Making sliding barn doors weather tight?

[THR1LL3R]

Anyone build or use sliding barns doors and have luck getting them weather tight? I'm building one for the rear of my garage and two sliders for the inside. Just looking for weather striping/sealing ideas.

Thanks guys!


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[Cactus1]

I've been converting our 1946 dairy barn into my shop and dealing with trying to get the 7(!) sliding barn doors to seal. I'm gaining on it slowly. I used a combination of garage door weatherstripping (the plastic type used on the sides and top) and also some leftover garage door bottom on the doors that slide on the inside of the building. I know a picture is worth a thousand words but I'm not sure how to post them from my iPad???

 

[MushCreek]

I'm pondering this with my big doors on my barn. One thing I did already was put a toggle clamp on the jamb on each side. It engages a U-bolt on the door, allowing me to pull the door fairly tight against the opening once the door is closed. I've thought about buying strip brushes and attaching them around the edges. I'll never get my 12' tall doors really tight, but I'd like to at least be able to keep mice out.

If you don't open them a lot, you could buy/make a soft door seal to lay on the floor inside. Basically, it's a long cloth tube filled with something heavy enough to hold it in place. Simply move it out of the way when you need to open the doors.

One thing I've considered is a big vinyl sheet, installed semi-permanently over the opening. I'd put it in place when it started getting chilly, and remove it in the spring. They make big roll-up insect screens for big doors that run in a track on each side. I would think the same thing could be done with heavy vinyl.

The other issue I have is rain. When it hits the wall the door is on, it pours down the inside of the door like a waterfall. I made a wide flashing and put it over the track which helps, but if it's really windy, I still get water inside. I'm going to build a 4' deep shed roof over the entire door track, which will solve that problem.

 

[Bartley]

I have a 14'x14' and a 12'x12' sliding track doors on my wife's horse barn. Looking for a similar fix. I figure nothing will be 'mice proof' on a pole barn with metal siding. Does anyone know if there are bolts for the sliding track system that have a dogleg allowing them to be pulled tight against the structure?

 

[MushCreek]

Do you mean that the door is standing away from the barn? I put trim around my door opening to make up the gap, which was exactly an inch. I used pressure treated 5/4 decking boards for trim.

Right now, my weak link is at the bottom. I just had a concrete slab poured outside, and we created a trough for the door to run in, since the door hangs below the barn slab. I have a 1" gap inside, which I will fill with more PT lumber. That still leaves a good sized trough that the door rides in. I'm going to make a filler block for when I'm wheeling things in and out.

I've been around my barn with a fine tooth comb (I built the thing) and the only place that mice can get in is around the main doors. If I can get rid of the gap at the bottom, I think I'll have it.

 

[dfiler2]

I have a sliding door for my shop but it slides on the outside, my advantage is that the shop is inside another building. The rest of the building is used for cold storage. I ran a rubber weather strip around the three sides then used one of these on each side. They pull the door in very tight and it seals better than any overhead door I have ever had. My rollers have enough play in them so the side cam locks pull the top in very tight also. Right now I have the bottom sealed with some insulation but I'm working on a hinged seal for that.

 

[diypolebarns]

Some of our customers have the same concern and we have suggested that they utilize brush weather stripping such as sold by our friends at brushweatherseal.com. Here is a link to a page on their site that discusses the utilization of their product on large barn doors:

http://www.brushweatherseal.com/sectional-garage-door-seal

I hope you find this as helpful as our other customers have. Good luck with the rest of your project!

 

[kmcc]

For sealing the sides, maybe you could find a way to create an "interlock". Most quality patio doors use interlocks where the two panels meet in the center of the door. Similar to two letter "J's", one mounted on the building and one on the door rotated 180deg from the other so that when the door reaches the end of its travel they hook together. Make them to fill the gap and possibly stuff neoprene into the bottom of the "J" so that the hook ends embed themselves in the neoprene.

 

[olytdi]

I have a sliding door for my shop but it slides on the outside, my advantage is that the shop is inside another building. The rest of the building is used for cold storage. I ran a rubber weather strip around the three sides then used one of these on each side. They pull the door in very tight and it seals better than any overhead door I have ever had. My rollers have enough play in them so the side cam locks pull the top in very tight also. Right now I have the bottom sealed with some insulation but I'm working on a hinged seal for that.

My doors sound similar to yours and I, too, use the latches to which you linked. They work great and keep the sides pulled-in tight.

My problem is the gap at the top corners where there are gaps between the top of the door and the trolly rail and at the bottom where there is a gap between the inside face of the door and the outside face of the floor slab.

I think that the brush idea may work on the bottom but I have to think it out. It's the most important in terms of rodent access. The top is just an issue with air (heat) leakage.

 

[olytdi]

Some of our customers have the same concern and we have suggested that they utilize brush weather stripping such as sold by our friends at brushweatherseal.com. Here is a link to a page on their site that discusses the utilization of their product on large barn doors:

http://www.brushweatherseal.com/sectional-garage-door-seal

I hope you find this as helpful as our other customers have. Good luck with the rest of your project!

Do you have any photos of these brushes in action? I couldn't follow what their diagram was supposed to be implying.

Thanks for the link!

 

[MushCreek]

I like the brushes, but to seal my doors top, bottom, sides, and middle would take 10 lengths. Maybe if I buy them one at-a-time I can sneak over $400 past the wife.....

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Here is what I've done so far;

1st pic; drilled a hole in the plywood and made a small metal strip instead of the factory setup, so the door would slide past the siding without catching so easily.
2nd and 3rd pic; the door is pulled tight to the weather strip which seats against the outside edge of the doorside. A fixture on the outside holds it from moving outward.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

You could also get delrin or similar 3/4" thick sheets ripped to about 4" wide and the full length of the sheet to put on the door frame and the back of the sliding door. The plastic will slide quite well against each other as delrin is a self lubricating plastic and provide a full contact seal against most intrusions. Might find nylon sheets or similar as well.

As for the mice- they're going to get in through the walls, the foundation, the doors, and the roof. The key is to give them no reason to be there- no food or water sources they can get to.

 

[jamesanderson]

Not quite a fair answer - but I put a garage door behind the sliding barn door when I built my garage. The sliding barn door I liked for aesthetics purposes to mirror one that faces it but I did not want it to leak in (water) or out (heat). My contractor said that getting barn doors to seal is essentially impossible...

 

[MushCreek]

Mice (and other varmints) come in the barn because it's warmer than outside in the winter. There's no food or water, but there are nesting materials like shop towels.

If I had the money, it would be nice to have a custom piece made for the inside of the door frame that had a zip-in piece of flexible plastic for the cold weather, and zip that out, and zip in a big screen for the summer months. Probably pretty pricey for a 12 x 12 opening, though.

 

[dcg9381]

Dad has a big pole barn -30' sliding door and a mouse-climate.
He's got brush seals all the way around the doors.
Also has rubber seals.
To get the door to seal, he uses the same hardware that alwaysFlOoReD has shown. Basically you slide the door back in place and use that hardware to "pull" the door into the building, which closes on the rubber seals. It seals more tightly at the bottom, as the track is on top...