Suggested wood choice for building a porch screen door ?

builtinbkyn said:

How do you plan on a perimeter seal around a barn door setup? Obviously you'll want a screen door to keep out bugs and critters.

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I'm not too concerned about keeping it hermetically sealed from bugs. The house as originally built had a deck on the back that ran the full width og the back of the house from the kitchen window past doors to the living area to the back of the master bedroom, where there are additional doors. Some time later, the porch with a shed roof was built on top of the deck behind the bedroom, with the cheapo screen door allowing passage from the screen porch to the deck. No changes were made to flooring in the porch - it's just the original decking and crawly bugs can come in that way. Flying bugs could get in a little easier with the barn door, and I figured I might use some kind of felt to close it up if I can get the door to hang close enough. But we don't have a problem here with mosquitos, which is welcome because both my wife and I are natives of New Orleans, and the mosquito is the state bird of Louisiana. The pestiest flying bugs here are brown marmorated stink bugs and asian lady beetles, both of which are non-native to the US. They find a way inside the main house. Everyone here gets them. If I can't keep them out of the house, I'll never keep them out of the porch.

builtinbkyn said:

Edit: Oh, the doggie door will also cause the door to swing out when the dog goes out...well if it's a medium to large dog.

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The barn door hardware comes with a guide for the bottom of the door to keep it from swinging. This is needed even without the doggie door. We get some crazy winds sometimes. The hardware kits I've seen have different anti-swing options. The one I plan to use mounts on the floor and runs in a groove routed in the bottom of the door. This hides the guide.

EricFai said:

I built a couple of screen doors using 2x6 Cedar and used 1/2" dowel pins for the rails to the styles, The screening was the EZ Screen, which is an angle track that attaches to the edge and a spline is tapped in stretching the screen. Screen Door Frames

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Thanks Eric for the EZ Screen tip. I hadn't yet decided on how I would screen it. That is a whole lot better than how the porch is currently screened. It has a system that might have been OK if the installer had done better work - perhaps with mitered joints. Then someone did a sloppy paint job on top of that. So EZ Screen is now a candidate for replacing all of the screen.

John Smith_inFL said:

well, since you have a "Franken" shop, you could build her a "Franken Door" and keep it out of sight until it's done. Then, install it as a "gag" - taking into consideration that she has a sense of humor. (or, it could turn out bad).

But, in all seriousness, my Dad made a screen door for our 1960 Homestead using Douglas Fir and it still stands today. The bottom had 1/2" hardware cloth on top of the screen as we had dogs that would push the door open. The hardware cloth is good insurance on any screen door. (OR- the ornamental aluminum sheet from the Box Store). As for the "sliding barn door style", I'm having a hard time envisioning that in my mind - never seen it before as a porch screen door that may be used a lot.
When you get it laid out on paper, could you share your sketch, drawing or sample photo with us ??

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She has a sense of humor and I like to make her laugh, but time is what I have in shortest supply, so a joke would have to be made of cardboard. I once made a Homer Simpson spice rack for her.

Our porch as it was when we bought the house is a series of compromises that a previous owner/builder made. I'm trying to improve it for how we intend to use it. Short of tearing it all out and starting from scratch, my work will require new compromises. I've sketched the current floorplan. Outside of the living room, there is a motorized awning. When it is fully extended, it blocks the outswing screen door from opening. The previous owner didn't think that out. So we can extend the awning halfway, or we can prop open the screen door before fully extending the awning. She likes to extend the awning fully. So when the fall weather arrived and she's hanging out on the porch and wants the dogs to come and go between the porch and the yard, the screen door has been propped open and we get lots of oak leaves blown in and sometimes birds. An obvious solution would be to install an inswing screen door. But the screen porch is only 11x13 and an inswing door creates some limitations on how the interior of the porch is used. We'd rather give up a corner of the deck. I thought of the screen barn door and she liked it. I do have the room for a barn door to roll completely open and I have the available height for installing the barn door roller tracks.

My concept for the door itself is pretty simple - two stiles, three rails, and two mullions around the dog door. I would buy the dog door before the build so that the opening would be sized to fit the dog door frame.

I will take pictures as I start this project and post them. For now, I'm working on materials.

northwoodsman said:

FrankenShop, what I would do is buy a prebuilt wood screen door for your opening which I'm assuming is 32"or 36" wide.

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The structure is 6x6 posts spaced equally from the house siding to the edge of the decking. The opening is 42" wide and also taller than any non-custom screen door available. The existing plastic screen door was installed after someone built a jamb with stacked layers of 1x3 onto the sides and top of the opening for the dooor to close against. It's really cheesy. I could take the 1x3s out and make a better jamb for a better quality prefab door, but because of the awning interference, I would only do that for an inswing. We considered that when we first moved in, but it was tabled for projects with priority - kitchen gut, master bath gut, replace carpets with wood flooring. In the meantime, she furnished the porch how she likes and doesn't want to give up the space for the inswing. She really likes the idea of the barn door, and I like the idea of a hands-on project that is more interesting. I don't want to do something that's the easiest. I want optimum function first, aesthetics second, and ease third. I'm no Norm Abram, but she's never been disappointed in my efforts.

I was able to track down a place about 60 miles away where I can get fir by asking contractors where they go other than the orange or blue stores. I've also found a dealer close by that sells Screeneze. Ordering the same brand dog door that I used in previous homes, and chosen the barn door hardware. So I've got a winter project to work on after I'm done with some landscaping work. I'm rethinking my joinery. I've used a doweling jig for smaller work, but I think I want to use floating tenons jig for this. I can't justify the cost of a FT domino. I'll post pictures of the progress and results for anyone who's interested.

Thanks to all for the tips!