Interior Barn door construction

[esanford]

My new shop has two door frames that I built for sliding barn doors, both interior to contain HVAC and provide flexibility. One is 8x8, one is 15x15. Regular barn door hardware from Menards will work great, and I have lots of good ideas for weather stripping, but I'm wondering about the actual door construction. Weight doesn't seem to be too much of an issue, but I would like something smooth on the facing surface for simplicity of sealing, and relatively efficient with insulation. I'm thinking maybe 2x4 frame (wood or steel) with extruded foam filling the cavities, and a smooth paneling laminated (construction glued?) to either side for a smooth surface and boxed in rigidity. Ideas?

 

[esanford]

Here's the smaller door space.

 

[MushCreek]

A friend of mine built really nice doors for his barn. He made a framework of square steel tubing welded together. He ground all of the weld smooth, and painted it well. He used tongue and groove wood on a diagonal for infill. I think maybe he welded an inner frame out of small angle iron to attach the infill to. I have all-wood doors on my barn, and they're OK, but tend to warp a little. I used pull type toggle clamps to pull the doors in tight to the frame. I'd like to figure out a clamping method that clamped top, middle, and bottom with a single lever.

 

[jack stand]

Since it's interior, good dead straight KD 2x6, 1 1/2" foam core and masonite skin should do the trick.
Plan it out so that there's "framing" behind all the joints in the masonite.
It will be pretty light, not subject to banging around in the wind so complicated corner joinery is probably not needed and small pre punched "truss plates" and screws should be enough for the corners.

 

[rktinc]

I built my doors out of solid 1x12's. I had no plans to insulate them. Some type of sandwich using one piece of sheeting foam would work. 1x's on the outer then a solid sheet of sheeting foam and a solid sheet of beadboard paneling would give you a side with exposed 1x barn door frame and a side with a smooth solid look. You could join the sandwich together with bolts and washers.

 

[housewolf]

A friend of mine built really nice doors for his barn. He made a framework of square steel tubing welded together. He ground all of the weld smooth, and painted it well. He used tongue and groove wood on a diagonal for infill. I think maybe he welded an inner frame out of small angle iron to attach the infill to. I have all-wood doors on my barn, and they're OK, but tend to warp a little. I used pull type toggle clamps to pull the doors in tight to the frame. I'd like to figure out a clamping method that clamped top, middle, and bottom with a single lever.

I framed all the gates (~6) in the fence around my back yard with light gauge sq tube. Years later, no sagging gates. A hanging door doesn’t have the horizontal load a door or gate does but it would ensure they don’t bow over time

 

[esanford]

I went with 2x4 24" construction, insulated with fiberglass batting. On both sides I used a skin of 1/8" utility plywood from the box store glued and nailed- cheap, smooth, looks nice. Used garage door bottom seals screwed to the walls all around to seal it when closed. Slides nicely into place, then four cam latches on the inside to **** it against the seals (not the barn door ones, smaller ones I ordered on Amazon). Overall I'm happy with it.