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Hangars and doors

jbDC9

Well Known Member
A question (or three) for all here who have or have built hangars. I'm considering doing an airpark hangar/home but gotta do some hangar construction research... I'm thinking 50'X50' should do the trick, but I wonder about hangar/door height. For most non-commercial hangars I usually see door heights of either 12 or 14 feet. I can't imagine needing to fit a King Air or anything in there, so would the consensus be that a 12 foot door frame is adequate?

Then there's the door itself; bi-fold, no-fold hydraulic, or a Horton stack door. It appears that both Wilson Doors and Hydroswing have gone belly up, so I've found that leaves Schweiss and Hi-Fold Doors to be vendors for bi-fold and no-fold doors... I'm kinda liking the idea of the hydraulic lift no-fold door, but have no idea what the pricing will be like, I'll start requesting email quotes today. Any preferences or pros-cons on these doors or vendors? The Schweiss website looks like it has lots of info, just gotta try to digest it all in the next day or two.

So many variables, what to do...
 
Here in the airpark I live in, the majority of the hangars have standard garage doors, in pairs or an occasional set of three. Most of these are roll up doors, some are segmented overhead kind.

The center post has tracks for the doors on either side, and it is removable to make the opening clear.

There are a few hydro swing or bifolds but they are the minority.

As to the size----go as large as you can afford to, and I would go a minimum of 12' door height.

If you can get a bathroom in the hangar, you will not be sorry for doing so.

Good luck.
 
I used Schweiss. Great company and very nice door. Mine had the lifting (yellow) straps bi-fold. Recommended.

Check out Diamond Doors as well. I have not bought a Diamond door yet (because they wouldn't sell to my slimy contractor) but I'm planning on using them on the next hangar.

The hydro swing is great. I would prefer that over the bifold but the hangar needs to be much stronger and well engineered.

As far as opening - you plan on selling some day? Hangars are typically built to accomondate an aircraft like C182 on floats. High doors and high ceilings.

A 50ft door will likely be under $10,000 last time I checked.

If money was not an issue I would personally install a garage door type. They are already insulated but cost is prohibitive. The quote I got with a substantial discount was $28,000. Electrically opened and much much lighter.
 
Positive experience with Schweiss Door

I have personal experience with Schweiss and can say nothing but great things about them and their door. Mine is 50?x16? Hydro swing been in service for 6+ years. I put high windows in mine, florescent lights AND insulated it. I do not personally use it that much because it is in a hangar that I rent. I can say that it makes an incredible shaded work area when raised; it?s also nice at night as the lights shine down on the ramp area.
I would also mention that I had MAJOR structural issues with the design of the building and Schweiss went out of their way to help us re-engineer the solution.
Just my 2 cents.:p
 
I have a Schweiss bi-fold with nylon web lifting straps. I'd do the same if the need ever happens. I ordered the frame and mechanical components. Shipping was on-time. I furnished the exterior materials and insulated with foam panels.
 
The Horton Stack Door does not carry any load on the hangar. Works without power. You can open just the amount that you want. Provides an amazing amount of light in the hangar with the doors closed. Order solid panels if the door will face west!
 
RMSteel

We built a 60x50 hangar from R&M Steel in Idaho. We specified a 10 foot tall x 45 foot wide Schweiss hydro door. The hangar was appropriately engineered for the door. Leave it to the pros at www.rmsteel.com
 
I Like Bi-folds

Door height is largely driven by the hangar width and structure requirements, much lesser extent the type of door. The bi-folds work very well, Schweiss the most popular hereabouts. The hydro-swings have few points of attachment to the building, a sail in search of wind. They also introduce hydraulics along with necessary electrics for more maintenance. Install the biggest door possible or you start restricting resale opportunities.

Of the variety of sizes on our airports, a 50x50 is very popular; lots of useful room for all the toys (four RV's if you like + stuff) and some movement. Shrinking one dimension just 10 feet always seems to make it feel crowded with lurking hangar rash, big but not big enough, not intentionally small to minimize cost.

John Siebold
 
Don't use Wilson. Probably one of the best systems out there at one point in time. They went bankrupt and reformed. I had a $2k deposit on my door when they went under. The new owners offered to make my door for the original quoted price if I gave them another $2k deposit!
They told me the new ownership did not inherit any of the old owners liabilities. I told them "yes you did, and you are speaking to one, me".
So, I am telling anyone who will listen to stay away from Wilson Door.
 
