Building a 40x80 red iron barn/shop, and wanting 12' wide by 14' high doors on each end. I could drop this down to 12x12 doors if it means getting better doors but like the idea of 14' clearance.

What's your experience on shop doors?

I have 7 doors in my shop that is 40x140. I used 12' wide by 14' tall for all. It has paid off with putting equipment and trailers in there that I never planned on.
I think it helps with air flow and light.
I used the regular sectional overhead doors rather than the chain roll up type…. because they were easier to seal and also insulate plus heavy duty openers were easier to install on a couple of them.

I have 2 of the 12x14 rollups on opposite ends of my barn, 30x50. Gunny is right, the tall ceilings let the air circulate better, can put my boat in with the TTop and not worry about hitting. I dont think you'd regret going with them.

We're in the process of building a 40' x60' with a 25' lean too on one of the 60' sides. The main building will have 12' w x 14' h rolling doors in each end, and the side going out to the lean to will be 12' by 10'. We went with the insulated doors that are similar to a garage door. With taller walls (16 ft) we should have plenty of clearance for them to come up on tracks and not interfere with anything.

I say do what is gonna make you happy.

Man you're gonna love that lean-to, mine is 25'x50' and the shade and breeze make it so nice to do projects outside.

Have the tracks follow the ceiling slope.

Where are you located? I much prefer the garage style doors rather than true roll doors. They take up space with rails but they are much more sturdy. Schilling Overhead Doors out of Ingram/Kerrville travels and they did my 14' overhead doors. They showed up and had them installed in less than half a day.

My barn has a single 12x10' door.

I would LOVE it to be 14'. 12 would be OK, but 14 is a great height for all the unforeseen stuff (and resell value). I just can't imagine a reason you would regret getting an extra 2' of height. Personally, I would not drop down the height to get a "better" door. I'm sure the 14'ers you are getting will be just fine for a barn.

Reel Aggies said:

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Man you're gonna love that lean-to, mine is 25'x50' and the shade and breeze make it so nice to do projects outside.

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Whatever gets my husband's projects out of the garage! Right now we have a 3 car garage that we can barely fit 1 car in. This shop should be a huge help with that!

Yeah we finally put a garage door opener on and were able to park wife's car in garage after 20yrs after building mine hahaha. Wish coulda done it 20yrs ago

I built some Barndos and boat barns on the coast, as a builder that sold a hand full of these, I would never spend a dime on a roll up door, nothing but problems. We installed all regular doors, the little bit of extra cost is worth thr pain in the arse you will deal with. Just my two cents. If you must use a roll up at least put a chain hoist on it so it can't just roll up on you when you throw it up too fast, or put an electric opener on it. I would never buy another roll up after doing it twice, we pulled them out and sent them to the dump

If go look at all these storage places, 99% of them use standard garage doors for a reason. The biggest issue with a roll up is if you throw it up to fast when opening it .. it can roll up past the stop point and then you are screwed, you have to figure out a way to get it unrolled.. we had hell with them. My buddy bought a barndo on the coast and his roll up both screwed up.. he was so mad he would call me and I told him I told you not to use those down there … he finally put a chain hoist on each of them and they worked better.

As noted, true roll up doors are almost twice as expensive as a standard garage door. Unless needed for a gantry crane or some other reason, standard door will save some serious coin. Going 2' taller is just one more panel on a normal door, and if your building is ready for it won't be much more.
We pay ~15k for a replacement on a 16-18 wide 12' high door, last roll up was 25+. Other benefits of garage style doors rollers, hinges etc… readily available and an easy fix.

I have a 40x100 shop. I went with 12x14 doors and have never regretted that choice. I did install wall mounted openers and they have been FANTASTIC. I went with insulated commercial panel doors and between spray foam and those doors, a small heater keeps that shop comfortable even on single digit temperature days.

Such good advice for sure. I added a free span I beam inside the shop I built in Texas. Put a trolley and electric hoist on it. I used it constantly….. pulling engines out of boats and hung many an outboard with it …. plus hundreds of uses I never thought of when I did it.
I don't have one at our new place but have a Bend Pac car lift ( it was there when I bought the place) that I put a beam across and kinda use it the same but it's not like what I had.
Well worth the money if you work on heavy stuff.

Add me to the list of guys that went with 12x12 instead of 14x12 and ****ing regret it! When you build a barn, don't listen to your wife's opinions.

Get 14' doors!!!

OP, have you considered doors on the long side instead of the ends? I have 3 on one side and an additional door on the other side that allows me to drive through with attachments very easily. The Polaris ranger and skid steer use the other doors. I never have to move anything around to get stuff out. Easy in. Easy out.

Todd 02 said:

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Add me to the list of guys that went with 12x12 instead of 14x12 and ****ing regret it! When you build a barn, don't listen to your wife's opinions.

Get 14' doors!!!

