I have a sliding barn door. 12HX10W. When closed it uses cam type latch’s to hold it in place. I would like to cut down on the draft around the door. When there is a good blowing wind I can have snow drifts inside the barn!
What works?
is there any sort of flange on the barn where the door slides to when closed
that you could attach some sort of foam to to create your own "door-gasket"
I think it's gonna be your creativity on this one and not a "sliding barn door
Most home improvement places sell a product that is intended to be a seal for home garage doors. It is basically a length of 1/2x1" wood with a 1" or so rubber wiper sticking out from it. You might be able to use something like that to seal it up when it's closed.
I think you should make some type of flange for the door to slide into. Then you could use some type of seal inside the flange. Also for the bottom I would look into something like DRM suggested.
I'll assume that you need to exit / enter thru the door, so closing it and sealing the inside and walking out another door is not an option. But it would solve the problem!
The garage door gasket strips may work if you attach them to the sides of the door and they can reach the wall. One on the bottom of the door that reaches the ground might also work. I have a feeling that the rubber will be to short. (Don't we all wish we had this problem! Wait I got off track.) You may have to make it yourself out of conveyer belt material or something simmilar.
If your door is like the one on my bosses horse barn, its only held at the top. Wind blowing past the door causes it to act like a wing and move away from the building leaving a gap. We used a couple of brackets mounted to the conc. pad to "guide" the door. Actually they keep the door from being pushed out. I have seen rollers that are basically the same. If its dirt a couple of concrete pins would work. BTW if you have a door at either end of the shop this "wing effect" is even worse. We completely sealed one doorway in the barn for the winter due to this. Just screwed it shut and taped the seams.
Big wharehouses often use a heavy curtain made of heavy clear plastic to cut down on drafts when the doors are open. Posibly some thing like this that you could pull in front of the inside of the door may help.
I have that on my roll-up door (it has like a 4" gap at the top when closed). It'll keep birds and stuff out, maybe a little snow, but make no mistake, when the wind blows you feel it through the stuff, it's NOT a weather seal by any means.
I've used brush seals on sliding aircraft hanger doors - same thing you have basically.
Never used the vendor on above link, but they had good pics and every size you could want. Some trucks supplies carry the straight bristle because they use it on the sides of trailers as spray shield.
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