Great questions John - we are beginning the design of our new place, and visited with hangar and door guys at SnF. Still in the data collection phase, so I'm interested in the posts!

We spent a night at Pilot Country Airpark on our SnF trip, and the hangar had the hydro-swing - what we noted was that it required a much large ramp out front of the hangar (you have to have the airplane farther away to let the door swing up). Because of the shape of our lot out in Nevada, front ramp size might drive our choice.

I have really liked the Horton Stack-doors I have seen so far, but we haven't priced them relative to the Bi-folds.
 
Something to consider for those of you planning on a hydro swing style door, is that the load on the door frame is huge when the door is open.

I have seen this in action, a friend up in Oregon has had to redo the door frame on his hanger because the king studs were being literally pulled out of the wall at the top.

If I were doing some kind or one piece swing up door, I would be sure to use steel "I" beams for the door framing, and be sure things are engineered for all the weight load cantilevered off the king stud when the door is opened.
 
I have a 42'x16, single panel hydraulic lift door. It was through Wilson by not "by" Wilson. I assume there are still mfgs of this type door. Most are aluminum framed but mine is all steel frame since the building is CAT3 hurricane rated.

Love the door. As mentioned above, it makes a great awning !

One thing to remember on a bi-fold is the the opening is not the same as the clearance. An accordingly.
 
The Higher Power Hydraulic Door guys had a booth across from us at SnF. I watched their display go up and down probably a thousand times that week. Looks like a solid, relatively simple system with out all the cables and pulleys of some of those bi-fold door options.

Their prices didn't seem outrageous for a quality option either.

hpdoors.com
 
The Horton Stack Door does not carry any load on the hangar. Works without power. You can open just the amount that you want. Provides an amazing amount of light in the hangar with the doors closed. Order solid panels if the door will face west!

I'll add one for the Horton stack doors. Easy to use and lots of light. So much light I added windows on the internal wall to my workshop to use the hangar light. Solid bifold doors can make a 50 x 50 hangar look like the Black Hole of Calcutta, even in daytime.

Installation was easy, less than half a day using a platform on the fork lift I had to rent to get the doors off the truck. The doors came stacked on the palette in pairs that could easily be lifted by two people into place.

Make sure you build it with the flush floor option, tripping over a steel angle going in and out is not good. The snow option (rubber strips) on the bottom of the door is also good in the desert to keep pack rats out rather than the snow....:)

As mentioned above, in the desert areas they do need to be facing North or East.

http://www.hortonstackdoor.com/stackdoor.htm

I went with 12 ft doors to keep the hangar reasonably low to keep my neighbor's views. The stack doors does keep the overall building height down by around 2 feet since there is no lost height at the opening.
This chart gives aircraft sizes - pick the largest you think might ever be used in the future. 12 ft will probably do for most SE aircraft not on amphibious floats.

http://www.bifold.com/airplane-size-chart.php

Our airpark also has doors built in the 70's and 80's that are essentially double rollup garage doors with a swing away central pillar that were mentioned earlier. These seem to be limited to 8 or 10 ft high though.
 
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Hey John,

Come by the hangar this weekend and I'll show you my door. While I was researching I found that Schweiss was pretty much the best and the least expensive. I still built my own bifold door though. It was/is a huge project.

The drawback to the hydroswing type door is the ramp space that they use up when they open. You have to be quite a way from the door on the outside when you open it. The drawback to the bifolds are the wasted vertical opening. If you have a 14 foot tall opening you'll probably only get 12 feet of it that you can use. It doesn't add much to the cost of the building to make them taller. It's that concrete and those big clear span beams that are the expense. My opening is 16 feet and I'll probably only open the door up to 12 feet or so. It helps the load on the building. The further open the door the more load on the building.

While we are at it. I highly recommend Straight Line Metal Buildings. They are local, do all their fabrication here (they are on 529 north of Brookshire) and working with them was a great experience. Did I mention that the complete building standing on the slab was just a little bit more than pieces of a building sitting on the curb from any of the national brands?
 
