Can sliding barn doors be mouse tight?

[Pa19331247]

I am now about to start working on the siding and doors. My shop has two 10x8 doors which I would like to make as sliding barn style doors. My question is how do you make this style door mouse tight. Thanks, D.

 

[rsanter]

You will need to make a toung and groove type thing around the perimeter.
The bottom will act as a guide track, the sides will act as a seal when the door is in the closed position.
Even a thin gap and they will get through. You need a obstacle of sorts that they will not be able to slip through

Bob

 

[DeadSock]

Get a barn cat. Feed it when looking thin (and mice aren't present)

 

[slip knot]

I'm not sure you can make anything "mouse proof".

 

[CNGsaves]

Chasing a losing game thinking you'll keep mice/rats out with slider doors. You'll need multiple wild cats living in barn if you try that route (minimal kitty chow for them . . . better to be hungry for catching mice).

I stored car in my grandpa's barn and thought for sure I had slider doors tight enough (boards, rocks, etc), but ended up with rats eating wires under hood of car.

If you "must" have slider door "look" then have a rollup door behind it to keep critters out and also enable sealed shop for insulation/heating purposes.

IF no cats . . . then best solution for mice/rat prevention is lots of poison (chew blocks) in bait stations around exterior perimeter of barn. Let them eat all they want out there, and die out there !! Look at every exterior door of Walmart, Lowes, Target, etc and you'll see the bait stations that I've shown below.

 

[nieuport17]

No way to keep mouse out. They can fit through anything.
And they can climb anywhere.
Mouse traps and cats are the only way.

 

[littleponderosa]

i live on the prairie in se MT - if you do not have cats, you have mice. being a bird hunter, i'm not crazy about a pile of wild cats eating the eggs & chicks. so always got a couple of house cats that go outside daily, 'cept when it be seriously cold. it works, kill a couple a year in the garage - cheap peanut butter lasts forever. going into the barn is now a whole different story.

watched approx 14 sharptail grouse this morning hanging out around 0745. tell the woman it be her job with the box and all is cool

Bill

 

[olytdi]

Yeah, you won't be able to keep mice out. But discouraging them is helpful as would be a cat. But be aware that a free-ranger will take-out plenty of harmless and beneficial wildlife for every field mouse it takes.

As to the previous advice, consider that a domestic cat's urge to hunt is independent of it's desire to eat. They're not hunting to eat. They are essentially hard wired killing machines. Well-fed cats hunt with the same earnestness as feral. So starving your cat is unnecessary.

I would not suggest bait for the simple reason that bait draws mice. If you don't want mice, why would you try to attract them? Previous owner of my house used poison bait under the house and all it did was attract wave after wave of mice. Looked like a mass grave under there. If you think you're going to trap-out all of the mice in your neck of the woods, your fooling yourself. Plus, when your (or someone else's) cat takes a poisoned mouse...well...you know what can happen.

 

[joe_padavano]

Mice can fit through a 1/4" wide gap. You'll never get a barn that tight, and even if you do, the will chew a hole through.

 

[RacerX]

Moth balls spread about? I've heard mice don't like them either.

 

[G McKay]

I wouldn't try to tighten up a garage to keep mice out and then fill it with cats. Or even one cat. I'd rather have mice than the stench of a friggin' cat.....
Just put several mouse traps around the outside walls and put the snap so it closes toward the wall. Or just use the sticky kind of traps. But a cat? Not for me. And in case you are wondering if I have any mouse problems? I don't have any of those, either.

 

[Bull]

Having cat hair and a pissy litterbox in a barn or garage is vastly superior to having disease-carrying vermin that burrow into your walls, eat insulation and wiring, get into cars etc.

For the record, I do not believe semi-starving your cat does anything to increase mouse hunting. I feed my barn cat properly and she is a beast. She kills dozens and dozens of rodents every season, sometimes up to three or four a day. We have a lot of property.

Some cats have the hunt in them; some don't.

 

[Zeke]

A cat won't be happy to live trapped in a building. They like to get out as much as we do. However, a cat is just as effective patrolling the exterior of a building. Have a cat for the reason of wanting and liking a cat. Get traps and poison if you don't prefer cats. Mice have but 2 agendas: food and a warm, safe place to nest. Eliminate what you can. And they chew on whatever will help control their incisor growth estimated to be up to 5 inches a year. I think I'd leave a pile of insulated wire out by the traps.

