# warped sliding barn door



## firemedic731 (Sep 29, 2017)

Hey guys, 

I built a sliding barn door for a customer, it was 2 large bypassing doors, and only 1 of them is warping. The door is 93" tall by 60" wide. Its in the front of their house by the front door and windows in their study right off the entry way. I am in TX, I built the door in October, sense then we've had a bought of cold/humid weather. The doors are made of kiln dried pine. I cut 1x6's to length and connected them side by side using wooden dowels and wood glue. I then used 1x4 kiln dried pine to face it on one side. I put a frame around it, with one horizontal brace going straight across the center, then two small X patterns on both the top and bottom of the center brace. The face is glued down, nailed in with 18g brad nails and then I went back with my countersink and put some wood screws in that i plugged with my own pine plugs. Stained it and sealed it with poly. The front of the door with the pattern on it is bowing out in the center, and the back of the door is curling in on the sides. I am trying to figure out a few things, if 1) my construction method was wrong, 2) the weather just got to the pine and 3) what the heck I can do to fix it! Ill probably end up building them a new door, but I want to try and correct this one if I can. The individual boards dont appear to be twist, kinking or cupping, the entire door as a whole is just moving. Did I secure it too tightly and not give it enough room to expand? Should I try drying it, wetting it, putting sand bags on it?


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Maybe this will help?*

I made these large, 8 ft X 11 ft, barn doors from Cypress.I had screwed on two horizontals on the back. I had also rabbeted the edges of the boards and butted them tightly together, so there was no room for expansion. They both warped, of course. My solution was to unscrew them entirely and slide each board over about 1/8" keeping the rabbet without having a gap. I haven't heard back from the client, so I think that solved the issue. There was no additional border or framing on the front side. 

 

 


If you have done essentially the same and not allowed the boards to move, that's probably the cause of the warp. If they are butted hard to one another the whole thing has to move as a unit. By using a rabbet, I could still allow for individual board movement without showing a gap between the boards. :|


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

That size of a door using 1x6's really needed a steel frame. Wood is just too prone to move to make one that size. If you had made a frame out of 2x6's and used 1x6's for the panel would have had a better chance. Still the wood itself would have the final say so. It would also help if you selected wood that was cut close to the center of the tree. Quarter sawn wood is more stable.


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

kiln dried pine - not always at a good moisture content...


I suspect that the door has one surface facing the interior - climate controlled. and the opposing surface to the weather.


as bill mentioned you may not have left enough e&c gaps. you could run a tool (saw, router) down between the boards and re-establish a gap, the overlay with batten boards. or rebuild..


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## tewitt1949 (Nov 26, 2013)

I live in the middle of farm country with many big barns with doors like what you are doing. I think all of them are made out of pine, some might be covered with pole barn steel, otherwise jut painted or left unpainted.

Most of the time the bottoms are guided with a pipe in the ground or something and warpage isn't a problem as the pipes hold the doors straight. Around here when the doors are closed, quite often small pieces of lumber is out between the pipes and doors to hold them tight. After a while they hang straight. I'd save give it time and they will be ok.


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