Shed Door

[snowman]

Can anyone suggest the best wood to use for a shed door?

I built an 8'x8' shed from scratch, and will put in a 6x6 single door.

I'd like to keep it as light as possible, yet have it be durable from a weather standpoint.

I was looking at the various wood at Home Depot yesterday, and the lightest seems to be Pine. However, I'm worried that that, even through I'm going to paint it, it would deteriorate (and warp) over time due to sun, rain, snow, etc.

I've looked on the internet for shed information, and they don't really talk about the material from what I could find.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Steveng]

If it has to be light and weather proof, I'd check out red cedar. Only problem is that it might not be as strong and is VERY easily damaged. You could use a strong type of wood to make the frame and put cedar boards on it. My windows and front door are made of it. Of course, there are many different types of wood and I'm sure there are TBN owners with a lot more experience than me.

 

[rancar]

Unfortunately, the only choice you have if shopping at Home Depot or a lumber yard is pine. I've made shed doors and the only choice I had was to go with pine. I just made a sliding door for the rear of my barn and I used 1"x6" pressure treated pine boards. This should prevent rot and warping. You would have to treat it though with an oil based paint or stain if you want a look other than natural. An ideal choice would be tongue and groove boards of hickory....these are very difficult to find.

Bob

 

[JIMCT]

I recently had to solve the same problem - 2 - 3' X 6'6" sliders for a 12 X 16 shed. One solution I almost did was glueing two sheets of 1/2" T111 (with 8" o.c. verticals) back to back and dressing it up with an "X" frame on the outside of 3/4" pine. I think this would have worked out fine - but I found some prefinished exterior pine doors with a suitable "barn" look and removable sashes/screens.

 

[DAP]

Jim, I'm looking at replacing some garage doors on an old post and beam barn with some real barn doors. What did you find, and where? Any photos? At present, I am probably going to make them but if I can find some suitable, I might go that route.

Thanx.

 

[JIMCT]

Doug

I did not find barn doors - and believe me I looked. All the barn doors around here are built up from pine T & G 3/4" or more thick and 8" wide with a one or two other frame layers for a total thickness of around 2". All the 3/4" T & G I saw at Home Depot and elsewhere was actually 5/8" and wavey with knots.

I ended up ordering ordering doors at Home Depot from Easy Change?. These only come 6'7" high and up to 36" wide - Generally too small for a barn. They are 1 1/8" thick and one style has an "X" pattern on the bottom with a sash on top.

Jim

 

[snowman]

Thanks....they had 4'x8' sheets of Cedar "product" that cost about $50 per sheet. It had a nice look to it, but I wasn't sure if it would last too long outside. It seemed like something like that would be very prone to warping, even if I did have a frame around it.

I considered using cedar, but it seemed expensive. I wasn't sure if there was some "standard" wood out there that was best.

 

[snowman]

Thanks.

If you've used Pine and haven't had any problems, that's what I'll end up doing. It seems light enough, but I just wasn't sure if it was good exterior wood. I'll build a frame around it.

I don't need it to be too weatherproof. I'll just caulk any seams.

The primary motiviation for the shed was to get my tiller out of the garage, and to store my MMM during the winter. I can also stick alot of other stuff in there now that's taking up space in the garage.

 

[Ozarker]

If you are speaking of the stuff used as siding, I have a shed door made of that and it has been in place for 15 years. No warping.

 

[Youare]

I made to doors to close off a walk in basement opening that is 7 feet wide. I used a sheet of 1/2"plywood with rough sawed pine on the exterior to give it a barn door look. The doors have been up for over 25 years and no warping or problems with the weather.

I made a regular door 36" wide the same way with no problems.

Randy

 

[snowman]

The Pine would be the door itself. Basically, I would take six 12"x1"x6' Pine boards side by side, nail them all together with three 1x4x6 (or so) boards lengthwise, maybe add some time for looks, and that would be my door that I would hang.

