...because home doesn't happen overnight.

Last week I showed you how Handy Hubby made the barn door in our master suite.  Today I’d like to share with you how he actually hung it.  After ‘shopping’ several websites and getting quotes for a sliding track, we purchased the hardware from Crown Industrial located in San Francisco, CA. Specifically, we purchased the #43H standard flat track hanger in a painted flat black finish for doors weighing up to 400 pounds.  As I said before, the cost of the door itself was minimal {the cost of one gallon of paint}.  We decided to splurge on a quality track/hanger system. We didn’t want anything flimsy, wobbly or possibly hazardous given it would be supporting a ~125 pound door. The cost of the sliding/hanging hardware came in just under $400…including taxes and shipping. You could substantially cut that cost if you were able to pick up the product yourself {hint, hint all you California boys and girls} because shipping is expensive given the weight of the product and how far we live from CA.  The parts included were the flat track, all the custom cut spacers, 2 rollers/brackets, 2 track stops, 2 anti-jump blocks, bottom guide & rail, and carriage bolts for the door.

There are a bunch of different track and hanger styles but the flat track was definitely the cheapest option.  For those wanting an even cheaper option, you could look into galvanized box-section barn door track and hardware from Lowe’s, Home Depot or Tractor Supply for about a third of the cost.  The trade off is a dull gray/galvanized finish, bulkiness, and noisier operation once the door is hung.

There are several measurements and pieces of info that Crown Industrial asked Handy Hubby before he placed the order.  If you’re thinking of DIYing a sliding door, DO NOT SKIMP ON THIS STEP!  Measure 5 times, question yourself and then measure 5 more times. Here are some hand drawings that Handy Hubby sent the company to ensure proper fit and function.

Drawings aren’t necessary.  You can simply answer the questions that Crown Industrial asks.  But Handy Hubby is an engineer, so by nature he usually goes above and beyond the call of duty when organizing a project.  The hardware company also created their own images based on the info that he gave them.  Handy Hubby was asked to review and approve them before the order was placed.  Key point here? Marry an engineer.  {Or ask Handy Hubby a bunch of questions in the comments section below.}

As for installing everything, Handy Hubby used a blocking method to secure the system to the wall above the bathroom doorway.  He cut a 1″x4″ poplar board to size {ours was 8′}, stained and polyurethaned it, measured & leveled for placement and then screwed it into several studs above the doorway.  The sliding track was mounted onto the board.  {You can tie directly into the studs without blocking BUT you must know where your studs are and have Crown Industrial drill holes into the track at those specific points.  Handy Hubby opted for blocking which he found to be easier and more practical.} Here you can see where the poplar board was screwed into 6 studs {under the track}.  The slider/hanger kit did not provide the hardware for blocking.

Next, Handy Hubby attached the hangers to the top of the barn door using the supplied carriage bolts.  {Carriage bolts are just large bolts that grip into the wood to keep the bolt from turning when the nut is tightened.}

Notice the location of the screws in the top of the door.  Remember me mentioning to make sure you know where your hanger hardware will need to be attached before you screw the top of the door together?  Now you see why.

Not only is the door secured at the top but there is also a track down on the floor.  This keeps the door from swinging out/in.  Handy Hubby screwed the floor track right into the floor {through the carpet}.  Then he routed a channel out on the back {bathroom side} of the barn door at the bottom and screwed in a thin guide for the floor track to slip into.  Sorry, I don’t have an image of this available but here’s a drawing from the company showing how the concealed floor T guide works. This shows the guide being centered along the bottom of the door.  Handy Hubby channeled our door along one side {the bathroom side} at the bottom.

I’m happy to say that our barn door slides open and closed very smoothly…no jumping off the track, shaking or getting hung up.  It’s very solid and sturdy.  As far as noise goes, it isn’t completely silent.  It doesn’t squeak, creak or groan.  It’s more of a ‘roaring’ sound, if that makes any sense.  But it’s not loud.  {Unless my 2-year-old is closing it and tries to push it further than the track allows!  Luckily, there are safety stoppers included for those instances to keep the door from flying off the track.} All-in-all, we are very satisfied with the quality of the sliding track and hangers. Again, we paid for that quality but it seemed worth it since the door itself was so inexpensive to DIY.

Do you have any questions about the barn door, track/hanger system or installation process?  I’m sure I’ve missed something here since I wasn’t really in on this project.  {I did watch the kids though while Handy Hubby worked away.}  Feel free to post your questions in the comments section below.  Handy Hubby has agreed to answer anything that pops up.  You may have to give him some time though since he works all day…and helps take care of the kiddos and cooks and puts up with me and my antics.  He is good.

Later this week, I’ll show you the door handles that Handy Hubby added to the barn door recently. They look great!

FYI – I was not compensated in any way for this post.  I just love sharing some good DIY.

images:  1&2) Steve Miller  3-6) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking  7) Crown Industrial

Wow!  The sliding barn door in our bedroom has caused quite a raucous.  104 comments??!! Yowsas.

