Shop Door Suggestions Requested

[ken gibbs]

I built my new shop two winters ago. I also use my shop to keep my Jeep Wrangler out of the weather so every thing in the shop is on casters. I made up two 3 1/2' X 7 3/4' hinged doors but they are not air tight. I can tighten the door air leaks by using strip insulation and mechanically screwing the doors shut with overhead cleats, but this idea does not make these doors air tight. I am insulating the walls and ceiling with standard R-17 fiberglass batts but I need a method I can used to get the hinged doors tightly shut while making sealing up the air space. I use a small propane heater to provide a 'warm spot" but that is not a practical solution to make my working space "livable". I thought about using a 10 M plastic curtain to cover the interior of the doors, but it would have to be attached to the door frame walls to make it air tight, and that isn't exactly a portable solution. Has anybody out there dealt with this situation?

[Roger Bullock]

If you don't use this as your main entry you could install a small insulated garage door type door.

[ken gibbs]

Roger,

I have a 36" entray door in adddition to the two hinged garage type doors. Tell me about what you know about the insulated garage type door. Are they overhead doors or hinged double doors big enough to get aJeep ionside of the building?

[Jamie Buxton]

So you have two doors, each about the size of the usual entry door of a house. Entry doors can be sealed, with a variety of weatherstripping. There's usually a threshold involved, and you'd have to be willing to drive the Jeep over that bump. The one twist you have is that your two doors meet in the middle, in a french-door sort of setup. Is that where you have leaks?

[Jamie Buxton]

There are also moveable sweeps that seal the bottom of the door, without a threshold.

But if you seal the doors, what happens when you drive a snow-laden vehicle into the shop? The snow in the wheel wells melts, and where does it go if it can't drain out below the doors?

[Michael Wildt]

All depends on how the door are hinged, but this is one way of sealing the top and sides of the door to the frame. I made my own since I could only get the gasket material locally. My door is a regular overhead door, but if your doors open into the shop then this could work as well.

Search the web for garage weather stripping and you'll find tons of gasket types out there.

[ken gibbs]

I built my doors myself out of 2' X 2 " stock, cement siding sheets, and 1/4" plywood on the interior with big strap hinges. They weigh about 75 lbs each and are very hard to get them to close tightly. I have to use jack screws to get them closed completely.

I am going to try using a rolled up sheet of 10 mil poly that I can roll down like a window shade and then clamp to each side of the door frame. I think I can seal the doorway from the inside when I want to work in my shop. I am haveing trouble designing a way to clamp the plastic to the edges of the doorway to make it air tight yet flexible enough so I can release the plastic and roll it back up when I put the Jeep inside of the shop.

[Michael Wildt]

You could make a frame that is inserted into the opening. Then put plastic on that frame. Another idea is to sew on velcro (comes in different widths) on the plastic sheet then staple the other part of the velcro to the frame.

[Tom Grant]

How about using a roll of tape magnet along the sides of your roll down plastic cover? They could attach to either metal flashing or another magnet strip on the walls. (See magnetsupplier .com and click on magnet tape).