Garage Barn Door openers

[slravenel]

Having a new garage built at my house and I am putting a set of sliding barn doors on it. I am limited in size due to space on the lot and a pre-existing carport that is being walled in for the garage. I have a 14.5' foot wide door opening and am putting 2 same size barn doors on it.

However, I am a little tied up on the opening of the doors....I want them to be remote open so my fiance doesnt need to get out and open them by hand - and lets face it...auto open is just better anyway. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced sliding barn door motors? I have found 2 online - one is $1500 and one is $3500 for enough to open 2 doors. I can get it cheaper if I have both doors open to one side and go one over the other...but not sure I want that...

Does anyone have any other ideas, or am I limited to the $1500 set at least?

Thanks!

 

[muddinmetal]

Having a new garage built at my house and I am putting a set of sliding barn doors on it. I am limited in size due to space on the lot and a pre-existing carport that is being walled in for the garage. I have a 14.5' foot wide door opening and am putting 2 same size barn doors on it.

However, I am a little tied up on the opening of the doors....I want them to be remote open so my fiance doesnt need to get out and open them by hand - and lets face it...auto open is just better anyway. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced sliding barn door motors? I have found 2 online - one is $1500 and one is $3500 for enough to open 2 doors. I can get it cheaper if I have both doors open to one side and go one over the other...but not sure I want that...

Does anyone have any other ideas, or am I limited to the $1500 set at least?

Thanks!

You know you can save a lot of money by not being a fancy fu*ker and having regular doors like the rest of us

 

[slravenel]

You know you can save a lot of money by not being a fancy fu*ker and having regular doors like the rest of us

If it were only that easy laughing1

Since I am walling in what I've got there already, there is a big ass I beam in the way that if I put a regular door there it would lower my overhead space by almost 2 feet...to just under 7 feet to the door when its opened.

Cant have outswing doors or carriage doors either since they would block the driveway.

It's just a price to pay for inner city Atlanta living. I am in an early 1900's bungalow house so my lot is pretty narrow as is...its deep though, so everything is turned sideways. I wanted a roll up metal door too, but head height on those is out as well... causing some headaches, but it will be nice in the end if I can make it work

#trendyshit #hipster4lyfe #whoseideawasthisanyway #gonnasellgoodthough

 

[money_pit_yj]

Lambo Doors. Two remote activated Harbor freight winches, a couple of pulleys and a good strong pivot pin on the bottom and rock out.

 

[paradisepwoffrd]

What's the track going to look like? Is your door much smaller than the front face of the garage? That's the biggest issue with barn doors, is having the side real estate for the track.

Otherwise, like said, I'd probly rig up some cables to a standard hoist or door opener. Or adapt a sliding gate opener to the doors.

 

[slravenel]

What's the track going to look like? Is your door much smaller than the front face of the garage? That's the biggest issue with barn doors, is having the side real estate for the track.

Otherwise, like said, I'd probly rig up some cables to a standard hoist or door opener. Or adapt a sliding gate opener to the doors.

The track is box track. The building face is 24 ft wide so the doors will overhang a bit off the sides, but there is the real estate to make that happen. It sounds a bit odd but the way the building face is and is attached to the house it will work out sliding into a pocket of sorts. I have had several pros look at it and all have said it will work out even though it's not common to have them go off the side of the building. I thought about trying to adapt a standard opener but just wasn't sure how they really attach or if that attachment can be altered to sit anywhere along that chain. I guess I need to spend some time looking at one to see. I don't see "why" it wouldn't work turning one sideways...but just am not totally sure yet if one is up to the task of moving a solid wood 8x8 door sideways...wonder what the reduction that a garage door spring does to the weight of a normal door. Thought about a sliding gate opener also but most of those are just as expensive and mount outside in a box which I'm not too fond of.

 

[gottagofast]

Push door open by hand..... open garage door by hand.... compare effort needed.... i suspect it'll be fine....

