Tag Archives: overhead door

Barndominium High R-Value Overhead Doors Part I

Barndominium High R-value Overhead Doors
When my lovely bride and I had our post frame building shouse (shop house aka barndominium) constructed, energy efficiency was important for us. Then Hansen Pole Buildings was ordering our overhead doors through my friend David Vance, owner of Rainer Building Products in Western Washington. I approached David with our needs for doors and he recommended C.H.I. doors with an advertised R value of 17.19 for an 1-7/8” thick polyurethane insulated door.
Unfortunately, these advertised R-values are almost meaningless.

Advertised R-values are inaccurate, irrelevant — or both

To determine thermal performance of a garage door, you need to know two things:

A door’s leakiness, and entire door assembly R-value or U-factor.

R-values claimed by garage-door manufacturers are measured at door panel centers. Apparently no manufacturer reports R-value of their entire door panel (including panel edges, seams between panels, and door perimeter) in their promotional materials. Moreover, manufacturers’ reported R-values tell us nothing about air leakage.

Most garage-door manufacturers are reluctant to share actual laboratory reports showing results of R-value testing.

“For marketing purposes, the garage door people get a measurement on the center of panel,” said David Yarbrough, a research engineer and insulation expert at R&D Services in Cookeville, Tennessee. “The overall R-value of the entire door might be quite a bit less — in extreme cases, it may be half — of the R-value of the center of the panel. Not everyone approves of this kind of marketing. It’s been a hot debate in recent years.”

In fact, real percentages turn out to be much less than half.

Actual R-values are one-third the advertised values

Although it’s hard to obtain actual test results reporting whole-door U-factors of “tested installed doors,” Martin Holladay managed to obtain one report on a garage door from Clopay, and another on a garage door from Overhead Door.

Clopay provided test results for their model 3720 five-panel garage door. According to Mischel Schonberg, Clopay’s public relations manager, their door is insulated with two inches of polyurethane foam. Schonberg wrote, “This model is the commercial version of our residential model 9200 and has the same construction.”

While Clopay advertises their 9200 door is R-17.2 — presumably, a claim based on a center-of-panel measurement — actual test report for an installed door shows R-6.14.
While Overhead Door advertises their model 494/495 Thermacore door has an R-value of 17.5 — a claim, like competitors’ claims, is presumably based on a center-of-panel measurement — installed door test reports show a U-factor of 0.16, equivalent to R-6.25.

Based on these only two test reports Martin was able to track down, it seems logical to conclude R-value of a garage door is about one-third of R-value claimed in a manufacturer’s brochure.

All over the map

Mike Thoman, director of thermal testing and simulation at Architectural Testing Incorporated, a Pennsylvania laboratory, has tested many garage doors.

“The assembly R-values are not going to be nearly as good as the R-value of the material would indicate,” Thoman told Holladay. “When you compare the assembly R-value to the material R-value, the percentages are all over the map. The percentage is a function of how the joints in the panels are made, and whether any attempt was made to provide for thermal breaks at panel edges — a lot of different things. Some products have a lot of insulation in the panel but have everything else wrong. We’ve also seen doors that do everything right. There’s really a wide, wide range.”

Come back tomorrow for Part II in this discussion of R-values in overhead doors.

Swinging Doors for a Post Frame Building

On Facebook I am a member of a group “Pole Barns and Buildings”. Recently a group member posted this question:

“I’m new to the group so thanks for letting me in. I’m having a 30’x48’x16′ pole barn built for a shop that will be insulated with a concrete floor. I am also putting an enclosed pull through lean-to on it for our fifth wheel with a sliding door on one end and am planning on double swinging barn doors on the other end. I can’t put a sliding door on both ends since the roll up door on the shop wouldn’t allow for the track across the front. My question is since each door is going to be 14’x7′ has anybody made swinging doors this big and what issues have you ran into? Any tips on the door construction? I’m planning on 4 12″ t hinges per door with a chain pull latch at the top, a cane bolt at the bottom and an old fashion 2×4 bar across the inside on z brackets (there is a walk through door from the shop). Sorry for the long post but I want to make sure I get this right the first time.
Thanks!”
A disclaimer, this is NOT a Hansen Pole Building.
Our friend is actually looking to cover this open shed end with a 14 foot by 14 foot door, made of two seven foot width leaves. If I had been designing this building, I would have made some recommendations to head off this challenge before it began.
But, why not use swinging doors?
Unless they are made from a welded steel framework, it is going to be fairly difficult to eliminate sag. And (very important for most) a remote operated garage door opener is just not going to be practical.
My design suggestion would have been to construct a 44 foot width building all at 16 foot eave. This would allow for a 12 foot side by 14 foot tall overhead door instead of dealing with swinging doors. It would also eliminate a pitch break currently shown between main clearspan and shed. When all is said and done, my option would most likely have been less expensive and more practical.

To Learn More, A Roof Steel Replacement, and Ideal Height

An Engineer wants to Learn More, Roof Steel Replacement, and the ideal Building Height to Accommodate an RV!