My concern was, in looking over the pine board, and without much knowledge, that the pine may be too susceptable to absorbing moisture or breaking down in sun and wind (the door on my shed will have sun exposure 100% during the day and is facing westerly, which is where most of our wind/rain/snow/sleet comes from).

However, it appears that pine is perfectly acceptable for this use and so that is what I'll use. Seems light enough too, which was also a large concern.

 

[rancar]

snowman,

I've made doors exactly as you describe. I have found that they don't last long...about 10-12 years or so before they start to deteriorate and rot due to impact of rain and wind. I have started to replace these doors with pressure treated pine boards as I mentioned in previous post. I would highly recommend going with pressure treated rather than common pine.

Bob

 

[snowman]

Bob;

Thanks - I'll look for the PT pine at Home Depot this morning.

I will probably paint the entire shed (it stands out now; I figure that painting it a dark green will let it blend into the background a bit better). If I went with common pine, I assume that painting it will help prolong its life.

 

[Ozarker]

Mine is in the open and facing west as well. Threat whatever you decide to use with a clear or stain sealer with UV protection.

I am going to replace my door soon but not because it has warped or looks bad. I am going to replace it because I got my hands on a stack of 1"x6"x6' Cedar boards from a fence I tore down for someone else. I think the Cedar will look great as a door.

When I first got the wood I wasn't sure it would be very useful because they were badly weathered and had never had any sealer on them at all. But I cleaned a couple of them up with my pressure sprayer, sanded them and used them for an indoor coat hangar and shelf project in the stairwell to the basement and they look great.

I love free wood. Especially free Cedar. I also have some 6"x6"x4' Cedar posts from the same job. Haven't figured out a use for them yet.

 

[patrickg]

Some folks like the way cedar weathers naturally, I don't.

I made an "L" shaped shed with 4x8 ft sliding doors at each end. For each, I used a 4x8 sheet of siding that was made to look like vertical cedar boards and trimmed it with 2x4 redwood all the way round with a horizontal piece in the center and a diagonal across both the top and bottom halves. A lot of redwood. I could easily have used 1x3 or 1x4 redwood but had some rough 4x4 posts so I ripped and milled them a tad. I glued and nailed redwood (maybe red cedar???) battens over the imitation joints between the vertical imitation cedar boards of the pattern on the siding. I used redwood stain on the siding and the trim boards.

These weren't real light but did not warp in 10-12 years when I redid the stain, darkening it and painted the redwood dark blue to color coordinate with the house trim (heresy right, painting redwood dark blue..) and are still fine after 15 years. To make the doors lighter they could be trimmed out with lighter wood than I used. I suspended them from a Stanley brand track hung from a redwood 4x4 over the opening and put a facia of the siding to hide the track and gap at the top. Looked really good.

I had some pebble grain aluminum in 4x8 ft sheets which would have made a warp free door and could have been trimmed in 1x2 or 1x3 pine. Would have to be careful to prime the aluminum properly to accept some sort of barn red paint to get the same look. This would have definitely been warp free and way lighter.

Sorry for my laziness in not taking the pix out of the binder so one is sideways but you get the idea. You can see both doors. Makes my back and knees hurt just to see the courtyard paving, I cast every one of those pavers out of cement that I mixed on site. At least the grouting was easy. Mix up premade mortar mix with no water and dump out on the courtyard. Sweep into cracks with a broom. With the hose adjusted to a fine mist, wash off the tops of the pavers. the water runs in the cracks and sets the mortar. After it starts to set, you can add more water without washing the grout out and voila, you're done. I wasted an hour or so with a itsy bitsy trowel trying to mortar the joints before "getting wise".

Good luck to you however you solve the door issue.

Patrick

 

[rancar]

snowman,

If you went with common pine and painted it, you may get a an extra 2-4 years out of the door. But, if the door is facing west and gets hit by rain and wind, it will soon suffer from these impacts. I would spend a few extra dollars and buy the PT pine. I've already made a couple doors and window frames out of PT pine and it works great.

Bob