Door frame advice needed

[Charlie390]

Evening gents,
I've been thinking over a project for quite awhile and could do with some advice. I'm lucky/unlucky enough to have a few old stone farm buildings and I've been eyeing up one of them for use as a potential workshop. Before anything though, I'd like to make it as secure as possible. At the minute there is a rickety wooden door that is just about hanging onto the frame.

Ideally I'd like to replace this with a steel framed wooden door, however attaching any type of frame to the surrounding stone work is a real pain, mainly as the stone wall consists of two layers of stone filled in with rubble in the middle.

What I have been thinking of doing is welding a metal door frame from box section and setting it in concrete. If I set the bottom metre or so in concrete would this give me the necessary strength for the door frame?

 

[brightspark]

weld on some angle brackets inside and fix to inner wall. straps

 

[Charlie390]

weld on some angle brackets inside and fix to inner wall. straps

I've thought about something like that but I'd have to drill the stone and use some sort of anchor resin for fixings. The stone would be a pain to drill and it's not a nice flat wall that has been well built & fitted together. I can only assume that my ancestors were as talented as I am at DIY

 

[baconbarm]

I fit a lot of gates and railings and security doors etc, my general rule of thumb is, if the existing walls /brickwork are in poor shape, then you need to make sure the job your doing is independent of the surrounding materials, so as you suggest a framework cemented in position is the way to go.

I understand the job is for yourself, but ive been in the situation where a customer insists I fit a gate to shoddy brickwork (to save on the expense of fitting a steel post) then phone me up a few months later, complaining that the gate has doesn't line up because the whole wall has slowly shifted due tothe weight of the gate

 

[Charlie390]

Yeah that was my reasoning also, I have visions of slamming the door too hard and being left with a door frame in front of a pile of rubble (it's not that bad but you get the idea)

Have you any recommendations for what dimension/thickness of box section to use? I'd probably go for a single garage door sized opening.

 

[baconbarm]

Yeah that was my reasoning also, I have visions of slamming the door too hard and being left with a door frame in front of a pile of rubble (it's not that bad but you get the idea)

Have you any recommendations for what dimension/thickness of box section to use? I'd probably go for a single garage door sized opening.

A single garage door sized opening would be about 9ft wide by 6ft high, so if these are the rough dimensions id say 80 x 80 box is plenty if its welded up as a 'goalpost' type framework.

 

[Charlie390]

Thanks, would 3mm be ok or would I be be better off with heavier?

 

[baconbarm]

3mm is fine, as long as its an actual frame, if you were to use two independent posts with no framework to tie it all together, id go for 100mm posts

 

[colnerov]

Hi, you could set the frame towards the front of the opening and triangulate from anywhere between the middle to the top of the frame back to just inside the building. If you are swinging heavy doors on it you could triangulate forward as well or instead. you don't need to go far, just so you increase the footprint.

Colin

 

[Kent]

80 box sounds seriously over size to me but 3mm a bit thin
Personally I should go thicker in the wall and decrease the overall by a lot 40-60 perhaps
Still I ain't looking at it

 

[the snooper]

80 box sounds seriously over size to me but 3mm a bit thin
Personally I should go thicker in the wall and decrease the overall by a lot 40-60 perhaps
Still I ain't looking at it

have you misread this ? this is to be an independent door frame rather then hanging the doors direct onto the stonework

 

[Kent]

have you misread this ? this is to be an independent door frame rather then hanging the doors direct onto the stonework

Totally free standing? That makes it a gate don't it? In that case yeah I have

 

[Pete.]

Build a stout wooden frame, brace it in place then fill around the outside with PU foam. That ain't coming out in a hurry.

 

[gaz1]

i cheated and used an ex factory steel fire door the frame i had to make up so used 3mm box section and cut it into 2 then welded straps across the back of the frame for extra strength

made like a fire door frame for a factory

i had enough of them kicking in the door the last time they did kick it in they kicked at the hinges side and broke the wooden frame sometimes on a fire door the door hinges will give so this time i considered using all metal frame and door as pictured below

it also opens outwards



ive also strengthened the frame by sinking the frame into a double wall

that door is 2mm thick on each side just has inner fins welded on the inside of the door

 

[roofman]

Set 2 large steel post in concrete on the inside line of the opening and weld a steel head on it too...use this as the anchor for the frame,you want the door set back from all the weather anyway

 

[baconbarm]

This is a job I did for a hospital boiler room. The frame was bolted directly to the walls though so I used 50 x 50 box outer frame. I couldn't decide whether it was better to have the sheeting on the inside or outside, im still not sure

 

[Kent]

That's a tidy job and the best way around to my mind

 

[the snooper]

View attachment 71884 View attachment 71885

This is a job I did for a hospital boiler room. The frame was bolted directly to the walls though so I used 50 x 50 box outer frame. I couldn't decide whether it was better to have the sheeting on the inside or outside, im still not sure

outside without doubt, if anyone wants to cut through the sheet to get in once through they get a surprise when they see the bars if its the other way round they know what they are up against before hand

 

[Charlie390]

Interesting stuff, many thanks chaps, you've given me plenty of stuff to mull over!

 

[gaz1]

thegreg fella built this on the forums and my door is also at end of the post on a split down form of the door build

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/my-first-project-workshop-security-door.20688/