Pocket for Garage Door?

[bad_idea]

I am in the building process of my 30x40x12 garage. I have two 9x9 sectional doors on the front. They have 32" radius tracks that follow the cathedral ceiling, the door is approx 12" from the ceiling. Stick built garage - 2x6 walls w/ scissor trusses on 24" centers. Doors do not have openers - no opener down the center. If I ever do install openers they will be jackshaft openers.

In my last garage I had trouble with grinding dust floating up and settling on the face of the open garage door. I am thinking about building a pocket around the door to keep dust from floating up there and settling on the door. Anyone done something like that? I would like to make the pocket stiff enough to hang a couple overhead lights from it. A bit stumped on how to span a panel 9' and not sag.

 

[larry4406]

I did this in a commercial project, unfortunately no pictures.

Ours was a very large aluminum and glass sectional door (like at a fire station).

We had a suspended horizontal ceiling with drop in troffers. We had a slit in the ceiling where the door went in and the tracks curved horizontal above the ceiling.

The ceiling suspension was complicated as we had to use Uni-strut to span the bay under where the door would be when retracted.

The door had a commercial jack shaft operator.

 

[bad_idea]

I hadn't considered unistrut. Just looked up the load capacity for a 10' piece of 1 5/8 (standard size) to be ~400 lbs uniformly loaded. Thinking a couple of pieces of unistrut under each door should hold some OSB and I can mount the lights to the unistrut through the OSB.

Open to other ideas as the unistrut cost will add up quickly for two doors.

 

[kbs2244]

Why not just pressure wash the doors?
A cheap washer wold work fine.

In NC that should not be much of a problem.

 

[spudley]

I think he wants to build a pocket that the door slides into that'll have a limited opening and will stop most dust from settling on a horizontal door when open. But if he has that much grinding dust, I think he needs a big *** dust collector. One can always clean the doors, not so easy to clean the lungs.

 

[Kenstone1]

shop vac on near any grinding.
I carry anything small enough, outside for grinding.
What you are considering will keep dust off the doors but not off everything else in your garage.
jmo,

 

[LXCam]

I like the idea. I'd do it out of tin stud though, nice and lite plus it won't ever change shape on you.

 

[bad_idea]

Pressure washing the door daily gets old (depending on project). Especially when it is 40 degrees out.

Pocket is intended to be 100% sealed except for the opening the door will go in and out of.

I plan on a dust collection/ventilation system. Plan on building a separate room in the garage for hot work with negative ventilation in the room.

I wear a respirator with P100 filters when grinding.

Looking for a 'belt and suspenders' solution here. My last garage was FILLED with grinding dust and the door was orange from rust. I want to avoid that with this place.

 

[bad_idea]

I like the idea. I'd do it out of tin stud though, nice and lite plus it won't ever change shape on you.

I have not worked with tin studs. I assume you mean sheet metal wall studs like seen in a commercial building? Will they support hanging a ceiling panel with light mounted from them?

 

[Gearheadmb]

If you wanted to simplify it, instead of a full pocket you could just do sheeting from the tracks up to the ceiling, and something from the ceiling to the top edge of the door. I would do something flexible like heavy tarp. Or use wood to box the three sides, and just do enough of a strip at the top to reach a little past the top of the door when its open (i hope that makes sense). It seems to me either of those options would give 90% of the protection using 30% of the materials. I do like the idea of putting lights on it. When i open my garage doors it blocks half of my lights.

 

[LXCam]

I have not worked with tin studs. I assume you mean sheet metal wall studs like seen in a commercial building? Will they support hanging a ceiling panel with light mounted from them?

Exactly and yes since your spans are short. A fixture isn't an issue And even if you needed To go longer then 10ft you can go to a heavier stud and or black iron internal stiffners.