What ceiling height?

Delta Dave · Apr 4, 2008

BarryinMN said:
DD 32" wide is pretty skinny any clearance reason not to go 40' wide? Makes your door 10x20 wide which allows 2 rows of entrance & egress leaving stuff along sides undisturbed.

32' would be easier to get a nice gabrel roof out of trusses. Can't haul over 12' tall down the roads.

The only other item coming in and out other than the tractor will be a UTV with a small aluminum boat. I can do that with a 14' door and still have all my implements on one side.

Swinging doors work good until the snow piles up or the wind tears em up.

Snow, what's that? (note location) I have also considered sliding doors because of wind, but that still would not effect height.

I have an old 14' class TLB that the boom can hit the door framing & trusses if I enter with it raised all the way. Once in, I drop both buckets so it takes up about 30 linear feet. The lawnmower (5' deck) winters under the boom.

Woodchipper & snowblower stand about 8' tall. 60hp cab ag tractor is about 102" at the muffler flapper.

All tractor work here will be for deer/dove fields and dirt road maintenance. No real farming or large mowing and 10' dirt wide roads through timber.

10' also clears a class A Winnebago.

Wife and I would rather fly and rent a place than stay in a motorcoach. It'd still be cheaper too.

I realize I'm probably coming across as pig headed and not wanting to listen, but that isn't the case and I'm sorry if it sounds that way. Although I do get a little annoyed with people that don't read follow up posts on a short thread, sorry for the short temper there. A couple reasons I wanted to stay with 10' walls was I can get 10' OSB and 10' hardipanel siding. With the 10' OSB, I wouldn't have any seams between top and bottom plate. This would help strengthen the walls. With 10' siding I wouldn't have any visible seams or blocking needed on the side walls. With 12' walls, the stairs upstairs would be steeper or I would have to make the "L" in the corner. So I do have reasons for trying to keep it 10' and was looking for enough reasons to raise it to 12' that outweighed the 10' reasons. Please continue to post reasons to go to 12'.

Thank you,
DD

EddieWalker · Apr 4, 2008

Your reasoning for ten foot is sound for your needs and I can't think of anyhing that would justify going taller.

One thing that I'm curious about is your desire for swing out doors. Why?

Do you have a design that has proven not to sag or warp over time? I admit to not having allot of experience with doors that large, but of all the ones I've seen that were smaller, they all sag with use.

Eddie

Delta Dave · Apr 5, 2008

Proven no, but being a truss manufacturer, I had planned on making a square truss with diagonals and plates. That with the siding should keep it from sagging. I've found some very strong hinges that are designed for that loading also.

But I have also considered sliding due due to sag concerns.

EddieWalker · Apr 5, 2008

As a truss manufacturer, I hope you'll be pushing the envelope a little with your design. I'd also really love to see pics of the building while you're building it with some comments on it's construction.

I have no doubt that with sheething, metal brackets, diagnal bracing and bolts, that a lage woden door can be built to resist sagging. For a good source on hinges, I'd look at King Architectural Metals wrought iron metal balusters finials casting steel ornamental forged gate fence stairs Access control. You might have to do some modifying of them to mount them to wood, but that would be fairly easy.

The problem still comes down to woods tendancy to bend over time. Will your door last ten years without sagging? This is where I run into problems with large wood doors and gates. They all seem to have a limited life span where they work perfectly, then they start to drag and lean.

Sliders don't have this issue, but are terrible to seal out the wind and bug. Rain can also be an issue to some degree, depending on how much effort goes into the flashing and overlaps.

My personal favorite door is the metal roll up. It's probably the most expensive, but it will last forever, it seals out the elements and looks real nice in my opinion. For you, the disadvantage is the space needed to mount it above the opening. I've thought about recessing them into the ceiling to increase the size of the opening, but have never actually done so. It would probably take a 2 ft tall by 4ft wide cavity to fit it in there, but then you'd still have your ceiling height. If the pitch of the roof didn't intefere, it might be an option to consider. I've bought several from Mueller's, which I highly recomend.

The standard garage door type opening is another option, but you loose door height with that type of door and they tend to block the good locations for lighting when open. Price wise, they were more expensive then my roll up door when comparing doors of the same height.

Eddie