Choosing Doors for your Post Frame Building

Tips to help pick the perfect doors
Every post frame building needs at least one door to make it functional. In reality, most buildings require two or more to make it the most useable for you. But how do you choose the doors that would work best for your operation? After all, this is one of the most critical decisions when designing a building.

Before You Start
Key points to consider when choosing doors for your building:
- What will you be using the doors for? Moving animals or equipment?
- What’s the largest piece of equipment you would bring in?
- How many different types of doors will you need?
- What purpose will each serve? Where is the most logical flow of traffic to help direct where you would place the door(s)?
- Do you need to drive your equipment straight through the building? If so, would you consider having doors on both ends?
- Is the building insulated or cold storage? Will you potentially insulate it in the future?
- What’s your budget?

What You Need to Know

Here’s a quick primer on the pros and cons of doors available for post frame buildings.

1. Sliding Doors
Benefits:

• Most economical
• Wide range of uses for all building types
• Great for cold storage
• Available in widths up to 32’
• Available in all colours
• Moderate seal against building

Application:
Used in all types of post frame buildings

Considerations:

• Generally used for uninsulated or cold storage buildings
• Manually operated

2. Overhead Doors
Benefits:

• Available in a variety of sizes up to 30’ wide
• Have an insulation value of R16
• Clear span to 30’
• Tight seal against building (weather stripping)
• Optional electric operators
• Optional remote control
• Can be used in insulated or cold storage buildings
• Available in bright white

Application:
Riding arenas, shops, garages, commercial, barns, acreage

Considerations:

• Need extra 2’ in height for clearance

3. Bi-fold Doors
Benefits:

• Heavy-duty doors
• Long lasting
• Clear span to 90’ makes it a great option for large openings
• Full height opening means no head room loss
• Tight seal against building (weather stripping)
• 220 volt electric operator comes standard with door
• Many accessories available including remote control, automatic locking controls and more
• Available in all colours
• Bi-fold doors supplied by industry leader Diamond Doors

Application:

Wide range of uses from airplane hangars to insulated shops
Can be used for cold storage or insulated applications for any large building
See a bi-fold door in action on an airplane hangar.

4. Walk-in Doors
Benefits:

• Available in 3’ or 4’ widths
• Steel
• Available in bright white

Application:
We suggest adding a smaller service door (walk-in) beside larger doors so that the large door does not have to be opened for routine activities.

Next Steps
Take measurements
The increasing size of today’s farm equipment requires increasingly larger door openings. Avoid unpleasant surprises by taking measurements of your equipment and carefully verify your needs.

Choose the characteristics
We’ve looked at the general characteristics of the different types of doors and where to best use them. Now it’s time to decide which characteristics will work best with your needs

Decide on placement of doors
We recommend placing large doors in the end walls of your post frame building for a couple of reasons:

• snow doesn’t fall directly in front of them making it easier for you to enter and exit your building during the winter
• ensures your building is structurally sound.

See how the design of the post frame machine shed at Prairie Rock Farms and placement of an overhead door on each end of the building has made moving large air seeders a breeze.

Ask for advice
While this is my last bullet, it really should be your starting point. We have designed and built hundreds of post frame buildings for a variety of uses. We’re more than happy to help customize your building with the best doors for your needs from the start.

Contact us to find out more on pole building design.