 

[volleyball]

Go to a pet spa and get the clippings from groomed animals. Put piles around the barn especially near openings. It seems to keep the mice out of my basement, though I use it from my own pets.

 

[SteveCh]

Mice can pretty much slip through a small space which is limited in height by the thickness of its skull. So, that is a darned small opening.

 

[A_Pmech]

Chasing a losing game thinking you'll keep mice/rats out with slider doors. You'll need multiple wild cats living in barn if you try that route (minimal kitty chow for them . . . better to be hungry for catching mice).

Catch catch more mice when decently fed.

Cats, like humans, hunt for fun.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Some cats have the hunt in them; some don't.

Bull is right on!

I've had 4 cats and 2 of them have been killing machines and 2 were not.

Jim

 

[CNGsaves]

^ ^ Both probably true. My grandpa's barn (loose fitting slider doors) didn't seem to have any mice/rat problems back when they lived on farmstead and had cats. I only remember my grandma giving some scraps and occasional extra milk to quasi-wild cats that only lived in barn. They must have been good hunters !!

Now with no one living on farmstead, it's pretty much free reign for mice and rats unless I put out lots of poison.

 

[Flatland Dave]

No such creature as a mouse proof sliding door. Keeping vegetation from growing around the sides of the building will help.

 

[kbs2244]

As said, the answer is cats.
Maybe more than one.
If you have a thing against kittens then get a neutered one.

BUT; In in my experience,
It must have been an “outside cat”
It must be female.
It must have had at least one litter.
That experience teaches them to bring home the food.
They become hunters, not just pets waiting for the can opener.

Living with outside cats is a partnership thing. They don’t need you and will walk away if a better barn shows up on the horizon. (They can, and will, roam. I grew up with a black tomcat names Satan. On my bicycle adventures I know I saw him over 5 miles from our home.) But, in spite of the so called differences between cats and dogs, they do like approving attention. We once had a quite small, thin, female present my daughter with a full grown **** pheasant on her second floor bedroom rug one morning. She loved the ear scratching and such that followed. We just had to be sure she didn’t see us dumping the **** in the garbage. (This was after she pretty well ridded the neighborhood of mice, chipmunks, even raccoons.) ( She ate the baby raccoons when the nest was left alone. A whole lot of patience involved with that trick.)

You do have to realize they are nocturnal animals. The old country expression at bed time of “Bring in the dog and put out the cat” has a lot of truth in it.

 

[RandyL]

I don't want cat tracks all over my vehicles, so, I invite the mice in to eat all they want. I keep 4 simple feeders in the corners of the building, right up against the wall. They just eat, and eat, and eat.... Then they play dead. Most go outside to expire...sometimes I have to sweep one out.

Living in an old farm house, we used to have a number of them in the house after the corn was cut and on into winter. Since feeding them in the outbuilding I get few in the house.

The cubes I feed to them come from the local farm supply, and it works great.


Randy

 

[Alan Douglas]

Old-fashioned Victor mousetraps baited with half a salted peanut get any mice that come in the barn or house. Once I figured out where to place the traps in the cellar, I never have mice upstairs any more. I suppose the mice are attracted by the bird seed that gets knocked off the platform feeders (not nearly as much as is wasted at hanging tubular feeders).

 

[Charles (in GA)]

As to the previous advice, consider that a domestic cat's urge to hunt is independent of it's desire to eat. They're not hunting to eat. They are essentially hard wired killing machines. Well-fed cats hunt with the same earnestness as feral. So starving your cat is unnecessary.

I have one outdoor cat left (12 yo) her sister disappeared about a month ago, the sister was an avid hunter, killed everything in sight, the remaining one is a so so hunter, more of a homebody but still goes after a mouse. They were all well fed, but killed for the thrill of it, its in their DNA.

Please don't starve your cats thinking it will make them work harder.

