INFO FOR ARCHITECTS, CONTRACTORS and DESIGNERS --

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Assume Nothing. Please spend the time and think about proper planning if sliding barn doors are to be part of your space design:

Northshore Barn Doors invented an entirely new bracketing system we typically use on most door installations. This bracket mounts differently (a bit higher than the standard many have likely seen in common DYI kits or systems many use) so we usually plan for the ability to mount in our way. We have our version of mounting rails up top with holes drilled through the steel bar and spacers mounted, but our new bracket mounts higher than this method so planning any ledger up top needs to be discussed first if one is used. Our new bracketing is a system that does not require the ledger or beam across the top unless someone wants that look.

We can mount in the commonly seen method where rails are held up by spacers that require holes drilled through the steel rail, but we use our spacers for this.

Either way, we strive to make your door and hardware the way you like it, and we listen to your needs, but please let us “drive” and help guide you through the process with the hardware and methods we have innovated and installed with for eight successful years on over 750 individual projects!

Space planning can determine where a certain entryway is located or how it is accessed, If a space is being built, some things can be done during renovation or new construction that make it easier to install a sliding barn door or even a whole wall or partition of doors and designs using reclaimed wood and related features.

Homeowners and commercial building owners can have us create full wall partitions and large, customized doors that work in spaces instead of having the entire room redesigned and rebuilt in ways that may cost a lot more than commissioning us for our workmanship.

As we all know, if something is planned correctly, it ends up costing less in the long run. The Dutch have an olde saying, “Goedkoop is Duurkoop” This translates loosely into: “If you buy cheap, you pay more as a result.” Many builders and installers have had to take something previously done and redo it in a better way for something to work. This costs everyone more in the end and we all wish to avoid that. Let’s spend the money on quality and artisan craft, not redo’s and mistakes.

Northshore Barn Doors prides itself on designing, building, and installing everything to avoid issues wherever possible, and we stand by our workmanship and quality. We plan for each customized installation. We have also made and installed several very large and wide doors and they require special planning. In these situations, the more rustic style is the best mode of design.

What’s the lead time and cost?

Everything is custom. Every home, every entryway, and every door. We can price properly once we know the scope of the project and the logistics of the space and access. Please see our pricing page for more. We are typically several weeks out and while it may take only a day or a few days to make most doors and parts, we need time to get to those days because of other projects in the queue. We are make-to-order and we operate a lot like your favorite busy ice cream shop in the summer. There could be a line forming at any moment. Oftentimes, people may call asking about lead time and we can tell you that day or that week, but if that person does not come back and sign up for say, another three weeks, things will have changed. Plan accordingly. Note that one way to secure a better spot is to make a deposit sooner rather than later because when that is received is the time from which we start your lead time. Also, our business is like one of those far-away breweries where you can only get the good beers there and nowhere else. It’s not “just a door” and it’s not available everywhere, and it IS rocket science to us. It’s also not for everyone, but if you love our work as much as we do, we will make it happen!

What’s the first thing we need?

Pictures, videos, plans, drawings, sketches. But PICTURES are the best! If the space has not yet been built, renderings or photos of other areas that are can help us understand the space. Similar pictures can help. Pictures of trim or baseboard work, and other similar existing entryways showing style. If the project is in a renovation space, this can often be done. But if the building isn’t even at that stage or if it is new construction, then of course plans help but at some point, we need to think about the walls on which your doors will slide when opened, and if there is enough room for them. Doors are made WIDER than an entry on both left and right, and sometimes by 2-3 inches wider than the outside edges of any casing around the entry. Will the doors hit a corner wall when opened and is there going to be baseboard trim in that corner? It all matters and we are experienced with these things so please just show us pictures so we can help!

Wide shots if possible… standing back from the entryway so we can see floor-to-ceiling views with the walls on which doors will live when fully opened. Those are the best pics! Multiple pics and angles are welcomed. Send them to my iPhone as texts ANYTIME: 781 439 2874.

