Finally, the long-awaited conclusion to the barn door saga! This post is probably going to be pretty short because A) these last steps were surprisingly straight forward, and B) all six of our hands/paws were busy at the same time leaving no one to record the event for posterity. So when we last left our intrepid do-it-yourselvers, the door itself was basically complete and all that remained was mounting the track on the wall, hanging the door, and high-fiving eachother for a job well done with no major injuries or insurance claims to report. Before moving on, however, I realize that I never posted a photo of the apron/wheel set once it was all put together. It's some pretty cool looking hardware and it deserves its own picture.
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| Johnny Five is ALIVE!!! |
The next major step was mounting the galvanized box track on the wall above the door. The 6 foot long piece of track came with four mounting brackets, but since it was rated for up to 375 lbs., and our door only weighed in at maybe 60 lbs. soaking wet, we decided three brackets would be more than enough. We marked spots for pilot holes so that we would have about an inch of clearance from the floor, and set to drilling. Although today this is the back wall of our Florida room, once upon a time this was an exterior wall, so we would be drilling into masonry. This is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it means we didn't need any fancy anchors sets. Tapcon concrete screws would do the trick. On the other hand, it did mean having to purchase a beefy masonry bit. Now, these aren't too expensive (like fifteen bucks), but this is the third or fourth masonry bit I've had to buy for various projects. I've found that they don't last too long, and you're not going to get away with using your cordless drill here. Even with the proper bit, drilling into masonry requires some elbow grease. I've already given my dad a shout-out for the versatile workbench, now here comes one for my dad-in-law for surprising me with a Ridgid power drill for no other reason than he's a great guy (and he was probably getting tired of me constantly borrowing his). By the way Terry, does this mean there's a circular saw in my future?
Okay, so holes drilled, time to mount the track. We used hex-head tapcons, which worked out great because ratcheting them into the wall is way easier than screwing them in using a screwdriver. Once the track was up, we simply lifted the door, slid it into the box track, attached the included endcaps, and gingerly let the track take the weight of the door, fully anticipating tapcons shooting out of the wall, masonry shrapnell raining down on us, and the falling door finishing us off. Alas, everything stayed in place, and the door was hung.
At this point I'm pretty sure we stared at it for a couple of minutes in silence, hugged, and had cocktails.
The finishing touches included adding an exterior handle, which is simply a small stainless steel cabinet handle, guide wheels along the floor to keep the door from swinging outward (again screwed into the wall using the same tapcons), and a recessed handle on the inside of the door (which we all will pretend has been added and looks excellent).
... And that's the story of how we slapped together the barn door. We didn't keep good tabs on exactly what this bad boy cost, but $225.00 is a pretty good estimate, give or take twenty five bucks. Hope you enjoyed following along as much as we enjoyed building this and writing about it. We can't wait to tell you all about the time Kristen was nearly crushed by a falling French door.
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