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12 x 14 tall is the min we go, or even 12 x 16 if you can, a modern big 5th wheel or motorhome barely fits under a 14 foot door, in fact my business partners 5th wheel does not fit inside our shop because he changed out on AC unit and could only get the taller unit after Covid so he cant get it inside our shop unless he changes that AC back to a low profile one. We put 14 x 16 ft tall conventional garage doors with commercial garage door motors on a 40 x 70 boat storage building I built, they worked like a charm for a 40 foot Contender my customer had. that shop could easily store 2 boats and a jeep

Drillbit4 said:

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OP, have you considered doors on the long side instead of the ends? I have 3 on one side and an additional door on the other side that allows me to drive through with attachments very easily. The Polaris ranger and skid steer use the other doors. I never have to move anything around to get stuff out. Easy in. Easy out.

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Intrigued. Do you have a photo?

1. Get insulated doors if you are going to insulate the shop.
2. Get door openers for as many doors as you can afford. I did 2/3 of my overhead doors and wish I had not been too tight to get the third. Makes it so nice when moving equipment in and out.

Great info all around.
Now give me your lessons learned on build/design of the shop in the first place.
I'm looking at 40x60ish to enclose my well & tank components. The rest will be general use shop/garage.
Also, want to capture water for irrigation use.

I've been using Mueller online 3D builder but what else should I be looking at?

I did kinda the same but I put doors on both sides of the long sides so I can drive through with boats instead of backing in….. and when I open all of them it sure lets the breeze through. I have two on each long side across from each other and another on the long side with a 30ft shed roof over it.
Guess I need to break down and pay for premium so I can post pics.

Go larger than you think you need.
Go with 12x14high doors - standard sectional garage doors with tracks.
Insulate all of it walls and roof.
Figure out where you can build a mezzanine along a long side if possible for storage.
Engineer for an I beam to use for hoisting.
Plan for plenty of outlets and lighting.
If it's a ways from your house put in a rest room with toilet…. and a sink you can get to in case of getting chemicals or something in your eye.
Trust me on the crapper and the sink.

Thanks!
Plan to have a lean-to that will cover the tractor and a few a other things. Definitely plan on insulating all of it. Probably a window unit. I like the idea of a mezzanine for high storage.

I'll have a spigot from the well tank and rain collection but I can't add to my septic from this point. It's only about 200ft from the house but unfortunately no toilet other than what nature provides.

Agree with Gunny on running water to barn. I sprayed myself in the eye with brake cleaner one time. Sink with faucet sprayer was an eye-saver lol. I too put doors 14'doors on opposite long ends to drive through. Build a concrete floor lean-to if you can as well. Sure nice to sit and work outside in the shade. I agree with insulating, helps a ton even though my roll up doors are not insulated. With the addl height was able to build a mezzanine to store stuff that'll likely never be seen again, except maybe Xmas time. Don't be like me and build it and not plan for accessing it lol. Make sure the doors and lean to face prevailing wind. My solid side blocks the north wind but SE prevailing blows right through. Also positioned nice to block the hot summer sun is blocked from the west. Wish I'd put a ibeam with hoist. Lastly make sure to buy you a cheap pleather barn recliner, best money spent.

My good boating bud had the same issue as well about the septic.
He put in a "dry" toilet. Don't know much about them but electricity turns the shat to a fine ash he says.
Says it does not stink at all no matter the"load" you put in it. And he just spreads it outside.
Might be an option.
Maybe some guys on here can share some info on them.

Very sound wisdom. Great post.

+1 for the toilet and sink in the shop. My barn is pretty close to my house, but I still use the toilet out there. Personally, I would be happy with just a urinal, as I'm close enough to home base to crap in comfort if needed.

My toilet just runs into my septic spray field. It's not connected to the main house's septic. But, it has a rudimentary drain pipe that lets it leach into the same field underground. It works just fine for the occasional use, especially since I don't put solids in it. But it would work even if I did.

For the sink, I LOVE having a big, deep, oversized tub sink with a sprayer in the barn. Very useful.

You mentioned your well and tank components. If the pump goes down, how will it get serviced inside your barn?

mhnatt said:

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Drillbit4 said:

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OP, have you considered doors on the long side instead of the ends? I have 3 on one side and an additional door on the other side that allows me to drive through with attachments very easily. The Polaris ranger and skid steer use the other doors. I never have to move anything around to get stuff out. Easy in. Easy out.

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Intrigued. Do you have a photo?

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This isn't mine, but similar. Three doors on one side and one on the opposite side so you can pull through a boat or tractor/mower. Mine has the walk-through doors on the ends.

Drillbit4 said:

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You mentioned your well and tank components. If the pump goes down, how will it get serviced inside your barn?

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Well head and pump (800ft down) are about 150ft away from cistern, booster, and pressure tank. I want to build this shop around those components and then add rain capture in a new cistern.
Dry toilet sounds interesting! I'll check it out. Neighbors can't see so outdoors is my urinal. Keep the input coming!

What about buying steel/material? Have you gone to big outfits like Mueller, tuffshed, etc or does anyone have other recs?