First post; I guess I'm the newbie of the newbies!
Can anyone provide guidance in making a barn door? Function matters; looks don't (the barn is isolated in the woods).
The structure is approx 18' wide and 40' long. One end is completely open. I want to build a pair of doors. They can either hinge on the sides or slide open (it would be okay if only one side at a time had access).
If I attempt to build them without plans, knowing me, the doors will weigh 2 tons! Any input would be appreciated.
What is the barn sheathed with, i.e. is it corrugated galvanized sheet metal or wood planks or what. How about framework? Is it a pole barn or what? What are the dimensions of the largest rectangle that will fit in the open end? This will determine the max allowed dimensions of a rectangular door(s)r. There are sliders, bypass sliders, overhead, bifold, and so forth. Doors can be built with wheels to carry part of the load.
The last doors I was involved in helping to build was last year. A wooden frame was covered with prepainted sheetiron with a stamped pattern to matchthe barn's new wainscott. Had I done it all by myself I would have gone with a square/rectangle steel tube welded up frame which would have been strong enough and lighter.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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What is the barn sheathed with, i.e. is it corrugated galvanized sheet metal or wood planks or what.
[/ QUOTE ] The barn has wood planks fastened to studs; the wood planks are covered with thin gauge galvanized sheet (smooth; not corrugated). The roof is corrugated sheet.
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How about framework? Is it a pole barn or what?
[/ QUOTE ] The frame is pressure treated wood: 4x4 posts, 2x4 studs, 2x6 elsewhere.
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What are the dimensions of the largest rectangle that will fit in the open end?
[/ QUOTE ] 18' wide (with a 4x4 post in the middle) and 9' tall
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Doors can be built with wheels to carry part of the load.
[/ QUOTE ] The floor is dirt. I think I would prefer side hinges or some sort of slider.
Frank, Thanks for the info. Now some of the barn builder follk on board can make more accurate suggestions. My take on it is that hinges don't jump the track. I have some sliders that were off the track when I boughtthe place. My hay barn has a pipe gate for a door at one end (south) so the wind can blow through pretty good. It gives the slider on the north end the devil. It can be hard to open/close during a good wind since it thinks it is a kite. (Contrary to wide spread misconception, Oklahoma does have winds.)
If it were me, I'd be going with hinges. They are cheaper. Good slider hardware isn't and you don't want cheap slider hardware. I can sort of weld so if it were my job I'd weld up a tubular steel frame with good diagonal bracing and cover it with the cheapest galvanized sheet metal I could find that wasn't so thin you could read through it. If animals are involved then I'd be looking for corrugated metal and would run the corrugations vertically. This would cost a tad more but corrugated is way stronger and resists bending out of shape when leaned on. Also I'd be going with heavier gauge if stock were involved.
I forgot to ask what the purpose of the barn was. You parking a tractor, storing equipment, wharehousing hay or feed, or what?
If you don't need or anticipate needing full 9 ft openings (less 1/2 of your center post) you might adjust the width a little for economy to better fit the material you buy. If you will be moving BIG things in and out a lot,you could consider removing the center post and supporting the down thrust with a header supported on both sides. You might then consider reducing the size of the doors since their widths add together with no central obstruction. The weight and expense come down when doors aren't so wide.
Another variation to consider in the case of the removed center post is unequal sized doors. Make one smaller and thus easy to open and close and make the other larger to compensate. You retain the full width opening but only have to wrestle with a small door when not needing a large opening.
Just throwing out some ideas, I don't know your intended uses.
Hope some of this may be useful to you. We have some pretty experienced folks here who know a lot more about barns than I do. Hopefully one or more of them will chime in.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Since you already have a center post, have you considered using 2 roll-ups instead? To get sliders with wheels to work dependably, you're going to need to pour a concrete footer for them to roll on and without wheels for support, theres always stress on the framework and with hinged there's always the possibility of the wind catching it as you open it and injuring you or someone with you. All of my buildings now have the roll-ups because I have two small children that I worry (maybe irrationably at times) about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. JMHO.
You ARE a redneck if... you knew someone whose last words were "Hey y'all, watch this!"
I would either use roll up or hanging sliding doors...the swing doors are to problematic, all that weight hanging on the hinges usually ends up with the door sagging over time, you also have problems if you have weeds or grass that grows in the doors path, snow, ice, what have you. Not to mention that when you go to swing a big door open you needs lots of room to do it .....
If you don't mind a lumpy threshold you can use pipe across it for wheels with the tires removed to act as rollers. You do not have to pour concrete but of course that would be more elegant. The top of the door runs in a chanel and is blocked so it ordinarily can't be opened too far. This is probably the next cheapest option after standard hinges. Hanging sliders, done right, use much more expensive hardware.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Link to hanging door hardware
Ok figure a 10 foot door using round track ( I like the round better than the square stuff ).
2 pieces of 10 foot track: $35 each
2 door hangers: $20 each
1 track splice: $5.00
10 track hangers : $2 each ( this is one every 2 feet, probably overkill )
$135 in hardware + wood + siding + screws/nails to make a 10 foot door.
Obviously more expensive than a 2 or 3 $5 hinges to make a swinging door, but much cheaper than an overheard door of that size.
Your incremental costs to go to a bigger door isn't that bad, still same amount of door hangers, just more or bigger track really.
Not having to scoop snow or cut weeds or move stuff out of the way of a swinging door, or try and keep the door from sagging/ripping off its hinges over time: Priceless ( to me at least )
Oh one more thing regarding plans, here is a link to a plan that has sliding door detail info in it, these are from the University of Iowa:
Barn Plan
First, a sincere thanks to all who provided input.
I like the idea of a sliding door operated from upper rails. Well, I like the rollup better; except for the cost. I already have everything it would take for the sliding door except for the "sliding hardware".
There is one limitation in my particular situation: The doors are taking up the entire width of the barn. So, I would either have to build a frame extending away from the barn to support the slider tube or have the two doors slightly offset. When one would be open, the two door would be like a sandwich. I could never have outside access to the entire width. I think I could live with that.
I went and took a look at the sliding doors on our pole barn to refresh my memory, they aren't built nearly as heavily as the ones in those plans. Ours basically consist of 2x6 laying flat for the frame with some 2x6 across as girts with some pieces of siding as nailing reinforcers and then the metal siding on one side for the exterior surface. Very simple construction really.
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