Soooo disappointed. DW and I have decided to move out of the home we have lived in for almost 36 years. We found a house in a rural area on 1 acre of land. A BEAUTIFUL home only 8 years old with a 24'X40' steel building for the 5er. We were ready to make an offer and I decided to go up there for one more look and "make sure" we were doing the right thing. I measured the doors (the building has rollup doors on both ends) and they are only 12' high! Our 5er measures 12'9" at the top of the AC. So now what. Well I'm going ahead with an offer on the house to reflect the current market and a contingency that an overhead door company can bring the opening up to at least 13'. It isn't doable with the current rollup but I'm hoping that perhaps a panel style door on tracks may be the solution. Going to meet a rollup door guy up there next Tuesday for his opinion and to get an estimate of the cost involved. I think it was kind of short sighted of the original owner to put up a 12' door but what are ya gonna do. Properties like this don't come on the market very often in the area we would like to live in.Has anyone here had any experience with a situation like this? If so how did you solve it? Here is a picture of the building.Steve

I am sure the 12' door covered anything/everything he ever anticipated using it for. I have a 30'x40' building with 10' doors at each end that I built well before I ever considered buying an RV of any kind. And still have no plans to put one there. Handles my tractor, implements, and utility trailer fine.As far as modifications, it will depend entirely on the internal wall framing and the overhead clearance between the top of the door framing and the roof framing. From the pictures I am guessing there is not room to raise the door opening a foot and have room for a roll door above it.If possible I would go with a garage type panel door any way. The roll doors can't be insulated and, if like mine, do not seal well at all around the sides and bottom letting wind blow dirt/dust/leaves in. The rest of my building is fully insulated but door radiates heat internally when the sun shines on it. That was my oversight.

Assuming that the walk-thru door is a standard 80 inch door, then it looks like the larger door opening is about 13 ft tall. So does that mean the clearance is less than the door opening due to the roll-up door hanging too low? If so, I agree that a sectional door can fix the clearance issue by allowing full use of the frame opening. How wide is the door, maybe 14ft? My sectional door is 13-1/2 ft tall and 14 ft wide and I wouldn't want anything less. It is a commercial insulated steel door and weighs about 400 lbs. I also recommend the Chamberlin Liftmaster door opener, it mounts on the torsion bar shaft, self programs stop points and works great. Much better than the usual chain drive system with a very long chain.

BB_TX wrote:I am sure the 12' door covered anything/everything he ever anticipated using it for. I have a 30'x40' building with 10' doors at each end that I built well before I ever considered buying an RV of any kind. And still have no plans to put one there. Handles my tractor, implements, and utility trailer fine.As far as modifications, it will depend entirely on the internal wall framing and the overhead clearance between the top of the door framing and the roof framing. From the pictures I am guessing there is not room to raise the door opening a foot and have room for a roll door above it.If possible I would go with a garage type panel door any way. The roll doors can't be insulated and, if like mine, do not seal well at all around the sides and bottom letting wind blow dirt/dust/leaves in. The rest of my building is fully insulated but door radiates heat internally when the sun shines on it. That was my oversight.You are correct in that the rollup wont work, no room to raise the roll when the door is up. The rest of the building is not insulated and I'm not sure if that is a problem or not in that area. It is an arid climate and gets pretty warm in the summer, some days over 100* but mostly high 80s to low 90s. All around the area where the siding and roof meet the frame at the ends in the high parts of the siding there is daylight, I think this is done to allow the building to breathe.Steve

We went through the same problem three years ago. Called around and found a company that installed roll up doors. He removed the header in the front of our pole barn to maximize the door opening to 13 feet so that our a/c would clear. Now the door is the same height as the rafters in the pole barn. We did have a sectional type panel door but the tracks would not allow a new door to give the maximum 13 foot opening as the tracks and the panel door hang under the rafters in the barn. Maybe the roll up door does not seal as well as the panel door but you get the maximum opening when it is rolled up.I know it is expensive to alter the door opening and install a new door but it is cheaper than building a new storage building.

Two possibilities. Low profile a/c unit. Might not get you all that you need. Concrete saw. Cut out the paths of the tires down to the stone base. Maybe lower. Install some drains then repour concrete at a lower level. Sloping them out the door so water does not run in. Just some thoughts.

Rollup door to dang short by 8" | Good Sam Community

mpierce
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
Looks to me that even if the door was higher, there is not enough height.
ghaindle
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
Sledge Hammer wrote:
I have a friend that lifted his entire building to get clearance for his Allegro Bus.

BIL did that when he went from TT to MH. Don't have any idea what it costs him.
Dave_H_M
Explorer II
Aug 22, 2013
schlep1967 wrote:
Two possibilities. Low profile a/c unit. Might not get you all that you need. Concrete saw. Cut out the paths of the tires down to the stone base. Maybe lower. Install some drains then repour concrete at a lower level. Sloping them out the door so water does not run in. Just some thoughts.

That is the way i went but just put road pack in the slots cut in the floor. Cut out wood panels to drop in the slots to keep the varmits out. I only had to cut the floor back far enough until the AC cleared the header, then sloped the cuts up so the fifth wheel backed up on the concrete floor.
Shadow_Grey
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
Cut floor and slope is probably going to be best way...depending on grade of area around building...
JohnBoyToo
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
HMMM - lot's of good ideas if you are after getting inside ?
But if you are after just overhead coverage ?

Maybe use the barn as a barn and build a 'lean-to' off the side for your overhead coverage ?

Nice problem to have at any rate - I have to store off site :(
Dayle1
Explorer II
Aug 22, 2013
57 Panhead wrote:
Dayle1 wrote:
Assuming that the walk-thru door is a standard 80 inch door, then it looks like the larger door opening is about 13 ft tall. So does that mean the clearance is less than the door opening due to the roll-up door hanging too low? If so, I agree that a sectional door can fix the clearance issue by allowing full use of the frame opening. How wide is the door, maybe 14ft? My sectional door is 13-1/2 ft tall and 14 ft wide and I wouldn't want anything less. It is a commercial insulated steel door and weighs about 400 lbs. I also recommend the Chamberlin Liftmaster door opener, it mounts on the torsion bar shaft, self programs stop points and works great. Much better than the usual chain drive system with a very long chain.

Sadly that is not the case. The door is just over 6' and the siding is not 10" per panel but 9". I just ran up there to re-measure and it is 146" from the concrete to the header. Wish it wasn't so but it is what it is.

Steve

Steve,
Thanks for the clarification. If it were my problem, I would take a good look at raising the building, maybe about 10". My 3300 SF weld-up steel building for house, garage and RV garage only has 16,000 lbs of steel, so your building weighs less than 5000 lbs, probably not much over 4000 lbs.
sdetweil
Explorer
Aug 22, 2013
the question will be what is the clearance room inside the header for moving the door up a foot. I recently built a 30x40 myself, and put two 16x10 roll up doors in one side.
the doors are actually 12ft tall, but the header on my door is at 10ft.
seen here

a couple new side pieces for the door frame, and small section of guide (jeez, I just tossed out 2-1ft pieces I cut off the guides!)

I used an A/C duct lifting crane, manual crank, to get the doors in position. seen here holding up the center section to start

Sam

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Rollup door to dang short by 8"

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