New shop door

[Cochese]

The current doors to my shed are warped plywood backed by nothing, and have warped. What I would like to do is a barn-style as a replacement, individual boards backed or fronted by decorative and structural lumber.

I got the idea to use T&G boards to keep out the weather, but couldn't find anything useable at the big box store. In fact, the only thing even close were 5/4 PT boards.

If I use these, could I try to joint them with my bench plane to minimize the gap? Use another material?

[dbhost]

Why use pre-made T&G lumber?

Just a dumb thought on my part (what's new there?) but if I were doing it, I would build the main panel out of 1x6 stock and cut my own T&G on it... Barn type frame the door using 1x4 and lap joints...

But what do I know about doors? My last fence gate using "no sag" hardware sagged within an hour of assembly...

[pelligrini]

Plywood or similar would be more structurally stable, shear wise. My shed doors and the addition I did are T1-11 siding and 2x4 trim hung on piano hinges. The siding has a wood texture & board like look. Here's a shot of the addition doors. The shed doors look more like barn doors, I don't have any photos with them closed at the moment though.

[Pappy]

1/2" plywood glued and screwed to a 2x4 frame.

[Cochese]

Torn what to do at this point. I've always really enjoyed the look of the boards/siding doors trimmed and looking like barn doors. However, the exterior is painted plywood, as are the doors.

Aside from being horribly bowed at the bottom, I also wanted to fix a problem I have in that it's hard for me to hear or see my kids at the house with how the right side door opens. There is an artificial door frame that limits how wide the door will open. I either wanted to have one big door that opens to the left, or affix the new door and remove the fake jamb so that the right door would open 180 degrees.

I suppose I could simply attach a couple of 2x4s at the bottom of the doors to try and eliminate the bowing as a temporary solution (I have some spare 2x4). They must have found a sale on the plywood, as even the ramp is constructed out of it.

[pelligrini]

Here's a couple shots I took yesterday, one is photochopped showing the brown trim that was there when I bought the house. Kind of barn like. I left off the cross trim when I replaced some of the rotted pieces at the bottom.

Having a door that will open 180 degrees is pretty easy, just have to locate your hinges properly. I like the continuous piano hinges because they will support a lot of weight and they are easy to install.

[10sCoachRick]

Torn what to do at this point. I've always really enjoyed the look of the boards/siding doors trimmed and looking like barn doors. However, the exterior is painted plywood, as are the doors.

Aside from being horribly bowed at the bottom, I also wanted to fix a problem I have in that it's hard for me to hear or see my kids at the house with how the right side door opens. There is an artificial door frame that limits how wide the door will open. I either wanted to have one big door that opens to the left, or affix the new door and remove the fake jamb so that the right door would open 180 degrees.

I suppose I could simply attach a couple of 2x4s at the bottom of the doors to try and eliminate the bowing as a temporary solution (I have some spare 2x4). They must have found a sale on the plywood, as even the ramp is constructed out of it.

I'd vote against the single wide door and keep the two...easier to work with, I believe, less weight on one side(sagging, hinges being stressed,etc) and less room needed to open. I used screen door hooks to hold mine open(or a bungee cord after the shrubs got too high to allow the door to swing open completely).

How about an exterior rated beadboard facing with a plywood back for strength? As shown in one of the above pics, the doors are good 'storage' areas. I only hung items on the back of the 'fixed' door in my two-door set-up. That way, they were protected from the elements most of the time and the extra weight was on the 'fixed' door. Didn't really want things flying about as I frequently opened the 'entry' door and also didn't want them exposed to the baking sun, rain, etc while the door was open. The 'fixed' door was only opened when I needed extra wide access or to clean out the shed floor.

Now that I think about it, I had enough t&g pine paneling in our 1956 basement that I could have made doors from that! Heck, I could have sheathed the whole shed with it!

[jdon]

How authentic a barn door look do you want?

In my recollection of doors on actual barns (in the Midwest, several years ago) they tend to be suspended on rollers which run on tracks (like exposed pocket doors). I have no idea of hardware sources, but might be a solution to your opening size, hinge stress, etc.

[Cochese]

I found at Lowes some plywood exterior paneling, about $30 for a 4x8 sheet. I unfortunately would probably need two sheets to do the door.

Still trying to decide.