Be very careful, about mounting these doors in anything that isn’t completely stable, these doors are extremely heavy and need a good solid ground weather top hung or bottom rolled, my experience is they have little tolerance for building movement, a problem compounded if you have ordered triple glazed. we have been in extensive talks with our supplier about our particular odd mounting condition and have had to have steel supports designed and fabricated for them to fit and offer there 5 year guarantee.

On another project were movement may have been an issue the doors have stopped working altogether. I expect lengthy discussion between fitters and supplier?

My advice is to get your supplier to install and offer some sort of guarantee say 1-2 years that would cover the initial movement period. Make sure they are aware even if casually that it is a green oak structure, and then there is no blaming the building.

Posted By: coversfarmA visitor mentioned using adjustable fixings for the door frames

Screws are adjustablesorry could resist that.

The green oak will twist,warp and shrink. The gap around the frame is also going to open up as the oak shrinks.
I would have thought you are going to have to use cover boards and wider joints to allow for movement.

I

What sort of thermal efficiency are you looking for with these doors?
If the barn remains an unheated structure there will be different options versus the requirements for a door on a heated building.

As suggested above you need to be really really careful with this, the potential for total failure is very high, I have seen more than one failure due to frame moving and pinching the joinery unit. You're basically trying to fit modern hinge, slider and locking technology with virtually no tolerance for movement (due to the nature of the way they work), in to something which is practically guaranteed to move.

I fitted three sets in to one of my oak frames about 3 years ago. It was up to me to detail it and the only way I was happy to do it was have them fitted in to individual heavy galv steel box frames round each unit. We increased the gap for the face glazing system and the frames sat in there, with slotted mounts to allow the steel frame to move independent to the oak, and stay square and true for the door units within. The units were larger than the opening as usual and mounted against the face of the oak on epdm dry seals to accommodate the movement.

I still see the client regularly and they have apparently had no problems so far, despite the fact that they use the room for a hot-tub and I imagine the oak is twisted all over the place by now! When clients ask me about them now I tell them it can be done, but I always recommend looking in to alternatives. For the amount most people actually use them fully, a good set of french windows is a hell of a lot easier and cheaper. Folding sliding doors are expensive enough if you go for decent quality, fitting them in to oak frames doubled the cost on that job! I hope you have deep pockets!

Got some significant shrinkage with some oak in my house. Posts around 3m long have shrunk 12-15mm in some cases.

Any fittings going into green oak should be stainless steel? Might complicate finding adjustable ones.

Most of the worst movement will be in the first year however oak especially is a slow dryer and this initial drying can last two years? And it will continue to move for many many years to a lesser degree.

Great idea pm, a lot of work in these green oak building although not all of it obvious as just the frame itself. any connection of other elements have to be really detailed, we worked for an architect that designed jacking plates within the timber frame, so any movement could be compensated.