No-Sag Door(s)?

[Derek Tuchscherer]

I am in the process of building an 8' x 12' garden shed and want a 4' opening for the doorway. I was planning on having 2 - 2' wide doors, and was wondering if there is a "best design" to keep the doors from sagging? And is there any particular hardware I should be using?

Thanks in Advance
Derek

[Warren Clemans]

For a building that small, you may need to try extra hard to make sure the opening that you're hanging the doors in doesn't rack or otherwise go out of square. I can't imagine you'd have too much trouble with 2' doors sagging, assuming they're well made. For doors that narrow, cross bracing would probably be just decorative. Maybe use 4 hinges per side if the doors are heavy. Consider sheathing the wall on both sides to make it extra stiff, and bolt it solidly to the slab (or whatever you're using as a foundation).

[Greg Cole]

I'd say a 2 foot door shouldn't sag unless you bought a shed from one of the Borgs. ;)
Usually the sag is from the hinges not necessarily the door.
I made a cedar door for a shed that was rehabbed into a pool house. It's about 32" wide. 2x4 frame with 1/2 lap corner joinery with wooden pegs for good measure & 5/4 ship lapped panel. It weighs a good 100# and there's no sag in the door itself & there's no addidional cross bracing etc.
Its more the hinges that keep doors from sagging in the wall openings....

Greg

[Neal Clayton]

yeah, lapped corner joints and 3" deck screws/rough nails even should be fine. shim behind the hinges, and in the center at the top of the frame with 3/4" material (plywood scrap or hardwood floor scrap or some such). not necessarily from years of experience but the above is how the door frames were done in my 100 year old house to hold up ~125 pound solid heart pine doors and they don't sag, so it seems to work ;).

[Peter Quinn]

I made and hung two 54"X74" carriage house doors on my garage/wood storage shed (crazy wife thinks we out to keep a car in there!:D) No sagging, its been two years.

I used 4 1/2" styles, an arched top rail with a 4 1/2" flat, 5" mid rail, and a 9" bottom rail. Mortise and tenon construction. This was a low budget replacement for a traditional garage door, so I used fir T1-11 5/8" textured sheathing for the panels and spruce 1 1/2" X 6" T&G decking for the rails and stiles. I glued the panels into the grooves with PL glue which makes the whole assembly very strong. Whole thing cost me $78, plus hardware.

I used three 4" brass butt hinges per door. Strap hinges look cool, but good ones cost a fortune and standard butt hinges will hold more weight and control racking. Bigger door, bigger hinges. Most will tell you the load rating, double the weight of the door and divide by three to select the correct hinges. Example, door weights 70 pounds, you want a constant load per hinge of 50% of rating so take 140#, divided by 3 gives just over 45# per hinge. Unless the door is getting really big (over 36") and heavy I'd skip the calculations as most good exterior hinges are more than capable of handling the weight of our average door. That third hinge may not be necessary for weight but helps keep the door aligned.

You have to have good framing to hang any door, particularly if you are hanging heavy raised panel doors. Make sure the rough opening is strong and stiff, you could add blocking, add an extra stud or a stud in a T fashion to the inside. An average 24" door may be very heavy if made from white oak with raised panels, or very light if made with fir or cedar and flat panels. 24" is not particularly wide for a door so any design should work assuming construction is solid. For a single 48" door you might want to include more mid styles for strength in the design to spread the weight load over more area.

If you are going for a simple shed plywood doors with an applied board and batten with a few X cross bars will look appropriate and be more than sufficient. In this case strap hinges might be the way to go. Not sure if you were going for formal look or "shed to hold the mower' look.