Pole Barn Sliding Doors???

Tell me about sliding doors - rules of thumb when considering, buying and building/installing them.

Relative to the width of the building, how wide can you go? Can you run the track to the very corner of the building? Can you extend the track past the
corner to gain additional opening in the center and with it a wider overall opening? Single vs split doors, is there a rule of thumb how wide a single door
gets before you split it into two sliding doors?

Any sage advice and/or pics are much appreciated.

Thanks!
Bill

Don't know about any rules of thumb, but I do know that if you put one up in an area where you have snow and ice, your vocabulary of profanity will increase exponentially.

I once had a 10'x10' one on the front of my shop. I got tired of pouring hot water along the bottom in the winter to thaw it loose so I could open and close it, and put up an overhead door.

I've seen quinset (them half round things) huts with double doors with the tracks extended out to be able to open real wide.

The west end of my shed is 40 ft and has two ten ft sliders that open to the corners. 16 ft high.

I don’t know of any “rule of thumb” or limits as to size except the weight of the door. I’ve seen them well past the edge of a building such as this one on a hangar.

-Scott

Overheads are better, for sealing the opening. But I?ve had snow melt, then freeze the bottom to the concrete. I guess nothing is foolproof......😱

I just welded a frame with 1 1/2" tubular steel and put R-panel on the face of it for a door. You could put posts outside the building so the door could slide completely past the building however the building needs some kind of cross bracing somewhere because of wind.

I don't think it makes any difference but if you get much beyond 14 ft. one piece it can get awful hard to roll. I have a 16 ft. and the wife cannot open it. However, any time you have a split door you have a problem holding them when they are closed. We had one with the plank across it and the wind blew so hard against it that it tipped the plank on edge and then broke it in half. After which it blew the doors in and split them all to hell. We have another with a stub post buried at the split to hold doors when shut. Frost lifts the post in winter and lifts door off track. Say nothing about open and closing that one when you have to lift it 2" to get it up on the stub. With the split and stub post you have to have doors built down to ground level so in the winter you get to chop them open with an ax and then the frost raised the ground so you have to chop a track to open them into. With a one piece at least you can have it a foot off the ground so you can open it without shoveling snow but now you have snow blowing in under door. Might work ok in Va. if you get no snow but here in Mn. if I could not afford a overhead I would go with out door until I could.

My building is 48 wide. I have a 24 foot opening with 2 12' doors in each end. The doors run in a concrete formed track that is lower than the doors and is poured to below frost depth. In 40 years I have not had the cement move up to bind the doors. I have had snow melt and freeze under the doors in the track a couple times. If I had thought about that when I was building it I would have put an electric heat tape in the concrete to melt the ice. On the weather end I also had to add a vertical removable bridged 1-1/2 pipe in the center to keep the doors from bowing too much when the wind blows hard. Located in East Central Ohio

I am not a contractor but I have built couple pole barns. Most recent I had amish crew from PA just place 6 x6 poles, frame roof and put on metal roof on the 40 x 24 barn. I did siding with true 1 in. x 12 in. green [wet] oak boards purchased from sawmill and made doors myself, they are 10 x 10 ft. It is easy to make the doors frames with 2x6s and 2x4s, and chain them from eye bolt in lower 2x6 to the 6x6 poles, and has withstood some major wind storms. The 10x10 sliding doors are a good size and easy to slide.

I replaced a set of sliding doors with a roller door. It's lightweight and you can order a color to fit your building, installation is worth paying for and not to bad. They can make almost any size you want to accommodate. You tie a rope to the bottom and just pull up and roll the door up. Mine has been working flawlessly for 15 years in Illinois snow and ice. They come with a sort of canopy to house the door and rollers that acts like a weather shield which is bolted to the top of the opening. You can even lock them down and padlock them. In the summer I just roll it up in the morning and down at night. Probably a little more money than sliders but no issues with weight on the opening nor are they difficult to operate. They probably can automate them for you. I even had several neighbors ask me where to get them. I literally have done zero maintenance on them in 15 years.

For above the sliding doors I used 1x8 pressure treated pine since lighter weight. The oak board and batten only for barn siding. Good luck

My old barn has a huge door on a track (just track at top). Maybe it's 12' height by 15' wide? I really like it. Slides right open and closed easily. It is on a side of the barn where the snow piles up or drips off and forms ice on the ground, so a couple times per winter I do have to chip up the ice so it has room to close on bottom. If you had a nice slope away from the barn, it might not happen.The only tricky thing is the wind. I always keep track if we are supposed to get high winds and make sure it's shut before the wind gets here. Otherwise that bottom blows all around and it's out of control or if the wind is coming straight at it, I can hardly move it at all. I wouldn't change it though. I like it.

Best advice, talk to your building inspector.
My inspector wants 2 2x12 for overhead door on gabled end. Manufactured Beam for side.

Not sure what code is for sliding doors.

Bet every county has different standards. Some may not even inspectors.
Possible codes are different if you are in a SNOW belt.

I built a 12 foot high by 14 foot wide sliding door for my shop. Cannonball roller track on top. It's on the end of the building so there isn't any snow or ice sliding off the roof to complicate things. I've got the bottom within an inch of the cement floor slab. The floor usually heaves just enough so the door will drag in the vertical position during the winter. Pushing out on the bottom gains enough space for it to roll normally. When closing, I roll it into position, then grab it at waist height and pop it back in. The hangers could be adjusted for more clearance, but after 18 years I've never bothered. As low as I run it, there's practically no snow blowing in. As someone else noted, when it's open on a windy day, the wind will sway the bottom a lot. So I don't leave it open on windy days.

We have all sorts of doors from 8x10 to 20x13 the 20 wide if kept oiled pushes fairly easy. Though it should be an inch or 2 higher on the bottom. The ground will freeze to the bottom of the door at times making it tough to open sometimes. For the old drive floor door one is a split set of doors about 8x12 the other has the 2 fastened together for one door. 14x12 both work good though I like the big single one better. Those are about 6 inches off the ground with a 12 inch board laid across the bottom to keep the wind and snow out. Works good that way and no freezing or snow problem.