Securing the bottom of a pair of sliding barn doors?

tlbuser · Jun 22, 2010

Since your doors are hung from the roller mechanism, you could cut a slit in the slab. Then bolt a piece of flat steel to the back of the door that rides in the "groove". Since it would only be ~1/4" wide, no trip hazards either.

dcyrilc · Jun 22, 2010

tlbuser said:
Since your doors are hung from the roller mechanism, you could cut a slit in the slab. Then bolt a piece of flat steel to the back of the door that rides in the "groove". Since it would only be ~1/4" wide, no trip hazards either.

I haven't looked close at his pix, but I'm guessing that the doors actually hang just outside the slab. I would expect that the framing is even with the edge of the slab. That would be pretty normal for construction. Even so, I imagine we're giving him bits to chew on. Having followed his barn thread, it's obvious the he is very creative and talented.

jcaron2 · Jun 22, 2010

tlbuser said:
Since your doors are hung from the roller mechanism, you could cut a slit in the slab. Then bolt a piece of flat steel to the back of the door that rides in the "groove". Since it would only be ~1/4" wide, no trip hazards either.

That's a really good idea - and even easier in my particular case. My slab ends inline with the edge of the posts, but the door hangs 2 1/8" out from there (the thickness of the T1-11 plus a 2x8 header onto which the roller track is bolted), so I need to fill that space at the bottom anyway (I already filled the space on the side). I was planning on ripping a PT 4x4 post down to 2" and bolting that onto the concrete. If I just cut a rabbet along the inner edge, I can make a groove for a steel tab to slide in. Hopefully I can just cut some saw kerfs along the back every foot or so to let the water drain out of the groove.

Thanks for the idea!!

tlbuser · Jun 23, 2010

Your welcome.

jcaron2 · Oct 19, 2010

Now that four months have passed, I figured I should probably post an update to this thread.

I did pretty much just what I said I was going to do two posts back (thanks for all the helpful suggestions getting me to that point). After three months of use, I have to say I'm perfectly happy with how it came out.

For the metal brackets that ride in the track I used standard Simpson deck joist ties from HD or Lowes. I cut one side short and bent the edges slightly outward. Couldn't be simpler.

Here are some pictures.