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What framing for a strong shed door? Triangle, zig zag, other? (piefed.social)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/woodworking@lemmy.ca
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I'm building a shed, and want a large single door on the end. It's 47" wide by 74" high (roughly 4'x6' or 120cm x 180cm), framed like a regular house door would be (header of two 2x boards with plywood sandwiched; joist and trimmer on each side). I'd like the door to avoid sagging, and also be strong enough so when kids inevitably climb on it that's fine too.

I see lots of patterns for shed doors, for example (from secrets-of-shed-building) the zig zag, with a pair of triangles bearing weight down to the hinge edge:

zig zag shed door

Or (from artofit but are they the new pinterest or something?) the high single diagonal:

single diagonal door

Or rectangles, or exes on the lower or both halves. Does the variety mean it doesn't really matter?

The shed has plywood sheathing, and I'm planning to have a single panel of plywood sheathing on the door, does that provide enough shear stiffness?

And I'll probably use 2x4 framing on the back/inside of the door, maybe lap joints for fun though most people seem to just do butt joints, probbly flat against the door though I see some folks putting the 2x4s edge against the door like they're just framing more wall.

Any experience with sagging or successful doors very welcome, or structural theory to apply here! Thanks in advance.

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[–] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, and the opposite is true if you ever need to combat sagging in a gate or something like that: put a cable going from top hinge to bottom corner, and tension it until things square up.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago* (1 child)

    Can you give more info on this? I have a sagging gate that someone must have "rebuilt" at some point. The cross brace runs from the top hinge to the bottom corner in a sagging Z shape with about 14 nails trying to keep it together at the joints) but somehow the fence pickets are all level. Its gotten so bad that one of the hinges keeps popping out.

    I was planning on trying to fix it but the fact that there is no rectangular frame breaks my brain on the rebuild process. I suppose the fence pickets are 'structural' here. I'm not sure how to rebuild it on the ground with the support and pickets all properly located in relation to the hinges without a lot of precise measuring that I don't trust my abilities to meet.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago*

    Basically, if a door/gate is sagging, it's turning a rectangle into a parallelogram. If you draw a line from corner-corner of a rectangle, you will get the same measurement on both diagonals. In a parallelogram, you'll get a long one and a short one.

    The long one will go from the top hinge to the outside corner, the short one will go from the bottom hinge. If you put a support in the long diagonal, it will be in tension (good for cable), and if you put one in the short diagonal it will be in compression (good for wood).

    If you are building a new one, you can just put a wood support where it will get compressed. If you already have a sagged one, you need to fix the sag first. Easiest way to do that is with a cable and turnbuckle. Just tighten the turnbuckle until you have a rectangle. Then you can either leave it, or stick a wooden support in where it will be under compression and remove the cable.

    Edit: and for your case, you unfortunately probably need to take out the diagonal element first cause otherwise it will probably combat the tension from a cable.

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