Wanna know how we, I mean, Handy Hubby did it?  Good.  Because I’m going to tell you. However, there are so many steps involved that I’m breaking this DIY project up into 2 posts:  1) constructing the door  2) hanging the door.  That way you don’t get overwhelmed…or bored.  I’m warning you, there’s a lot of math, measuring and side notes involved.  Ready?  Let’s do this.

We hauled the original fence boards back from Pennsylvania where they once lived at Handy Hubby’s family farm.  Then we set to work figuring out how large we wanted the door to be.  We knew we wanted it to cover the entire master bathroom door frame {including the trim} if possible when in the closed position.  I say ‘if possible’ because when determining how wide you’d like the barn door to be, you must take into account the amount of wall space adjacent to the doorway where the door will rest when in the open position.  Otherwise, the door will not slide open completely.  Luckily, the space of wall to the right of our bathroom doorway was large enough to accommodate the width of door we wanted.  We measured the desired door width and then divided it by 5¾” {the width of each fence board} to get the number of fence boards we’d need for the door. We needed 7 fence boards to get a door width of ~41″.  Once the door width was established, we chose the length/height.  The ceiling in our bedroom is vaulted, so we wanted to hang the door well above the door frame because we knew the room could handle it.  We decided on 88″ for the door length/height. Handy Hubby cut the 7 boards to 88″ long with a miter saw.  {This was way back in the fall before snowpocalypse.  That should be a good indication of how long it takes us to get anything done over here.} On a side note…we inspected each board to determine which end to cut off.  In many instances, there was a ‘bad’ end that we wanted to get rid of.

To hold the door together and give it more of barn feel, Handy Hubby cut 2 wider support boards to attach to the top and bottom of the door.  We also wanted 1 regular fence board placed horizontally about two-thirds of the way down the door for added stability and door handle installation.

Once all the boards were cut to size, they got a good sand job {I said sand job} from a palm sander.  Handy Hubby blew the sawdust off with the leaf blower {hey, use what you got!}, wiped ’em down with a damp rag, let them dry completely and rubbed them well with tack cloth.  Next came the priming and painting.  Handy Hubby brushed on 2 coats of oil-based primer {left over from our kitchen cabinet makeover} and rolled on {with a foam roller} 3 coats of semi-gloss latex paint.  The paint color we chose was Sherwin Williams Auric.

With the necessary boards all cut to size and painted, Handy Hubby proceeded to assemble the door.  He laid the boards out on our bedroom floor to square it all up, measuring corner to corner and tweaking until everything matched up.  The distance of each diagonal {the measurement from opposite top and bottom corners} should be equal.  Sorry, I don’t have a true work-in-progress image of this step but this might help…

Handy Hubby pre-drilled holes for the wood screws into the horizontal boards, making sure not to drill all the way through the vertical boards below.  We didn’t want any screws popping through to the other side of the door since they would be seen from the bathroom.  **Handy Hubby Hint: Wrap a piece of painter’s tape around the drill bit at the depth you want your holes.  Drill in just to the tape line for a perfect hole every time!**

He alternated the placement of the holes so that the screw heads would have a kind of zig zag pattern.  Another side note…we had already selected our hanging hardware at this point, and Handy Hubby made sure NOT to drill the top horizontal board in places where the hardware would need to go later. More on that in Part II of this DIY post, but the thing to remember here is that you need to know what hanging hardware you’re using before you assemble the door.  Then came my moment of fame.  I stood on the boards to keep them from moving while Handy Hubby screwed everything together…the upper, middle and lower horizontal boards into the vertical boards. Essentially, each vertical board ended up with 6 screws in it – 2 from each horizontal support board.  We liked the look of the shiny, raw screw heads showing, so we chose not to touch them up.

Once the door was assembled, it was HEAVY!  Assembling the door in the bedroom kept us from having to lug the finished product around the house and up a flight of stairs.  It also made quite a sawdust mess in the bedroom, but that was an easy trade-off to aching backs and dinged up walls.

I’m not going to lie.  That door was propped up against our bedroom wall for weeks while we prepped the doorway and waited on the hardware to arrive.  I had visions of it toppling down on us in the middle of the night.  But it didn’t.  Thank goodness.  It definitely would’ve left a mark.  Before it was hung, I was already in love with all the scarred imperfections.  The nicks, scratches, crannies and cracks gave it a story. I even told Handy Hubby not to worry about fixing any damage that he’d done to the paint job while assembling the door.  He was happy to oblige.

So, that’s how Handy Hubby assembled the barn door with a teensy bit of help from me.  Take note that the only money we spent for this part of the project was on the gallon of paint.  And if you’ve made it through this entire post without yawning yet, you deserve a pat on the back.  And probably a link to where our sliding barn door hardware came from.  More on that tomorrow!

images:  all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking