Sliding doors?

[ravenzero]

Hello All, I want to make a sliding door for my coop that slides up, because I will be building a short run soon, and a lockable door will no longer work, we would have to go inside the run (about 4" tall) to open and close a coop door.

So Anyone have experience with sliding door? My thought was a 13x13 plywood held in place by 2x4s, with a metal rod and handle attached to the plywood, with a notch to hold the handle and thus the door open in place.

This sound good? Anyone have ideas or pictures on what they did? Any problems with this set up?

 

[damselfish]

Hi, we have two horizontal sliding doors on our coop and they work just fine. The materials are pretty much what you described.

We (and when I say "we" I mean my husband!) cut a rabbet in the 2x4s to create a channel for the plywood to run in...you'll need a little extra space so that it doesn't stick but not so much that it's loose.

The doors stay closed by their own weight. We do not use latches on them. It would take a heavy and determined animal to move them, particularly because our coop is on deck blocks, about 1 ft off the ground. It would be tough for even a raccoon to get any kind of leverage on the door.

Our handle is just another piece of 2x4 screwed on the face of the door.