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I’m a licensed engineer in KY. I would like to learn more about pole barn design. Do you have any references that you would recommend? James in KY

DEAR JAMES: The NFBA Post Frame Building Design manual is probably your best structural reference. https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2015/03/post-frame-building-3/

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hello. I have a Hansen building I bought in 2005 as a kit. I am planning on installing a new roof on the higher 18′ 40×35 long section. The original roof over the vaulted ceiling has leaked since day one, as the contractor did a very poor job. I’m thinking of doing a snap lock standing seam type with no exposed fasteners. To my surprise two contractors have suggested pulling the existing sheeting and replacing the standing seam( 24 ga), but no underlayment.

I thought the screwed down panels provided shear strength and rigidity to the structure.

BRYAN

Construction MistakeDEAR BRYAN: Indeed, standing seam steel has no shear carrying capacity, as such it should always be installed over 5/8″ or thicker CDX plywood (not OSB). However, chances are your trusses are not designed to support the added weight of the plywood. Depending upon what the exact nature of the poor installation is, the solution might be as simple as replacing offending screws with longer, larger diameter parts (if original screws were merely poorly seated). If the screws were not predrilled (therefore causing screws to either barely hit or miss roof purlins entirely), then new 29 gauge through screwed steel with properly installed screws should solve the challenges (and be phenomenally less expensive).

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Looking to build a pole barn with 14ft height door for a RV. What would the overall height of the building be? Thanks JON in PERRYSBURG

DEAR JON: With a sliding door (not my recommendation) if your building has no endwall overhangs, then 15 foot eave height will work; with end overhangs 15’6” or 15’8” depending upon the dimension of the roof purlins.

Going to a sectional overhead door, allowing for an electric opener your eave height is most likely going to be 16’6”.

If you are planning on climate controlling the building and having a ceiling (smart choices), then the eave height will need to be further increased by the amount of roof truss heel height greater than the most common six inches.

 

 

Eave height is relatively inexpensive, don’t scrimp to try to save a few bucks and be sorry because you end up with a design solution which is less than ideal (aka a sliding door) or an overhead sectional door which will not accept an opener.

Dear Pole Barn Guru: How to Replace a Sliding Door with an Overhead

New!  The Pole Barn Guru’s mailbox is overflowing with questions.  Due to high demand, he is answering questions on Saturdays as well as Mondays.

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday or Saturday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” email address.

Email all questions to: PoleBarnGuru@HansenPoleBuildings.com

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Have pole barn with sliding doors which are being wedged with weather changes. Looking for overhead door option for door that is 16′ wide and 12′ tall. Do you provide these and conversion labor to install? LOOKING IN LEBANON

DEAR LOOKING: Switching from sliding doors to an overhead door is going to pose a massive challenge to do correctly. This, in itself, is reason enough to spend the generally few dollars up front to use a sectional steel overhead door.

To begin with, the openings are not framed to the same size. It is easier to frame smaller than have to try to hack out and replace one or more columns. This will probably entail framing down to a finished hole 13’10” in width and 10’11” in height (measured from the top of the concrete floor) and installing a 14’ x 11’ residential overhead door. In order to get things looking right from the outside. All of the steel on this wall should be replaced, to give uniform color and no splices.

We can certainly provide a wall’s worth of steel siding, color matched powder coated screws, the appropriate steel trims, the overhead door and hardware to hang it. We are not contractors in any state, so we do not and cannot provide any labor to install.

You may want to look at what the real problem is – sounds like you have frost heaving, which is pushing the ground, or concrete, up at the location of the door. Just switching doors is not going to take away the problem.

If heave is the root cause of the problem, then remedial action can be taken by installing a French drain along the side of the building in front of the door. The sliding doors can also be taken off, and their overall height shortened enough to keep them from binding when the heave occurs.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: How do I calculate what size of purlin I need based on my snow load, and the bay spacing of my pole barn? Thanks. CURIOUS IN CULDESAC

 

DEAR CURIOUS: From the ground, a roof purlin looks pretty simple – it is usually a piece of 2x material, fastened on top of or attached to the side of rafters or roof trusses. Roof sheathing (typically OSB – oriented strand board, plywood, or steel roofing) is then attached to the top of the purlins.

Purlins are not simple at all. They must carry all applied dead loads, live loads from snow as well as wind loads. They need to be checked for the ability to withstand bending forces (both compressive and from uplift), to not have too much deflection and be adequately attached at each end.

In snow country, purlins near the roof peak need to be checked for the added drift loads which are applied.

I could spend several thousand words and numerous pages to teach you how to be able to properly calculate the purlins for your individual case, however it is far more information than the average person wants to, or is able to, absorb.

The best recommendation – hire a registered design professional (RDP – architect or engineer) who has the ability to run the calculations to adequate design your purlins based upon the climactic (wind and snow) loads being imposed upon them at your building site. Or better yet, order a complete pole building kit package which has been designed by an RDP.