** Is a 4 foot wide door too wide?

[ll]

Is this 4 foot wide door going to be too wide?

The center post is at the 4ft mark so I can use 4ft hardware cloth to the left without cutting it.
The bottom horizontal support beam is 8ft.
Suggestions are more than welcome

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
No.

 

[wilcoxmad]

A 4 foot door can cause you problems. How are you going to frame it? If you buy a door that large it can be quite expensive. If you are making one yourself you will need to consider cross member supports or it will sag and be hard to open/close and not fit well. Bigger more expensive hinges will be required too. Here is a pix of my coop. I think my door is 32 inches by 6 foot.

 

[ll]

Yes making it ourselves (my DH made our current dutch door)
Bigger hinges, that's a good thing ~ I like big ole hinges.
Sagging is not a good thing, hmm.

We were thinking of adding another post to the right front corner, maybe a foot or so in and have a small hardware clothed area between the door and the shed wall. But we don't really want to buy another post and another post anchor.

 

[wilcoxmad]

When I get home I will take some pix of the door and how we made it and framed it out.

 

[zookeeper15133]

Make 2 -2' doors. Attach one to each post. Use 1 and have the other one dead bolted at top and bottom to use when you need to get the wheelbarrow in there.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Is that going to be the coop or a fenced run? and the door is going between the post and the shed, right?

Bracing the door so it doesn't sag isn't that big of deal, but you will have to run the brace from the bottom on the hinge side of the door, to the top corner away from the hinges. This way the weight of the door is held by the crossbrace and rests on the bottom hinge corner of the door. And the hinge should be located close to the bottom to support the weight of the cross brace.

One thing to remember is that a 4 foot screen door will have some "wiggle" to it and a predator (insert "coon" here) will have a good chance of pulling the bottom of the door away from the door frame and squeezing in. You could always put a latch at the top and bottom to prevent that from happening though.

If you wanted to make it a little narrower, you can just use 2x4 nailed in place between your base 4x4 and a 2x4 along the top. You really wouldn't have to use another 4x4 post and bracket between the existing 4x4 postand edge, since you don't need the strength that type of construction gives.

If you are in a snow area, and are putting a solid roof on the thing ,then a 4 foot spacing will be too much
without additional support for your roof and snow load.

EDITED TO ADD: I like FoxKeeper's idea also.

 

[wowmanacat]

Quote:
X2

 

[carrlr]

Quote:
Eactly what I was thinking.!!!

 

[Avalon1984]

Here is my door. 3ft I think. Works like a charm. With a 4ft door you can get an ATV in there. Yipii