Shop door

#1

I added an addition to my shop a couple years ago for moving my wood supply into and needed a door for it. I checked on a roll up door and was told it would cost around $3500. I really wasn't interested in paying that much for a door for the addition. Maybe if it was for the main large entry but not for one that might get opened that often. I thought about alternatives that would still look good and came up with the idea to use white corrugated roofing attached to steel studs.

The one photo of the partially finished door shows how I joined the studs together using gussets. To reinforce the joint areas I cut some 2 by 4s to fit inside the studs so that I had something substantial to drive longer screws into. The hinge side of the doors have a full length piece but the other joints are only around 8 to 12" pieces. I added 8' strips of osb to angle brace the frames so the wouldn't sag under the weight.

I put full width sheets of the metal skin on the hinge sides (36" coverage) figuring that the skins will help strengthen the frame that way. Total door width is a little over 8'. I plan on barring the doors from the inside so no handle hardware needed and the skin on one side overlaps the other door so no gap to look through and no way to reach through the gap and lift the bar holding them shut.

The doors are surprisingly light weight and seem plenty strong. Total cost was under $300. 3 1/2 studs per door at around $5 each and 3 strips of colored metal were about $180. I'm sure galvanized would have been a lot cheaper and I wouldn't have had to special order galvanized but it wouldn't look as nice. There were about 3 to 3 1/2 wooden 2 bys used for filler in the stud channels. The finished product looks pretty good I think, at least for a shop it looks pretty good.