My tack and feed rooms are currently two open bays across the aisle from each other and we’re about to finish enclosing them. Due to the small size of each room (8x10) I plan on installing sliding barn doors instead of swing doors to save on space. I am having a hard time picturing how to frame it out and would love to see pictures of anyone who has these types of doors in their barns. Thanks!!
That will look really sharp, good idea!
I don’t think those doors need framing, just screw the hardware up there and hang them on it?
Maybe someone will have used those and can post pictures.
Does it need to be rodent proof?
Not sure those doors are, but it may not matter there.
Let us see how that comes out, please.
looking at your attachment there is a photo on the left showing how these doors are hung using exposed top hung hardware
My suggestion is to make your own doors and make them wider, like stall doors. How much work is it going inside the house doors carrying saddles, an arm load of blankets? Will a tack trunk fit easily thru that 33" doorway? Same for the feed room. Can you get a wheelbarrow with feed bags thru the skinny door? Big storage containers?
We made our sliding doors from a sheet of one inch, 4’x8’ outdoor plywood. Then husband did the outline of door, crossed X on the bottom half, with 2x4s. You would need to shorten the height if bays are only 7ft tall. Leave on the width to overlap the opening sides and top under slider rail. The extra width of door opening will make things so much easier to get in and out of the rooms without banging your elbows! Not sure what you want to do on the doorway floor. Put in a lip or threshold to keep the opening closed against dirt and bugs, rodents.
You can stain or paint the wood to match the rest of the barn walls. We used sliding door latches to hold them closed, roller hardware, door stop on the floor, to keep door snug to the wall, when open or closed.
1 Like
Ha! Ok, I guess my OP wasn’t the most clear - my fault! I am not sure how to build the front of the wall in order to hang the door. The bay was built the same as my stalls, 4x4 supports anchored to the concrete and u-channels for the walls. To build the front walls, I originally planned on attaching u-channels on both sides but wasn’t sure what would be on either side of the door opening itself. Do I sink 2 more 4x4’s for either side of the door or build a frame with 2x4’s for the opening? Also, the u-channels are 1’ taller than the door, so I need to figure out the header boards the door track can attach to…again, I’m sure I’m explaining this terribly which is why I need to see pictures 
@goodhors - yes, again my fault in the OP…the doors I’m going with are actually 48", plenty wide to fit a trunk! I had looked at solid sliding stall doors instead, and still may go that route, they would also be 48".
If there is ever the chance the area would be coverted back to a stall or open bay I would just use a bottom plate that was on the ground between the 4by4 and use a top plate the same way.
The studs for the wall would attached from the under side of the bottom late before the bottom plate is installed
Not the same thing as what OP is doing but the concept is the same of how we converted a 12by12 dtall into two smaller stalls for the minatures. Everything was attached to the bottom plate which was secured in place to the sidewalls. (The 2by6 on the ends are lag bolted to the wall)
Our adaption was simple to remove with no damage to the stall as we needed the stall for Bonnie when we got her, miniatures were kicked out to the little barn
those little black things on the center divider are Build A Bear boots that we use on the miniatures …those boots are about $9/pair where real miniature horse boots are about $140/pair… we saw no difference between the two
A guide at the bottom will keep the door tight.
I’m having trouble visualizing your space so please forgive me if what I’m about to say is completely wrong. If you are willing to build doors, you can build a large one that covers the whole gap (assuming you have a space for it to slide over to). Or you could build two that slide like closet doors. That would make it easier to use the space for other purposes in the future. I built a 10x9 sliding door recently with plywood and it wasn’t very hard or very expensive. I didn’t bother with pretty trim so it’s pretty basic. I’m using it as a temporary wall to close in a windrow.
2 Likes
Here are the installation instructions for the sliding doors I’m installing. The important bits seem to be the bottom board (because you need somewhere for the roller to attach so that it is a the right depth) and the stairstep boards at the edge where it closes, to stop the door and so that the latch is at the right depth.
Yes, you need a post on either side of the door. This construction assumes you are nailing boards to the aisle-side of some posts. You can still use U-channel for the wall as long as you have that 2x8 up top on the outside of them for the door to hang from, and the bottom one for the roller. And then you may need some vertical boards on top of the 4x4s as filler so there isn’t a gap when the door is closed.
Alternately you could frame in the wall, as long as you put the header at the right height so you can hang the door hardware. In that case I imagine you’d have two 2x8’s nailed together (with the grain reversed) to make a beam on top of the stud wall. It depends on what you want the outside of the wall to look like.
1 Like
Weezer, it looks pretty awesome and reliable enough, in my opinion. When I was looking for some great doors’ alternative of my regular doors, I could discover a website from renovation professionals ( here: https://primmart.com/why-choose-sliding-doors/ ), where read about all the pros and cons of installing sliding doors, so long story short - for now I have couple of such great doors.
