Making A Cross Brace Barn Door

1x6 pine boards for the back.

Making a cross brace barn door.

Make the door frame to fit the opening assemble the frame only no batten boards no cross braces. It must be said that a ledged and braced. It requires a slight investment some time patience and elbow grease. Designed to cover a 30 inch wide opening with 4 inch casing on either side this door measures 38 inches wide by 2 inches thick by 83 inches tall.

Use an impact driver to screw the screws through the 1 6 s in each of the 4 boards which make up the door. Place one of the cross brace pieces under the frame exactly where you want it using bits of scrap to support the door frame and hold it level on top of the cross piece. A ledged and braced door is based on at least three horizontal rails ledges on the rear of the door a diagonal brace again on the rear of the door and then as many vertical boards as needed to make the front face of the door. Choose the guide that works best for your door.

Compression braces are suitable for doors where the angle between the bottom rail and the brace is greater than 45 make sure both ends of the brace have full contact with the rails put ideally two nails screws through each board into the brace. If your barn door doesn t have a groove in it there are roller guides and adjustable roller guides that will work. These could help keep hold your door square but this isn t guaranteed. Cut the boards inch shorter than the height of the opening to allow the door to pass over the floor guide.

The simplest guide is an l shaped metal bracket that mounts to the floor and fits into a groove cut in the bottom of the door. Attach the door boards to each other using horizontal brace boards a few inches from the top and bottom of the door. If you want a wider opening and a double door gate isn t sufficient do some research into stronger metal brackets. To ensure your cross brace s angle stays greater than 45 degrees the height of your door has to be greater than the width.

Fasten the brace boards to each door board with deck screws measuring 1 4 inch less than the combined thickness of the brace board and door boards.