Videos help, too. Slow-moving ones and anything showing us access to an area and what is where. Videos showing us where to pull up and park the trailer and how to get a big door inside help too! Staircases, corners, etc. The more ways for us to see the property before we start the better. Whether you are at a distance and we are working virtually, or if we plan to come out tomorrow, it is always best to let us see things sooner rather than later so we can get our creative minds around your project for you. Seeing these things before our first meeting is always helpful.

Pictures of studded walls are great. It helps us see what can be added if anything is needed. It helps us see any wires or ducts or pipes to be aware of. And if you have switches, we can recommend the best placement for these based on where your barn doors will slide to. We can work around them and there are many examples of how we do that but if you are building the space now, let’s talk about this sooner than later.

The next thing to think about is your door style and design. I often suggest to folks that they could go on our Instagram page and screenshot doors they like then send those back to me so I know what you are looking to do. We often make MOCKUPS for some projects, and so having your photos and your ideas of doors we already know the color and style of makes this possible, and easier for you to visualize and show your customers too. We can use Photoshop to make the walls and doors that look the way you want them to!

For the color of wood, its rustic or less rustic look, etc… many people have ranges or ideas. But if you have very specific/exacting color needs, it is highly recommended that you come into our workshop and see the wood and coloring processes in person to approve this. Some can approve photos but I find the best way is to see the wood live.

Designers:

We know you often work on commissions, and that you have budgets in mind. Please note that Northshore Barn Doors is a local New England company with two main Barndoorists. We can handle big and small projects but we are not a large manufacturer and we have families too. We hand-craft everything, and every door and home or business is custom. We work with real reclaimed wood and metal parts we make and assemble ourselves. No kits like you may have seen online or at home centers. We use US metals and we install them locally. If a project is further than about 2 hours from our homes or the Amesbury, MA workshop., we have to stay overnight to get to a site and work all day there.

When a new customer (or a designer or builder) contacts me, we get excited and, as artisans, we are into creativity. We want to see photos of the space in whatever stage it is in. We need to know the space and sometimes due to schedules or distance, we cannot get to your site right away, so for us to properly quote your project, we need to see what you have and then we need to think about what can be made. Some systems may be simple and others may be complex. Each one is custom and so is the pricing. There are general ranges on our pricing page. We can make you 2D mockups based on both your photos and any screenshots of doors you have seen that you send me that you want me to emulate (we typically ask people to take screenshots from our Instagram because those are projects we have done) and these mockups can help you and your customer understand and see the doors in the space, but this work does take time and expertise and often, if someone is just kicking the tires or using us to help design their doors and then move on to some other maker, it becomes a cost for us.

If you have more immediate deadlines and needs, we can help, but please understand we have other customer projects to work on too. We currently do not offer soft close for our doors because these systems are designed for thinner door builds and most of our doors are thicker. We have plenty of ways to handle privacy for bathrooms and offices so just ask about features and ideas but please let us help you with design and function as they often go hand in hand when barn doors are being done.

Hardware and door build. We make our own in our Amesbury workshop:

Many have become familiar with the “barn door kits” found online or at big home centers. We do not use these kits. We also strive to source, make, assemble, and use real American-made metals and parts. There are many companies out there that tout “American Made” when their mass-produced hardware is just made in China. You want to support local and US metals and craftsmanship, not the other guys. Some of that hardware is “just ok” and I find much of it lacks when it comes to full customization and versatility. Some features and crucial hardware needs are often left out in barn door installation and some who put them up do not even know what is missing. These door projects end up making the result not what the customer wanted. Then they hate their barn door instead of loving it. We want you to love it and everything that goes into it. If you have purchased hardware from somewhere else, this may not always make the project easier or less expensive. We work with our hardware and methods because we found this to be the most efficient and effective way to proceed. There are times we can use some hardware supplied by others, but it is usually not the case. It is best to consult with us first before buying something and then hoping a pro can just use it without issue.

We have spent the past years concentrating on hardware and door design. That’s what we do. We have made and installed over 600 doors in that time and we have concentrated on constantly developing and perfecting our hardware and installation methods. It takes work, tinkering, tweaking, and time. We know what works and what ultimately fails and does not work. As a result, many of our methods for hardware and door design are going to be different. We find that the premise for the commonly sourced kits begins with the wrong premise going into the project. That means that sadly, all over the world where these cookie-cutter kits are sold, everyone is starting from not the best place when using these kits and their methods. We are just a small company organically growing door by door, customer by customer, but our solutions and methods are going to produce a better result, so we hope you take a moment to chat with us and plan the space with that in mind.

