Overhead Door Height vs. Wall Height

[TestBill]

Garage Journal Overhead door experts,

I have a question regarding overhead door height and wall height, and any information is certainly appreciated.

I am in the planning stages for a storage building, most likely a pole barn structure. Large enough to store an RV. I will install a 14ft high overhead door. Conventional wisdom, random readings, thumbing through books, magazines, on-line articles all leave me with the “impression” that I need 2 feet between the height of my overhead door and my wall height. So for a 14 foot high door, I assume I need a 16 foot wall height. For example, the Menards building planner will only let you select a 14ft high door if you selected 16ft high walls.

My Morton man, assures me I can put a 14ft high overhead door on the building with a 15 foot wall height. I am skeptical, and plan to consult with other manufacturers. The beauty of the 15 foot wall height, is that it keeps my building height within county building codes (using a suitable roof pitch for snow load, etc.). A 16 foot wall height (with the same roof pitch) puts me over the code height limit and in the realm of begging / groveling for a county variance (which I prefer to not do). Decreasing the roof pitch does not appear to be an option.

Anyone have a 14ft high overhead door with 15ft walls? Any problems or issues? Any regrets? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Bill

 

[Jimmy_B]

I have a 14' door with 14' sidewalls, it can be done. And mine was done for the same reason as you discuss....hight vs code. Went from a standard 4/12 to 3/12 pitch roof and used a 1/12 raised truss inside. This gave me just enough room to sneak a 12 x 14 overhead right in the center of the gable end using a low clearance track. It wasn't ideal, raised the cost considerably and would only allow me one door in that end of the building. But i didn't need a variance.







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[finn]

I pulled up the door specs from the Menards site a couple of weeks ago. A 13 foot high door is available with tracks for either 10" or something like 12-14" head clearance. How thick does your header have to be? That may be the limiting factor.

 

[denis4x4]

This was a pole barn that was used to store hay. Door is 11' roll up as are the walls. Offset the lights for the RV.

 

[rburke65]

I'm thinking a 16' side wall will offer more options than a 14' wall. Storage...mezzanine, etc. it cant be that much more.

 

[Doorguy]

You need12" minimum to install standard 12"radius tracking. So the answer is yes you can have a 14 foot high door on a 15 foot high wall.

 

[Voi]

The beauty of the 15 foot wall height, is that it keeps my building height within county building codes (using a suitable roof pitch for snow load, etc.)

I assume for RV parking you're thinking the tall overhead door on a gable end?

A monitor barn can be built to a lower overall height since your pitch raises the overall height less over the reduced span. The square footage them comes from the lean-to structures on each side.

I really like the look of a monitor barn but I don't think I'd like my last RV parked in the middle of it. Most RV owners who have their own covered storage seem to prefer theirs tucked over to one eave.

You could do the same build typical of the center of a monitor barn but then only add a lean-to on one side.

Both of these options would be more expensive to build.

Another option is a slight saltbox type design. You would have one tall sidewall and one not so high sidewall with the gable offset to the higher side. Again, ridge ends up being a bit lower than having it centered over the building.

Just to throw out some numbers, if you had a 30' wide building with standard gable at 4:12 pitch the height would be 21' with 16' sidewalls.

Now if you had a saltbox with the ridge maybe 10' over from a 16" sidewall the peak would be 19'4" at the same pitch. The shorter sidewall in this case would be 12'8".

Otherwise, I've seen tall overhead doors tucked up real tight to the sidewall height in pole barns so I'm sure you'll be fine. I would tend to trust Morton.

 

[Voi]

Does anyone know what the gable end truss looks like in this picture? That would be another option.

 

[MagKarl]

That last pic looks like a steel structure with rafters to me. No bottom chords in the way.

 

[Voi]

That last pic looks like a steel structure with rafters to me. No bottom chords in the way.

Of course. Search came up under pole barn but I did a reverse image search and confirmed it was a red iron building.

And here's the build thread if OP is interested.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/shop-tools/1075971-sads-40x50-shop-garage.html

Morton does steel trusses. I wonder if they'd be willing to modify one of their vaulted open web steel trusses to be a coffered gable truss of sorts. That's if the OP even needs it. I don't think he will.

 

[Burb]

13' doors w/ low headroom track and 14' walls here. Also you should be able to order garage doors in 3" height increments depending on what your exact needs are. The height is determined by what combination of 18", 21", and 24" panels are used in the door.

 

[gnpenning]

Sure you can do it. Just keep in mind you will have 7 - 24" sections rolling around a 10" radius track. The door will be stiffer to open and close than a door with a 15" or 18" radius track. Adding more stress on rollers, hinges and panels.

As mentioned you can get doors with 3" height increments like 13'9", 13' 6" etc, if your RV will fit in those size of openings.

 

[Jamie V]

I have a 9' door with 10' ceilings but the downfall no one tells you is trying fit lights on the ceiling where the door opens is hard. I wish I had more room between the door and ceiling when open.

 

[nehog]

This was a pole barn that was used to store hay. Door is 11' roll up as are the walls. Offset the lights for the RV.

Hi, fellow Sprinter RV user!

OP-I was told 2 ft. I think I could have gone less, but that would have made the opener a bit more difficult.

 

[TestBill]

Thank you all for the replies. You have provided me with some real insight and given me some great points to think about. I certainly appreciate it. Never knew about the ability to have a door in sizes in less than 1ft increments. Also, appreciate the insight into the radius of the door tracks and what that does to opening force and stress on components.
Mr. Jimmy_B, very nice looking building...hope to have something similar in the future.

Bill