Years ago I had a HEAVY garage door that the spring broke on.... the opener had no problem w it but it was quite a job to open it by hand when the power was out

 

[customcj7]

Why not get a utility door instead? The roll up kind?
They make light duty ones with power openers.

 

[slravenel]

Why not get a utility door instead? The roll up kind?
They make light duty ones with power openers.

head height requirements on them are pretty big...a lot bigger than I would have ever thought. An 8 foot door becomes a 6 foot door once you take the 24" head height requirement into consideration.

Before I knew that, one of those with flat slats was my first choice....but after talking to some OEMs they just arent designed for "regular" low doors.

 

[84mallcrawl]

just modify a chain driven garage door opener with some sprockets.

mount the control unit inside. run the chain through the wall, turn 90 with a pair of sprockets, hook half the door to side A of the chain and the other half door to side B.

 

[slravenel]

After a bunch of reading and looking around, I think my play is going to be to try and use normal garage door openers. I should only have to modify the way that they attach to the chain/belt (will be sideways instead of underneath) Unless I can flip the entire thing on its side and run it that way...but worry about slack in the belt that way pulling it off the sprog. I just need to play with it.

I cant think of any reason why the limit stops, auto-reverse and all wouldnt still function that way either even.

 

[biggin]

Don't know if you've seen these or not but may be cheaper than modifying regular garage door openers.
https://www.realslidinghardware.com/edison-sliding-opener-aos-for-garage-doors-and-pole-barns/?matchtype=&network=s&device=m&adposition=1o8&keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1Yen7OnB1wIVXbXACh0HUQRZEAQYCCABEgLxavD_BwE

 

[biggin]

Or modify one like this
https://youtu.be/ngT15iHWjNU

 

[slravenel]

Don't know if you've seen these or not but may be cheaper than modifying regular garage door openers.
https://www.realslidinghardware.com/edison-sliding-opener-aos-for-garage-doors-and-pole-barns/?matchtype=&network=s&device=m&adposition=1o8&keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1Yen7OnB1wIVXbXACh0HUQRZEAQYCCABEgLxavD_BwE

Thats the one that is $1600

I still may go with a bypassing set (both go same direction and one passes over the top of the other), and if that is the case, I will go with theirs as it is robust enough to move both doors and at ~$700 for only one, the savings of going with 2 regular openers then is not really worth the trouble. The doors are going to weigh about 400-450 lbs a piece, so there is some heft to them.

 

[slravenel]

Or modify one like this
https://youtu.be/ngT15iHWjNU

And that is one of my saved videos on how to make it work if I go with normal opening doors. I just worry about the weight of the doors and by the time I add in 2 openers, making them both work, making sure everything slides right...I worry that they will be a constant project to keep them running...but we will see. I am going to get the doors built first and see how they are going to sit to decide whether I want normal biparting (one to either side) or go with bypassing (one over the other)

 

[Yellowyj]

Maybe a little late but was studying this gate opener today on one of my job sites, basically the chain is attached to either end of the gate and runs thru the box where the motor drives the chain in and out. I haven't opened up the box to see how the gears and motor are set up, but will try to open it up later this week to see exactly how the chain is driven by the gears/motor. I thought of this thread while I was standing there looking at it.

I saw a similar chain driven assembly on an old sliding fire door in the back of an old Kmart we are tearing down several weeks ago and forgot to take a picture of it. The motor and gear box looked similar to this gate opener, but was a smaller chain like on a residential garage door opener. It was mounted on the floor and pulled the door open so the door was between the the opener and the wall when open. Our demo sub was salvaging both the sliding fire doors that were like that.

 

[TacomaJD]

We have two of those at work, both work off of a pressure sensor under the asphalt from inside the gate, or manually opened by push of a button inside building to let someone in. Fawking sucks when they tear up and you have to get the old hand crank out to open the gate to let trucks out. Lol. I guess for as much as they get used daily, they are fairly reliable.