When planning for potential sliding barn doors, try not to assume that things will end up with one of those overseas kits. For example, a ledger board or “beam” up across the top is NOT always needed. Some customers like this look, but some do not and we have developed solutions to make everything work without one. If a space is designed with a ledger in place up top, I have found these have often been made not long enough to house our hardware. Please check with us first before adding such elements.

 

Retrofitting doors:

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We typically work on doors we have made and installed. However, there are some instances where we can help with some existing hardware and some doors customers have already hung up. We may need to take the door back to the shop and modify wood and other features, change out wheel arm assemblies, and handles. We have even cut or added to some doors supplied by others or changed glass. Each instance depends on the situation and everything is custom. This involves labor and time, just like any new project will. 

 

Retrofitting supplied handles: 

 

We offer several handle hardware options. When a customer supplies a handle they obtained, we often have to change the bolts that hold some of these on because our doors are thicker. We need to have the handles in our shop to do this when building our doors.

Wood color:

Barn wood is aged and it can vary by nature in tone and style. Olde pines that had been outside vs inside, different grades of pines and other related species, gray and pitty wood vs brown or tan wood, sawmill stock vs aged Southern Yellow Pine, and more… all of these are worked differently, all of these take color differently.

Are you looking for a close match of a color or range? This is the best way to approach barn dooring in the rustic style.

Do you need something more specific? We would likely need you to come into the shop to see everything we do and approve something in our presence for any exact color needs.

How wide is your barn door and do you plan to use casing or not?

We make our barn doors at least 2-1/2” to 3” wider than a “finished drywall corner” entryway. And so, for example, if your entryway is, say, 30” wide and there’s no casing/molding/trim around it, then our barn doors will ideally be between 35-36” wide for a space like this. Therefore, when the door opens to, say, the left or the right wall, there ideally needs to be at least that amount of space on that wall for it to fully open without sticking out into the entryway. This especially matters in laundry pantries where new equipment may need to be moved in or out over time, or where someone needs to carry the laundry bin in and out with ease. It also looks better when the door can be fully opened without sticking out into the entryway. If the door is to be say, 36” wide, then the wall it lives on when fully opened may need to be 37” wide. That’s because, at the bottom, you have baseboard trim. And if this room is in a corner or alcove, there will likely be baseboard trim on that corner and the door should not bump into it. When designing these spaces, it is good to consider these things going in. If this cannot be achieved, we have created many solutions and we can share plenty of examples, We have designed doors that have a folding leaf, and “accordion” bypass doors that pull out from one side.

If your space has casing, or you are planning to add casing, we need to know that before we can build your doors. Some casing is standard and not so wide. Some are wide flat stock or decorative. We have designed doors that cover the casing on both sides when the door is fully closed or ones that can show some of the vertical casing on the left and right when the door is fully closed. Either way, the door is wider than the entryway itself, just as it is when there is no casing used.

How thick is your barn door?

Aged reclaimed wood is often thicker than today’s stock found in home centers and lumber yards. As a result, your door is thicker. We can build less thick door styles, but typical or standard door builds can be about 2 to 2-1/2” thick depending on stock and other features. It is best to not try to “thread the needle” when installing a barn door. There should be some “play” allowed for where it hangs and if there is something it is to slide behind or into, we suggest a wider space. For example, if someone wants one of our door builds to be a pocket door, your channel needs to be wider than the typical system. Ask us about door thickness and hardware, and how the wood we use relates to the space the final door is installed in.

We can provide the DOOR BUILD only if you wish to install it on your own!

If you are asking us to just make the wood door itself, sometimes referred to as a “slab”—but we like a nicer word, like “door-build,” then it is good to chat with us first to make sure it will fit over your entryway correctly. Please take into account the above information about how we determine door width first. Note also that we typically work with reclaimed pines. By nature, these older boards are thicker stock. New stock is often about 3/4” thick. Older stock is up to 1” thick. We can make almost any build for you, but if we make a typical or standard door build for sale as is without our installation and hardware, then this build may be up to 2+ inches thick. If you are using kit hardware, you will likely need to modify its spacers and other features when installing everything.

