Barn Door Construction

[prairiecomforts]

For those of you who know - the place I had found for the kids and I to move fell through so we are going to have to stay on the place we are now at least through the winter. (There is just nothing else avaviable in my price range.) So - I made a list of things that need to be done before the snow flies and one of the BIG things is getting a door on a shed where I have the goats. I measured the opening - it is 10 foot high and 12 foot wide. I found some useable track and rollers at an auction this past weekend. But I need to know how to go about building a door for it. Like I have said before - I have basic construction tools and knowledge and my main helper is a 12 year old boy! Any help or suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreicated!

prairie

[BellsBunnies]

prairie,
I'm sorry the place you were looking into didn't work out. I can't tell you how to build a door but I just wanted to say that's a pretty big door and you made need to build it in sections - So that the 2 of you can actually pick it up to hang after you get it built.

[Stephen in SOKY]

If you have a TSC catalog, they have fairly good schematics in there. Our TSC always keeps some out at the counter if you don't presently have the catalog. I've built many, both sliding and swinging, and could send you photos of a set of swinging doors (Hinged doors, not doors that have wierd parties) that I recently completed that are very near your dimensions if you think that would help?

[Macybaby]

Can you get metal siding? That is one way to make the door much lighter. Our barn door opening was 10' x 10' We made two doors that each slid to the side (one each way). Another option is to make one fixed panel and one slider. Or you could close up the opening and make a much smaller door to open and close.
Our doors were a wooden support frame, covered with metal. Most of the expensive part is in all the trim to make them look nice, but for temporary, you could get by pretty cheap.

When we converted the pig shed for storage. We made a 9' opening. Has one larger hinged door (about 6' wide) that we put brackets that slide into holes in the floor to hold it in place, then we have another smaller hinged door (3') that latches closed on the first. That second one we use most of the time, and only open the big one when needed. These are also wood frame, metal clad doors.

We did spend one winter with nothing but tarp nailed over the opening - building also had a small door to get in and out of, so we could secure it all the way around. Hay bales on the inside helped, and by the time we used up the hay, the weather was warming up too.

Cathy (in SD)

[Hammer4]

Our sliding doors are made out of 2x6 lumber and metal siding. The 2x6 lay flat, they have flat pieces of metal siding as reinforcing strips and use the metal siding on the outside.

The hole door hangs from a track, the track has a bit of trim over it to weather proof it as well.

Drop me an email to remind me and I can send you some pictures of the detail of them. One of our doors is at least as big as the one you want to build, it seems to hold up just fine.

I perfer sliding doors or roll up doors, swinging doors are such a pain when snow or whatever builds in front of them and they won't open, or the hinges sag, or what have you.

[cowboy joe]

That would be a big door, sliding or otherwise. You might want to think about framing the opening out to a smaller, more manageable size.

[rambler]

Have been rehabbing my sis's barn this summer, just made, oh, 7 barn doors & repaired 2.

Two were 8x9 double splitting, one was 4x7 swinging, and one was 4x7 swinging we made top & bottom. These were all wood, outside had to match the 2 exsisting doors. Layer of drop siding turned inside out, a framwork of 1x10 & 1x6 in the middle, & drop siding on the inside. These doors can handle direct contact with cattle, horses, etc.

Upstairs we put a 4x7 sliding door & a double slider on a 10x10 openning. These are car siding vertical, with 2x6 framework.

For your size openning, the sliding track is the best idea as you have. You can make one large door, or split it in half vertically, one slides to each side of the openning. I would favor the split doors, but depends what you have room for.

You can make a frame of 2x6 and cover with wood or with metal. I personally prefer the wood if it is around critters.

I know I don't have much details, but hard for me to put construction bits into words - it just happens, I can't detail it.

--->Paul

[sue currin]

The easiest way to build a door that is also light is a Z door, You could fram in the opening and have Two Z doors opening opposite each other so you still have the same size opening. useing shiplap or tonge and grove seconds will be air tight and cheap. Try to get it from a saw mill instead of homedepot and rough cut for the Z part. Use screws and it will last along time if not forever. I put them on every building and in my cabin, they look great. Get 3 hinges for each door.