I wasnt in the market for a barn door until I filled my game room with so many machines that the regular door couldnt open all the way. I took a chance on this one, but ended up wishing I hadnt gone cheap.
I preassembled the door to check the fit and everything seemed fine. I did notice some of the boards slid around a bit so I supplemented the foam weather stripping that was already in the grooves of each of the side boards with additional foam stripping to make the fit tighter and it seemed to work. I screwed it all together and twice was lucky enough for the screws to hit knots causing cracks. The cracks are hidden so I wasnt worried about it. I chose not to use the K boards because I liked the look better without them – particularly the exposed screws. That turned out to be a mistake.
I lay the assembled door across some sawhorses for staining and found it rocking quite a bit, but I convinced myself it was the homemade sawhorses. After installing all of the hardware and hanging the door I noticed it definitely hanging rather odd. Looking close, I saw that the left side board had quite the bow to its bottom half. As a result, the entire door was twisted. The top two corners of the door were fine, but the bottom left corner was nearly four inches from the wall while the right corner would hit the door jamb. I messed with it for days pulling it apart and loosening and retightening screws, but it actually seemed to be getting worse.
Then, despite my adding that extra weather stripping, the boards all started to slide around revealing see through cracks between them. (Should have used the K boards I guess.) I ended up taking the door down, spacing the boards so there were no see through cracks and ran a bead of glue down each seam. That held it and its not noticeable. (For other buyers, I recommend adding even more of that weather stripping in those grooves.) I hung the door back up and it was as twisted as ever.
My final solution was painting a piece of angle iron and attaching it to the floor using it as a long guide the entire path of the door. This forced the door to remain straight and it still slid back and forth just fine. Im hoping that in a years time that the door will relax, be forced to stay straight and Ill be able to remove that angle iron. The good news is that the door does look very nice and Ive yet to trip over that angle iron. This was a lot more trouble than I expected. Im satisfied with the end result, but I wish I had paid for better quality.
The door looks very nice, but it wasnt easy.
I wasnt in the market for a barn door until I filled my game room with so many machines that the regular door couldnt open all the way. I took a chance on this one, but ended up wishing I hadnt gone cheap. I preassembled the door to check the fit and everything seemed fine. I did notice some of the boards slid around a bit so I supplemented the foam weather stripping that was already in the grooves of each of the side boards with additional foam stripping to make the fit tighter and it seemed to work. I screwed it all together and twice was lucky enough for the screws to hit knots causing cracks. The cracks are hidden so I wasnt worried about it. I chose not to use the K boards because I liked the look better without them – particularly the exposed screws. That turned out to be a mistake. I lay the assembled door across some sawhorses for staining and found it rocking quite a bit, but I convinced myself it was the homemade sawhorses. After installing all of the hardware and hanging the door I noticed it definitely hanging rather odd. Looking close, I saw that the left side board had quite the bow to its bottom half. As a result, the entire door was twisted. The top two corners of the door were fine, but the bottom left corner was nearly four inches from the wall while the right corner would hit the door jamb. I messed with it for days pulling it apart and loosening and retightening screws, but it actually seemed to be getting worse. Then, despite my adding that extra weather stripping, the boards all started to slide around revealing see through cracks between them. (Should have used the K boards I guess.) I ended up taking the door down, spacing the boards so there were no see through cracks and ran a bead of glue down each seam. That held it and its not noticeable. (For other buyers, I recommend adding even more of that weather stripping in those grooves.) I hung the door back up and it was as twisted as ever. My final solution was painting a piece of angle iron and attaching it to the floor using it as a long guide the entire path of the door. This forced the door to remain straight and it still slid back and forth just fine. Im hoping that in a years time that the door will relax, be forced to stay straight and Ill be able to remove that angle iron. The good news is that the door does look very nice and Ive yet to trip over that angle iron. This was a lot more trouble than I expected. Im satisfied with the end result, but I wish I had paid for better quality.