In most cases, when someone wants the door-build only, they need to arrange to pick it up at our workshop and wrap and load it yourself. We do not ship and we currently do not sell our hardware separately.

What about that “gap” behind doors? Do they work for private spaces?

When your room has wall obstructions, fixtures, outlets, switches, heaters, chair rails, decorative trim, thicker casing, and other features that make the wall plane not as flat as one imagines it should be to house a sliding barn door, do not fret! We plan for this very thing because we find it more common than not! Yes, you can have a barn door in spaces many think you cannot! How? Well, barn doors and the hardware live out from walls and trim by nature. Our patent-pending brackets accommodate our thicker door builds and so the whole system lives out a tad more than those common fake doors and kits found at the home centers. But we have a great way to mitigate that gap behind the door! When we install, we include a feature called “side boards.”

“Sides” or returns to hide that gap behind sliding doors!

Sliding barn doors do stick out from walls by nature. But once the door is hanging, we are not yet done We fashion side boards to add on the left and right of most doors so that the gap between the back of the wooden door and your wall or casing is mitigated to 1/4” to 1/2” in most cases! This feature makes it so bathrooms, home offices, or other spaces are more closed off and private, helping with noise and light reduction while adding a more complete and robust look to the finished piece. The side boards are often fashioned on-site to match with wall elements that may exist in your space such as protruding heaters, switches, thermostats, chair rails, prouder trim board and molding elements, and other features.

Walls and trim work can waver along a space. We fashion the side boards to accommodate the “run” of the door when it slides open or closed. There’s always a little play and variation and everything is also related to the very necessary base guides and rail stoppers we also install. Ask about how these work so your door stays on track at all times! One more thing… we do not install weather stripping at this time.

Can we install doors on walls with metal studs?

Wood studs in the wall are the best way to go. Metal studs are not great. We have installed door hardware on cinderblock and brick walls, but the one thing to highlight here is that if there are going to be metal studs, we need to make sure of a few things before the walls are sealed up. If you have metal studs, we implore you to use the strongest-grade versions. We need wood inside some crucial areas. We know in some cases, there are firewall needs so fire grade wood must be used. We know this has a higher cost too, but if you want things done right and you want the door to not sag or fail in other ways over time, then please do use it inside the studs. And not just the fire-grade plywood! That may not be strong enough for all applications. Sliding doors are heavy and since they move, that essentially adds potential ware and stress over time. We recommend a strong header beam inside the wall up top so we can mount our hardware across the space, and we recommend strong wood posts in a few places along a run as well for strength that alleviates downward pressure. Also, at the base, where we must install our crucial roller or other door guides, we need something to screw them into through the finished drywall or other final wall surface. We do not rely on toggles!

If we are installing on an existing wall that has metal studs, we will likely have to add a top ledger to mount our hardware on. We also need to verify any electrical elements inside the wall. We may need to cut into some walls to check for or add other structural elements to support the door use. We do not want our door to fail because something inside the wall that someone else put up does not work correctly.

Distance travel to install barn doors and more:

Northshore Barn Doors is primarily all about New England and, well, the Northshore of Massachusetts. But we will go anywhere. If it’s within 30 minutes, that’s the sweet spot. We can come to see your space to help plan and measure. If it’s within an hour, you may be the one measuring but we can help virtually through various means. We can travel to your project and there may be an added charge for some fuel. If it’s within two hours away from our workshop, this will require some added fuel and time. If it’s much beyond that, we have to plan an overnight. That also has a cost. If we stay at the customer's home that works, but if we have to get a hotel this could be a cost that the customer needs to cover or we need to bill for. You are commissioning artisans and we have parts and wood and our truck and trailer, and we have families and lives back home too, and more business and doors to do in our workshop that we are not working in when we are on the road. Hiring us to head to Aspen, CO to do a door and do some skiing? Absolutely! But we need to work out logistics because in real far away locations, we need to work out other means to get the door and hardware, and special tools and parts to the site.

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