Barn News

Winter Projects (and way beyond) – Doors

This winter will be the one during which I begin to address the door issue in the barn.

For the past 13 years the entrance into my studio space has been delineated by a pair of doors comprised of nice wooden frames with double plastic sheets, shower curtains actually, that have performed surprisingly well.  But, the time has come to install proper insulated doors. Given the odd size of the doorways, determined by unalterable features of the original post-and-beam structure, the two doors into my studio space will need to be custom made.

The standard entry door to the first floor/basement was framed in about two hours if I recall correctly, needing to fit a compression fit jamb using only the things I had on hand one Sunday afternoon before heading back to Mordor.  What I had on hand was some scrap white pine joist stock and a tube of construction adhesive, along with a salvaged insulated door.  Years later this haphazard installation has become decrepit to the point where a good blast of wind or even a curious bear could take it down.

The garage-door opening of the first floor/basement was filled with a pair of four-foot-wide doors I made from 2x, plywood and with insulated glass inserts.  Within a year of their installation (the photo was taken at the completion of the original installation) a howling windstorm caused irreparable damage to them (we get serious hurricane-strength (!) windstorms every year or so out in the holler) and ever since they have just been screwed shut with plastic sheeting covering the entire section from the inside.  One thing has been made clear as a result, namely that I simply did not need a garage door-style access to the inside space as a matter of regular activity.  I’m thinking of building a pair of panels, one screwed in place as an insulated wall and the other openable as a door to allow me to wheel my smelting furnace cart in and out as my foundry work progresses.