The Higher Power Hydraulic Door guys had a booth across from us at SnF. I watched their display go up and down probably a thousand times that week. Looks like a solid, relatively simple system with out all the cables and pulleys of some of those bi-fold door options.

Their prices didn't seem outrageous for a quality option either.

hpdoors.com

I stopped by the Higher Power display as well. Got a quote for a 38' x 10' door at $7790. It's a nifty hydraulic door that puts zero stress on the framed opening and it doesn't swing out nearly as far as the HydroSwing doors and it opens in a flash! Nicely engineered. I would go with them if I did my hangar over again.

This VIDEO is just too cool!
 
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My son and I designed and built two set of doors for a pair of 60'x60' hangars with 50' wide x 14' tall openings. Each door panel was about 12'9" wide, 4 panels per hangar.
We built them for maybe about $2500 per hangar.
Get enough 1" angle iron for 2 tracks. weld flat bar between them for spacing, and to bolt to the concrete. buy 8 vee groove track door wheel assemblies. The 2 doors that meet in the middle will be on the outer track. They will slightly overlap the doors on the inner track, so plan about 1/2" space between the doors so they won't scratch each other or the building.
Get 2" square tube and weld it up into door frames using the scrap pieces for gussets. Weld a wheel unit to each bottom end.
Skin the doors with metal siding.
Make barn door hanging track brackets to support angle track at the front of the header. use mild steel flat stock, or buy them.
Use roller skate wheel bearings over bolts (on the top of each door frame) to guide the door tops along the upper track.
Get custom bent sheet metal in a Z shape made (to your spec) and delivered for awning to keep the rain & birds out.
Save $10,000.
Roll each door panel open with ONE FINGER!
Go to my link to see my green hangar with the doors open. Kind of a far shot, but enough to get the idea.
 
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Built my first hangar in 1990. 40' X 60' X 12'. Designed and built my own bi-fold door. 10' tall (NOT TALL ENOUGH). Works for most airplanes but not many tricycles.

Built my second hangar in 2003. 50' X 55' X 14'. This time I used a "Hi-Fold" door, 12' tall. Couldn't be happier.

I personally don't like the big swing-up doors. Like Paul says, you have to leave quite a bit of room on the ramp to avoid crunching something. You also need a window close to the "switch" so that you can confirm clearance before opening.
 
I've had no problems with my Schweiss

14' X ~46' door in my 50X50 hangar at KHND ~2005 vintage. It's the one with the yellow fiber lifting straps. The remote control is a joke. Never did get it to work HOWEVER my neighbor has a newer model remote control and it works great.

I recommend going with the 14' door. My 12'6" high Class A RV (the one with the bathroom and microwave) just fits with the door full up. If you ever sell, this could be important.

We have had at least two gearbox failures on Schweiss doors installed at KHND. One failed with the door closed and was just inconvenient (and expensive). The other failed with the door a couple feet in the air. The door reportedly dropped about two feet:eek: scary! The structure seems really strong and has held up to insane desert winds with no other issues.

My only caution is to not be below any door while in motion...
 
Hangar Door

Hi John this is Bart (I came out to hooks and looked at your 8 when I was thinking of building, I am done with my 8 and looking to start a 3B soon.) Anyway a person across the runway from me at Sportflyers airport 27xs builds hangars and is a Schweiss door Rep. his web site is Hangar Door Installers.com and phone is 979-549-8449 I know he has put up a few Horton doors too. If your out flying stop by at 27xs he is building at 100x70 hangar with a big Schweiss door I think its 64x20. At the far southeast end of the runway. Phill stated that he had good luck with Stright Line Metal Building and I am glad that he had a good experience with them. With me I put my down payment down, almost half a year after the start date they still had not started, then when I could not get my money back I started to sue them, so they built the building then they tried to put in a older Schweiss cable lift door when the contract showed that I paid for a lift strap door. Just my experance with them and dont want to sound like I am talking bad about Phill. Ive had three hangars built (one by straight line) and will never deal with them .
 
