Barn doors
One of the big projects I wanted to get done this spring was replacing the overhead door on my shop with a set of barn doors. And I've had more than one person ask why I would want to make that change. Mostly it comes from the amount of overhead space I'm losing to the overhead door. But also, it's not very secure. I can really lock down these doors now, and I like the look a whole lot better.
The old overhead door was yellowing, and damaged anyway. It was really tough to close securely, and worst of all I only had one key to it, so I had to be paranoid about locking it in the garage. It didn't seem like it was going to be too tough...
Famous last words.
I actually left the old door in place, but put it up to start, since the new doors would be built out flush to the front of the shop.
I did this in case I couldn't get done enough in one day to close up the new doors. And there was rain in the forecast, so that was a definite possibility.
I didn't get any pictures of the construction, but each door is basically built like a stud wall, 24" on center. It's an 8' opening, so that's two 4' doors. Since they only weight they are supporting is themselves, it was a good way to keep the weight down.
The first real surprise came after the two doors were hung. I couldn't open them.
The driveway immediately in front of the doors rose up. Good thing I didn't take out that overhead door, this was a trip to the store for a pick axe. I needed to break up the driveway and level it back out.
Could I have taken some off of the bottom of the doors? Yes, but not enough to clear everything and still give me a small gap at the bottom.
I added a strip of 1x3 pine to the back of the left hand door, and a strip of 1x2 oak to the front of the right hand door to help seal the gap down the center. The left hand door locks into the header and the concrete to give it a nice secure hold.
Finally, the doors hung and painted (mostly), and I used some asphalt cold patch to fill the holes in the driveway. I got the old door off the rails, but the rails are still in place at the moment.
Next steps:
- Trim and paint the doors (1x3 trim with white paint)
- Remove overhead door rails
- Install additional lights inside that were previously in unavailable space because of overhead door.