Hi,
I'm wanting to replace a rotted shed door with something that will
better withstand the weather. I'm thinking it'll have a 2"x4" frame
and with either 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. What materials could I use to
have a long lasting, maintenance free door?

I've purchased a Trax (Trex?) 2"x4" for the bottom part of the frame
(too heavy to use for the entire frame).

The door will be painted, so the materials will have to take paint.

TIA
Todd

Use standard lumber and keep it painted. If kept up, it will outlive you.

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Hi,
I'm wanting to replace a rotted shed door with something that will
better withstand the weather. I'm thinking it'll have a 2"x4" frame
and with either 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. What materials could I use to
have a long lasting, maintenance free door?

I've purchased a Trax (Trex?) 2"x4" for the bottom part of the frame
(too heavy to use for the entire frame).

The door will be painted, so the materials will have to take paint.

TIA
Todd

wrote:
I'm wanting to replace a rotted shed door with something that will
better withstand the weather. I'm thinking it'll have a 2"x4" frame
and with either 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. What materials could I use to
have a long lasting, maintenance free door?

I wanted a large sliding door (9 ft x 15 ft) on the inside of my shop.
The requirements was that I wanted it lightweight and somewhat insulated.
I ended up building a frame of 2x4s and thin plywood and filling the frame
with sheets of 2 inch foam insulation. After that I wrapped the whole
thing in some light fiberglass cloth and gave it two coats of epoxy.

Works great for me. One downside is that it would probably be a real
hazard in a fire (fumes). It is an inside door, so I'm not sure how this
would work for you. Would probably depend on how much sunlight it got.


--
Frank Stutzman
Bonanza N494B "Hula Girl"
Hood River, OR

I agree with CW. I would recommend 1/2" ply for paneling. Prime well
and paint with a good quality house paint. Are you confident with the
stability of your door frame construction plans?

wrote:

Hi,
I'm wanting to replace a rotted shed door with something that will
better withstand the weather. I'm thinking it'll have a 2"x4" frame
and with either 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. What materials could I use to
have a long lasting, maintenance free door?

I've purchased a Trax (Trex?) 2"x4" for the bottom part of the frame
(too heavy to use for the entire frame).

The door will be painted, so the materials will have to take paint.

TIA
Todd

Todd,

I rebuilt my shed doors with Hardie-panel, using cedar 2x4 "Z"s (or "N"s) to
give it support. Hardie-panel comes with a 50 year warranty, is off-white
unpainted, and can be painted. Once the doors are up, you shouldn't have
to touch them for quite some time. The price is comparable with plywood,
although you'll have to buy a special blade to cut it (it's like cutting
flexible concrete). I think about $20 for a 7 1/4" cheap blade, $40 for a
nice one.

Make sure you buy the thicker of the 4x8 sheets. I don't remember the
thickness, although Hardie's web site should be able to give you the info.

I also used it to replace the siding on one of the sheds and their trim
product to replace a lot of the trim on my house. Good stuff - I've never
been unhappy with it.
--
Michael White "To protect people from the effects of folly is to
fill the world with fools." -Herbert Spencer

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I like the Hardie panel/cedar 2x4
combo. Sounds indestructable!

Micheal,
Hardie's web site mentions siding products and backer board. Did you
use backer board, siding, or does their site just not mention sheets?

wrote:

Micheal,
Hardie's web site mentions siding products and backer board. Did you
use backer board, siding, or does their site just not mention sheets?

Todd,

The Hardie site doesn't seem to be the greatest for displaying the different
types of products, but what I used they classify as "vertical siding".
http://www.dealerslumber.com/hardie.html seems to do a little better job of
describing what they have. I'd go with the the 5/16", 4' x 8' sheets.
I've built doors out of it and 1/4" stuff, though, and both are still up
maintenance-free.

84 Lumber has a good selection of Hardie products and cedar 2x4s, at least
here in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Oh, and plan on using screws or a nail gun to put things together. You'll
burn a lot of energy trying to pound a nail through that stuff.

If you want, I can upload some pictures of the doors I built to my web page.
Let me know if you're interested.
--
Michael White "To protect people from the effects of folly is to
fill the world with fools." -Herbert Spencer

Thanks for the info. This looks exactly like what I was after! Yeah,
if you could post the pictures I'd love to see them.

Thanks,
Todd