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