Frost heave?

[gstrom99]

I have (large) sliding doors on my pole barn, but I only need to open one of them. Every winter, the frost heave causes the door to bind and I find myself trying to dig out the door's path in the gravel. It's annoying and sometimes its frozen and I need my pick axe. Short of pouring a concrete pad (or replacing the thing with a roll-up), anyone have similar issues and/or solution(s)?

 

[hube2]

What type of sliding door?
I have a similar problem on my shed. The ramp into the shed heaves and causes the door to stick.
In my case the door has adjustable rollers at the top that let me adjust the door a little higher.

 

[zzvyb6]

Raise the door track and screw on some round baler belting to act as a flexible seal. If there is ice or snow accumulation also blocking the door base, put some water softener salt in the track. Good for 20 deg & above. Or even put a heat tape down there.

 

[fishheadbob]

Similar situation without much of a solution. Pick axe or similar works best. Later today a mountain of snow will slide off the roof and stick tight to the doors, later freeze in place. Knowing the hard way that this is going to happen I opened the doors so I can plow the snow from in front of the doors from inside the barn I will still have to dig the doors out because they'll be snowed in in the open position but it's less work this way.

 

[BnRidge]

One comment about salt. The barn doors here had a concrete pad poured (1907) up next to the stone and concrete foundation, with a path formed for the doors to slide. That groove would fill with snow, then water from the roof, and more snow. I always used an ice spade to free and clean it. There was plenty of space for the door, so frost heave didn't matter, keeping the track clean was more important. Someone decided salt was easier (2007). In 10yrs the pad in front subsided 6-8" making it unusable. Salt destroyed the soil structure underneath turning it to saturated mush. What was under the pad was just glacial till gravel. Today more likely there would be crushed limestone or something similar, so that whole scenario might turn out differently.

 

[gstrom99]

a concrete pad poured (1907) up next to the stone and concrete foundation, with a path formed for the doors to slide. That groove would fill with snow, then water from the roof, and more snow. I always used an ice spade to free and clean it.

They're just regular giant steel panel with 2x6 wood bracing 12' tall by 12' wide (each) doors. I've seen those "tracks" in poured concrete and don't want the accumulating water/ice issue. I've adjusted the top door tracks so there is pretty good space beneath it, but that seems to get smaller every winter. Other than a concrete footing and pad, there's no real/permanent solution - so I just gotta keep the space clear. I like the rubber belt idea, to try and keep it clear though.

I wonder how much a roll-up door conversion would cost? $10k I bet...

 

[oosik]

Even highly "engineered" projects can go wrong. Six years ago our little college town extended the sidewalks out to well beyond the edge of town. Kind of nice for the town folk. Safe/flat place to walk/run - walk your dog.

Well - the following summer they found that all was not well. As our local temps hit +90F and above - these new sidewalks began to buckle. And not just a little. Every 50 feet or so - the walkway would buckle up at the expansion joint. Six to eight inches up.

I think they have it corrected now. Bigger and more expansion joints.

The entire project must have been somewhat embarrassing for somebody. It looked like a concrete roller coaster.

 

[Paddy]

pouring a footer and laying concrete blocks under the door makes that go away.

 

[gstrom99]

pouring a footer and laying concrete blocks under the door makes that go away.

I can do that... How deep should the footer be?

 

[Jstpssng]

I can do that... How deep should the footer be?

Below frost level. Then put foam board over it. Frost will go down but not sideways.
I was going to suggest simply digging out the ground in front of, under, and in back of the door. Then replace it with good packing sand.