Hello, I'm building a new shed in my backyard to replace a little pre-fab aluminum thing that has taken too many bad winters and is too small anyway. I'm looking for options for a door that will be wide enough to move large things in and out (looking for at least 48" feet wide, ideally 60") but will still allow me to keep critters and wind-driven rain/snow out. Unfortunately, due to the placement on the lot, the door will have to face west, which is going to get the brunt of the weather. The shed will have 2x4 stud walls and a poured concrete slab for a floor. It will have a concrete foundation that will extend 6-8" above grade. I'd ideally like a door with a threshold so I can seal out the water and mice that currently inhabit my small shed. Initially, I looked at roll-up doors like you'd find on a mini-storage facility. I like those, but the 60" door was more than $700, which is way too expensive for a shed door IMO. I've also thought about using double entry doors like you'd find on a home, but I don't know what those cost. I want to avoid the plywood barn-door like you find on most sheds as that won't really be weather- or critter-proof enough for my yard. We back up to 100+ acres of wheat field and the mice and bunnies will take over any structure that isn't properly hardened. Are there any other ideas I'm missing? Do they make garage doors that narrow? I could deal with the overhead tracks if the price was under $200 or so. Thanks, Chris

I'm working on designing a small year round greenhouse and was hoping someone might give me a bit of direction. This is a 14 x 12 foot building that I'm going to build out of lumber sawn out of used telephone poles, my father owns a small mill so if I can find the poles I can get the lumber sawn for the cost of fuel for the mill :) . I'm planning on painting the lumber with fence paint to minimize contact with the treated surfaces. I'm also going to close in both sides of the greenhouse to get a higher 'R' value, should be around r3, to help maintain heat in the winter and also to make sure I have no condensation dripping off the wood that might contaminate my plants. Now that you have the basics here is my question, I want to use 2ft wide clear plastic roof panels for the outside so I'd like to run the wall studs and rafters on 2 ft centers. If this were a normal clad building I'd go 16 inch centers with homemade trusses for the roof but I'm trying to maximize the light penetration by keeping down the amount of wood that could block light coming in. I also want to keep the total height of the building as low as possible so I'm planning on 6 ft sidewalls and a 6/12 pitch so the peak will be at 9 feet. To give me more head room in the middle I'm planning on raising the rafter ties up 8 inches and only putting them every other rafter set. The side walls will be real 2x4 not the 1 1/2 by 3 1/2 like at the lumber yards and the rafters would be a real 2x5. I'd use 2x6 for the rafters but again I'm trying to maximize the light available and most of what I've seen on greenhouse designs on the web 2x4s are used so I should be gaining a bit more roof load to offset the raised rafter ties. Two questions, overall what are the opinions on what I'm doing and specifically, do I need a 2nd layer of 2x4s on the top of the walls if I'm going to place the rafters directly over the wall studs and use 2 2x4s at the corners on two of the opposing walls so I can tie the opposite walls to them by nailing on both edges of the end 2x4. I usually do this and add a top row of 2x4s to bind the walls together at the corners but again if I can drop the additional row I can gain a small addition of total light allowed through. Sorry to be long but I've been racking my brain and the web to build a greenhouse and I'm trying to find some verification that I'm headed in the right directions. Help....... :) Bill