Reclaimed wood sliding barn door

[Mark Gibney]

I'm bidding on a job that calls for a hanging barn door. The wood should have that reclaimed look.

First question - is soft maple a suitable wood to use?
I am thinking of using soft maple that I turn into "reclaimed" by physically distressing the surface with a wire wheel, and then using ferrous sulphate and other methods to age the wood. They don't want it crazy beat up and stained dark. More a driftwood feel.

Second question is about construction. The doors will be 36" x 97" each.
I figured on making a frame 1" thick. The stiles could be 2 - 2 1/2" wide, the rails 3" wide.
I would have a rail top, bottom and two more in between.
This frame would be sheated on both sides with approx 3/4" thick "reclaimed" wood, layed up horizontally.

This will put the finished door at about 2 1/2" thick.
To avoid any chink of light through the door, however unlikely, I can fill the frame with foam sheeting before sheathing it.

That's about it. Any advice?

thanks, Mark

[John K Jordan]

Will this be exposed to the weather? Maple, in general, is not very durable without some good protection. The Wood Database says this about soft maples: "Rot Resistance: Rated as non-durable to perishable in regard to decay resistance."

Farmers used almost every type of wood that was at hand, but most of the wood on my old barn and doors is oak, some poplar, cedar. When I make barn doors I like to use red cedar but I've never tred to make them look old. Most wood exposed to the elements eventually turns grey - maybe a grey stain would be useful.

Sand blasting certain species can give a great weathered "driftwood" look.

JKJ

[Jamie Buxton]

Wire brushing works better on softwoods than on hardwoods. The reason is that in softwoods (think douglas fir for instance) there's a big difference in hardness between the early wood and the late wood. The wire brush easily erodes the soft parts, so you really see the grain. Compare that to, say, maple, and the wire brush doesn't accentuate the grain much at all.

[Mark Gibney]

John, these are interior door, so they will not be exposed to any weather.

Jamie, good point about the grain.

The viability of the construction - will it work?

[Jamie Buxton]

...The viability of the construction - will it work?

If I understand correctly, you're going to have several internal rails (running horizontally), and cover them with surface boards also running horizontally. If so, aren't the internal rails kinda superfluous? Now, if your internal intermediate parts were running vertically, they'd have a function: they corral the middles of all the surface boards. Okay, in a 36"-wide door, maybe you only need one.

[Mark Gibney]

Good point about the mid-rails. However, how securely can I attach the surface boards? They'll be 4" - 6" wide. They'll expand and contract a little, right?
Can I glue them securely with, say, yellow glue?
And do I need to leave a very small gap?

Never made one of these doors before. Thanks.

[Zac wingert]

Why don’t you use actual reclaimed wood in the first place and just make it structurally sound? Does the client really want to have something new pretend to be old? Maybe they do, I don’t think understand this idea. But if they want it o be old and dirty, why not just slap some old and dirty boards together?

[William Hodge]

Air dried rough cut lumber from the back of the lot at a mill might work. Usually there are lifts of stickered lumber no one is dealing with behind saw mills. The top and edge rows can get pretty weathered.

Re-using actual salvaged barn boards in an interior setting might be problematic. I know that as a kid I often painted the outside of the barn with all kinds of stuff, especially Chlordane. If the name of this insecticide is not familiar, it's because it was banned decades ago, because it's way toxic to people. Instead of throwing hazardous waste in the dump, we would paint the barn with it. This was normal.

[Mark Wooden]

There are usually several reclaimed lumber sellers in the rural ares surround cities. You should be able to source more than enough pine/doug fir/hemlock to mill up to make the doors and not have to "distress" the material. It often looks contrived anyway, especially if not done a lot.
And get about double the material needed, defecting the stock runs a high waste factor

[Jamie Buxton]

One of my hardwood dealers offers barn wood. It is real -- old and weathered and full of defects. They want $12 per board foot for it!

[Jamie Buxton]

Good point about the mid-rails. However, how securely can I attach the surface boards? They'll be 4" - 6" wide. They'll expand and contract a little, right?
Can I glue them securely with, say, yellow glue?
And do I need to leave a very small gap?

Never made one of these doors before. Thanks.

Yes, each board will expand and contract a tiny bit. If you butt the boards together, it will be enough to cause trouble. But if you leave a gap -- like 1/32" between -- you'll be okay. A convenient gap gauge is a credit card. It is tough and slippery so it can be yanked out after you fasten a board on.

If you're concerned about light coming through the gaps, look up shiplap construction.

In fine furniture, you'd glue the boards on so there would be no exposed fasteners. For a "barn door", nails might be appropriate. They'd be faster than waiting for all that glue to dry. And that's how a real barn door would have been built.

[Mark Gibney]

Thanks Jamie.

[John C Bush]

When I think of sliding barn doors I see Z or X bracing in an exposed frame and vertical planks/sheating. For a modern/midcentury modern/European/California style the horizontal distressed sheating would look great. If a designer didn't spec the 2 1/2" thickness I'd think that is a little thick unless it matches the scale of other features in the home. Will you keep the "sandwiched" vertical edges exposed or cover with trim? If you cover the edges you could mill the sheating to 1/2", use 3/4" internal frame stock if a thinner look is better. Structurally, top and bottom rails, two edge and one central stiles would keep the sheating flat and support the vertical load. John Jordan's suggestion of sandblasting works well and I use ground walnut shells--from Harbor Freight--to clean up natural edge slabs and add texture to the surface. I use my sand blasting gun and just stick the venturi hose into the box. Don't need a fancy blaster system. EZPEEZY. Do the blasting outside--makes a mess inside and you'll be combing it out of your hair for a while. I have stained the stock first, then "artistically texturized" the surface for both color and surface finish so you can play with the distressed look as you go. Sounds like a fun commission and remember to post pics when done. JCB

[Mark Gibney]

Thanks John, I like the idea of sandblasting with walnut shells. Guess I'll see if my local Harbor Freight has what I need right now.

