Key things to know before buying and installing a barn door [Video]

This video covers key things you should consider before buying and installing a barn door.

Firstly, it’s important to make sure you’ve ordered the door to the right size. We recommend at least going 10mm over the height and 50mm over the width each side. This can change, obviously, it’s at your discretion. For example, if you had a 30 or 40mm architrave, you might want to bring the door so it’s just flush all around.

Secondly, is to make sure that the clearance between the door and the wall is correct. Standard spacers tend to be 32mm. Sometimes you will require a larger spacer to clear the architraves, in this case you will need to use a 45 or 50mm spacer.

Next, you need to make sure that the roll at the top of the rail does not hit the ceiling. We recommend you allow 250mm from the top of the door to the top of the roller.

The next point to look into is that you’ve got fixings in the wall where the track is fixed. Each track comes with a wood bolt or a concrete bolt. You can choose whether it’s going concrete or wood. It’s important to make sure that there is something in the wall for the bolts to attach to. Ideally you would decide upon this before the GIB in put on the walls the walls so you can make sure there is a solid four by two or six by two going the direction of where the door is sliding. Otherwise, the track can get to a point where it doesn’t carry the lug of the door.

Lastly, we have guides. Now each track comes standard with a plastic floor mounted guide. If you wish to put the guide on the wall, you can get steel mounted guide that fixes to the wall. There is a little plate that screws on and goes into and the groove on the bottom of the door.

Also don’t forget, about pull handles and/or flush pulls to aid in the opening and closing of your door.

These are just some important points to keep in mind before you go ahead and install your door and track.