Building custom insulated door for the shop.

[Pete Kurki]

I need to replace my non-standard size exterior shop door (a large single door). It needs to be well insulated for winter, so I have been contemplating some kind of wood frame with a foam panel core sandwiched between two plywood panels and perhaps a plastic skin on the exterior surface. The fact is, however, that I have never really tried to build a door before, and instead of trying to design the structure myself I would love to find some kind of plan for it. Anyone know where to find one? All other advice is welcome as well.

Thanks,
Pete

[Jamie Buxton]

Laminating the door is a good approach. When you're making the frame pieces, remember to provide solid wood for the area where the lock set is going to go through. One key element is to make sure the door is flat while you're laminating. If you "build in" a warp, you're in trouble.

That plastic skin... I don't understand why you'd want to do that. Paint has better resistance to sunlight than plastic, and would be easier to apply.

[Brian Backner]

Pete,

The following link demonstrates the building of efficient garage/shop doors:

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/gar-dr-1.htm

The site in general has a lot of neat demos on tools and projects:

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/menu2.htm

Brian

[Pete Kurki]

Thanks Brian for an excellent link. This is pretty much what I was hoping to find. The door in the demo is really heavy though, so I may need to find a way to lighten it up a bit. Using 1/2" plywood instead of 3/4" OSB, and just painting the surfaces instead of paneling should be a good start. Any other suggestions, anyone?

[Pete Kurki]

Great suggestions, Jamie. I did not now about the weakness of the plastic skin. I will likely follow your recommendation about painting.

[Jim O'Dell]

I built 2 swing out doors in a torsion box style. Ribs inside were 1/2" Ply and the skins were 3/8" Ply. Used 2X4 material around the edges, maybe 2X6 on the hinge side. Cut the foam insulating sheets to fit in the cavities of the torsion box inside for insulation. The doors are 5' wide each. So far they have held up well. I used the floor in my finishing room to build them on. Not perfect reference flat, but it did ok. Jim.

[Tom Godley]

I have no idea on the availability of this.

When the previous owner added a large addition to the "studio" out back - he used stress skin engineered panels for the whole building including the roof sub structure. SSP's are osb with foam sandwiched between them - mine size out the same as a 2x with ply on both sides (foam is 3.5 thick)

What he did on the gable end was to cut out two sections 4x8 -- so he had an opening 8x8 for the doors. He removed enough foam for a 2x4 to be inserted around the perimeter of each 4x8 "door" and then he made a frame from 2x8s to hold them.

They work surprisingly well with the three large hinges on each door that he used - I would have used four just to be on the safe side. I still need to do a little finish work on them as he never added any jam stops or weather strip.

If you live in an area where you can get the ssp sections this would be a great way to go because the foam "is" the structure and you do not need to have any additional heavy supports inside the panels.

I would think you could make them using two sheets of ply with foam in between them - you would have to size the perimeter framing to match the thickness of the foam panels. For the panels to be rigid -- they would have to be glued throughout the field - to hold that tight you could used some bolts as clamps to hold the ply tight to the foam until the glue dries, otherwise you must place framing material in the field adding weight.

My doors have drywall inside and a thin plywood board and batten outside - so maybe the weight is really not a problem.

[Marci Anderson]

I built 2 swing out doors in a torsion box style. Ribs inside were 1/2" Ply and the skins were 3/8" Ply. Used 2X4 material around the edges, maybe 2X6 on the hinge side. Cut the foam insulating sheets to fit in the cavities of the torsion box inside for insulation. The doors are 5' wide each. So far they have held up well. I used the floor in my finishing room to build them on. Not perfect reference flat, but it did ok. Jim.

I did just what Jim mentions almost exactly. Each door was 5x8 feet. 3" of insulation (ridgid foam) can get you around R21. http://picasaweb.google.com/mjcmbk/NutHouse/photo?authkey=jH-uUMlmRPc#5130309874678674850

[Pete Kurki]

Jim and Marci, thanks for the great ideas! I believe will build mine following your two examples.

Pete

[Marci Anderson]

I could post more pics. Good luck on your project.