Plans for a door

I have a storage building that has one of the doors that have a vinyl sheet on both sides and foam blocks inside surrounded by strips of wood and aluminum edges. I think it is the kind you would buy and screw in the opening. It has fallen apart. What I was wondering is if anyone knew where one could go on the internet and get plans to build a new door, say from two bys or other simple method. I would like to take out the metal frame and hang from hinges.. Caution, I am a novice.
Thanks

 

mc4tx, be careful!! The door you had that fell apart ("a vinyl sheet on both sides and foam blocks inside surrounded by strips of wood and aluminum edges") is very light. Now you are talking about replacing it with a door made from some "two bys" -- that is going to get pretty heavy. Will your storage building support it? I have my doubts. The mfgr. designed the bldg. to use the door that it came with. That MIGHT weigh 5 or 6 lbs. If you hang a 25 or 30 lb. door on those hinges, it will tear the bldg. apart.

You will either have to rebuild a very light door, starting with the parts from the old one, or you will have to strengthen the bldg. to support a heavy door.

You may be able to build a lightweight door by using the existing frame and attaching aluminum roof panels to it with sheet metal screws. Have the roof panels cut to the height of the door frame. Use a polyurethane sealant to glue the foam panels back inside the frame once the roof panels are attached. This will help keep the door from tweaking.

 

Thanks for your reply. Let me define the building and see if you think any type of door other than the light duty one will do. It is a 12' x 20' building built with 2'4 framing. It is pier and beam and has double 2x 4's on each side of the door opening. It has a plywood floor. If you still think that the 2 bys will be too heavy, how about something made from a sheet of plywood. One thing that I was concerned with as well is that I live out in the country and was wanting something up there that could provide a little more securty than the type of door I had. Your thoughts will be appreciated.

 

What is the rough opening size that this door will be going into? (The hole between the double 2X4 studs for the width, and from the plywood floor to the bottom of the header for the height.) If that opening is a standard opening, say 34" to 38" wide and 82" high, then why not install a prehung metal door? Much quicker than trying to build one yourself, not that expensive (about $100 at HD), weathertight and secure. Yes, the framing will support it.

 

Thanks, that sounds like a reasonable alternative. Being new to this I hope that I am not out of bounds in asking another question in this reply. My house has a hip roof. The soffit in a couple of places has started to sag at the point that the sheets of plywood butt up. They look as if they were stapled in. I do not have a power stapler. If I were to nail them back up using a hammer, what size nail would you recommend and what would I fill in the cracks with?
Thanks

 

Let us know what the dimensions of the rough opening are. If a standard prehung door will fit, we can certainly guide you through the installation. The first one might take you and a helper 3 or 4 hours, but they are really very easy to do.

No, mc4tx, you are not "out of bounds" with your second question, although you may want to post in in the 'Roofing' forum as well.

In answer to that question, certainly you could use nails to reattach the plywood soffit that has sagged. What size of nails would be determined by how much backing you would be nailing into and how thick the plywood is. A 4d, 6d, or 8d galvanized nail should work just fine. But why has this soffit sagged? If it is because moisture has gotten to it, and if it been sagged for any length of time, you may not be able to pull it back up with nails alone. You may have to replace the sagged pieces with new plywood.

Caulk the cracks with a good paintable caulking, like siliconized acrylic.

 

So....... where was this requested internet site with plans on how to make a door for a novice?

I have been looking for this info in the net for the last 3 hours... (ugh).