Charles

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Starving cats aside... In my previous shop I had a 10 x 10 sliding door I made with a steel frame and metal roofing for the skin. I put 2x4 strips on the walls and used a strip of conveyor belt attached to the slab under a strip if flat bar that was sprung up against the bottom door frame rail. When closed I had 1/2" threaded rods/bolts that pulled the door in tight to the rubber and 2x4s.

Never had any mice or rats get through and into the shop, though they climbed the outside wall and got into the attic from time to time.

Conveyor belt is pretty thick and tough so they didn't chew through it. I also made a point of never having any kind of food in there.

 

[PWC Repair]

I agree with most folks about cats. We have a 15yo neutered outdoor male that gets fed every day. This guy is ALWAYS killing something. We watched him catch a bird mid flight one day. Stupid blue-jays should not have been dive bombing him. I also have seen him take chase after a fawn that wandered through the yard. And one time I saw him stalking a brush pile next to the driveway, I knew there must have been a rabbit I couldn't see. BUT...when he started loading those rear haunches and getting ready to launch, a very large red tail hawk flew up from the brush. I was thinking "you stupid cat, that might have been your last mistake!". You also must keep the weeds away from all sides. Mice don't like to venture into open areas, that makes them prey to birds. Keeping about 20ft manicured should do it. Here's a pic of his royal mean-ness sitting next to your average car battery.......did I mention he weighs 12.5 pounds.

 

[tlbranth]

I see this is an old thread but feel the need to respond anyway. A mouse cannot get through a 1/4" gap. 1/2" yes, but it needs to be wide enough for its flattened body to get through. A building can be made mouseproof. It took me 40 years to finally keep mice from getting in my house but they don't get in now. I built a shed to house my motorcycles. Mice do not get in there or in my tool shed. And we have lots of mice here in the woods. You have to block every small opening but it can be done. In the long run its easier than all the other remedies posted. T tell if mice are still getting in, place a few traps on the perimeters inside. I like a trap called "a better mouse trap". Easy to set and reusable.
I'm currently working on enclosing an open building for motorbike storage and trying to figure out if I can mouseproof sliding doors. I need the width.

 

[kaymccampbell]

You can build sliders that are relatively mouse proof. Their construction is more like sliding glass patio doors crossbred with submarine doors, and they are notorious **** collectors and constantly jam up from crud dropping off vehicles crossing the threshold. If you build them, remember to put an air drop and reel by the door, so you can clean out the lower seal tracks, before every closing.

 

[boo coo tracks]

At least two spayed female cats. Feed them every day, well fed cat will stay around and will catch lots of mice, if they know there is mouse in a hole cat will wait till mouse exits hole! I had a lot if wireing damage before Got Farrell cats at a shelter. My cats will come to the feed pan but you can't pet them.

 

[MushCreek]

I had mice in the barn every winter until I tuned up my sliders. When I had the driveway poured, I had them form up a trough in front of the door that they fit into. They made the trough WAY too wide, though, so I eventually made pressure treated wood fillers so that the doors fit fairly tight. A mouse could still get through, so I added draw latches to the doors that pulls them tight to the interior framing when you close them. There are still some small gaps, but I saw no mouse activity this past winter. I keep poison baits out, and for the first time, they weren't touched.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I added draw latches to the doors that pulls them tight to the interior framing when you close them.

I agree with this, you need to have a method for latching the door so it's held tightly to the door frame. Here's one type, there may be others.

 

[nh_yota]

You could mount a piece of wood or steel along the bottom of the door that drops down when the door is closed and lifts back up when you go to open the door.

 

[MushCreek]

I've been toying with the idea of making some kind of linkage to operate two or three draw latches at the same time, spaced along the frame. Mine are about 4' off of the ground, but the bottom (where the mice come in) isn't as tight.

 

[ambenz]

I've been toying with the idea of making some kind of linkage to operate two or three draw latches at the same time, spaced along the frame. Mine are about 4' off of the ground, but the bottom (where the mice come in) isn't as tight.

I thought of this video when I read your post....may inspire you.

Does it really have to be a barn door? My overhead cloypay doors are pretty tight with rubber trim technology.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, mice are probably very similar to cockroaches , just bigger.

You might be able to "control" them, that is keep them out of your sight but, eliminating them forget about it.