[Richard Coers]

Better have a big a$$ compressor. Using a sandblaster is like cutting the end off your air hose. It takes a mountain of air.

[John K Jordan]

Better have a big a$$ compressor. Using a sandblaster is like cutting the end off your air hose. It takes a mountain of air.

That's more a matter of personal opinion than fact. IMO.

A small sand blaster with a smaller compressor and a measure of patience works just as well. I used a 1/2hp 5-gallon oil-less compressor with a sand blasting gun for years for wood and metal. For production or the impatient, yes, big compressor, big blaster.

JKJ

[Jamie Buxton]

That's more a matter of personal opinion than fact. IMO.

A small sand blaster with a smaller compressor and a measure of patience works just as well. I used a 1/2hp 5-gallon oil-less compressor with a sand blasting gun for years for wood and metal. For production or the impatient, yes, big compressor, big blaster.

JKJ

I know nothing about sand blasting. The OP is talking about texturing a door that's three feet by 8 feet. Let's say he makes if from Doug Fir or Southern Yellow Pine, and aims to erode it enough to really emphasize the grain. With your 1/2 hp compressor, roughly how long would that take? An hour? A day? Ten minutes?

[John K Jordan]

I know nothing about sand blasting. The OP is talking about texturing a door that's three feet by 8 feet. Let's say he makes if from Doug Fir or Southern Yellow Pine, and aims to erode it enough to really emphasize the grain. With your 1/2 hp compressor, roughly how long would that take? An hour? A day? Ten minutes?

I can't guess and I don't have that compressor any more. I did use grit blast small pieces of wood effectively. I suspect there are a lot of variables to consider with the door from the type and softness of wood, the media used, and the extent of the abrasion that would give a satisfactory appearance. All these could be tested on small pieces and an estimate could be made for the total effort.

In 1976 I used that little compressor and a hand-held gun from Sears to sand blast an entire VW mini bus then paint it red, white, and blue to with stars and stripes and "Franklin Territory" for friend's crosscountry bicentennial trip (in costume!). Made the local TV news! It took a while to do the whole van.

These days I use a 60 gal 5hp IR compressor. I like it. I have a grit blasting cabinet for small parts.

In the early 70s I worked for a Grinnel Industrial piping facility in Kernersville NC where I did NDT inspection on piping for nuclear reactors. The blasting facilities there were amazing. They used nozzles that were perhaps 2" in diameter if I remember correctly and wore special heavy protective suits. The pipes were placed on large timbers on the floor for blasting. After a few uses the timbers looked like driftwood that had been in the ocean for years with deep channels and voids. People who worked there saved them for building things.

JKJ

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Coming from the perspective of someone who has reluctantly installed dozens of these infernal things, I urge you to pause. The door you are thinking of will weigh a lot. If it's just hanging there as a piece of art, fine, but when you make it move things take a whole new meaning. A 200# door will closely resemble a battering ram to any other components that it makes contact with, including door trim, guides, frames and kids fingers. That last one is key as they will be the ones slamming this around. Make sure your client knows how dangerous this door is. On a real barn the slides are not really good so there is a built in braking system. Not true with modern interior barn door hardware, it even becomes a pain to get them to park in one position because the bar is even slightly out of level.

I've made a few barn doors and quit doing it because I can buy a prebuilt one from BPI for $250-$400 and there is no way I can build it that cheap. Odds are that your customer envisions a softwood door to, probably pine. They probably went to pinterest and 99% of what you see there is pine.

[John K Jordan]

Coming from the perspective of someone who has reluctantly installed dozens of these infernal things, I urge you to pause. The door you are thinking of will weigh a lot. ...

I wondered about that but have no experience with sliding barn doors to allow comment.

When I build barn doors for real barns I've standardized on another method which is heavy but hinged: a wide oak butt-jointed frame behind a sheet of pressure-treated plywood and faced with rough sawn 4/4 cedar so the ply is sandwiched between the cedar and the frame. Lots of screws. Big hinges held with bolts through the oak in the door and the frame in the barn. The plywood keeps it stable and it won't sag. On the back of my barn I made a double door, 4' and 5', so stable that I used a residential door handle/lock set and the door still "snicks" closed after about 8 years in the weather. I've made several like that.

JKJ

[Tom M King]

I can concur about problems with heavy sliding doors. I put in a couple of 6'x10', that meet in the middle for a 12'x10' opening on the mechanic shop. I didn't want the look of an overhead door. That building was already here, and had hinged doors, that weren't safe to open if the wind was over 10 mph.

I used Richards-Wilcox hardware, so the probably 350 lb. (maybe even more-on 600 lb. hardware) doors roll really easily. It was always about a 6, or 8 step process because one door would make the other move at every touch, and that's not even considering the risk to fingers, and yes they had the "proper" stops. I finally put a power opener/closer on them, and haven't had that fight since.