. There's no snow here but I don't figure 3:12 would handle much snow either. Will guttering present roof and tucking new 1:12 shed underneath buy enough headroom ?

I think I am in love with this idea, and it seems to use standard barn door track hardware for the top support. I would do just one-half of what this guy shows for my 9x7 opening. Now how to set this up with an automatic opener....

How bout a regular gate opener instead of door opener?

 

[Gator6x4]

I think I am in love with this idea, and it seems to use standard barn door track hardware for the top support. I would do just one-half of what this guy shows for my 9x7 opening. Now how to set this up with an automatic opener....

se

Use one of these. https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Opener-Split-Sliding-opening/dp/B00KDQR8CY