Hey Jonn, curious what Airpark in Houston you'd be at? It looks like Dry Creek some land left, yours?
 
doors

One thing to watch out for in a Bi-fold door is where it parts in the break is if it sheds water off the top or if it just runs down the lower part into the hangar when its open Ive rented some that do that and its really hot when you have to close the door in the summer in Fl. something to think about.
Bob
PS Ive built two 40ft hanger doors from the ULtimate Door plans for about $750 each and there still working for 14 yrs.
 
Man, you gotta love the VAF crew... ask a coupla questions at noon and have a ton of info by that evening. Awesome.

Thanks Phil for the info on your door and Straight Line... I'd head out to see your setup but this weekend is all jammed up. Plus, building a door is out of my league; last time I did any welding was junior high FFA class, 1984. I might be a tad bit rusty at it. And Bart, good to know about the Sport Flyers door guy, I'll have to give him a call.

I have really liked the Horton Stack-doors I have seen so far, but we haven't priced them relative to the Bi-folds.

I was talking recently to a local airpark guy about doors and he said that as of maybe 6-7 years ago, the price of a stack-door was pretty much comparable to a bi-fold... kinda surprising since the stack-door is all manual. I'm curious as to what Horton's quote will come back at for a 45X12 door.

Hey Jonn, curious what Airpark in Houston you'd be at? It looks like Dry Creek has some land left, yours?

I tried Dry Creek initially, but it seems you just can't get in there; no lots for sale and the two older homes available are waaay overpriced. I made an offer two weeks ago for a 70's vintage place with a really ratty old hangar, but we had a huge discrepancy between the appraisal price and what the seller wanted. The hangar needed a minimum of $10-20K to make it somewhat habitable. No deal. So, I'm looking a bit farther north... haven't pulled the trigger yet, but will soon.
 
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Hangar door

I have the Higher Power door on one of my hangars. I was in the middle of a restoration of the hangar when I went to Oshkosh for doors. They didn't even have the patent yet when I purchased. It was really a no brainer. I didn't want my door hanging off of the header and the loads transferred directly into the floor. It was a piece of cake to put together and the instruction booklet was really good.

Don Oltman
 
14x50 hydroswing made for a nice adjustable awning to keep the water spots at bay when giving a spring cleaning the other day.

aviation2012177.jpg
 
Hangar Door

I'm getting ready to build a 50x50 hangar as well. I've decided on a manual stacker type door from http://cool-airinc.com/. Mine is 46' wide by 12' high. Cost is approximately $4,000. Check them out. I would appreciate information if anyone else has experience with them.

Best,
Jerry Folkerts
 
Made mine too.

I wanted all the width and height I could muster while staying under the arch. Side jambs are angled. The whole thing is self supported and there are angled supports/kickers that are inside the building. No load on the building.

What I need to know is where Weasel got the remote and what kind of range does it have? I want one for going up only. I have a momentary switch for down. I have a fear of someone trying to rush through the door and getting caught.
1fdcg8.jpg
 
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What I need to know is where Weasel got the remote and what kind of range does it have? I want one for going up only. I have a momentary switch for down. I have a fear of someone trying to rush through the door and getting caught.
1fdcg8.jpg

You don twant to know....:eek: I just got a cheep remote controler from https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=11-2495&catname=electric

The hard part was building an electronic latch so that a momentary press of the button "latched" it in the up or down and a second press released the "latch". This was built using SPDT relays.

I built a second one for a friend and used a PLC to control the door on his. Much better in my opinion but still not simple and had to learn the software to program it.

The remote could be used as is and then you would just have to continually hold the button for the door to operate as a safety feature if you like.


The range is good. I can open it from 1/2 way down my strip no problem.
 
+1 for Higher Power Doors

I purchased 7 of their doors (~60ft span) and shipped them here to New Zealand. They are fantastic.
Easy to install, low moving parts count, almost no load on hangar structure and seal very well. Roland is excellent to deal with.

Check them out at Osh www.hpdoors.com

We went to Osh in 2010 to look at bifolds, but once we saw the HP Doors product the decision was a no-brainer.
 
The hydro swing doors are cool but depending on your airpark and the required setbacks it may be better to use a bi fold door. Our air park has one hydro swing door and the board will not approve another due to the fear that an aircraft will taxi into the open door, several owners have been very vocal in opposition position to the one hydro swing door on the field. I would recommend a bi fold door and get atlest 14' door opening, doors over about 45’ requires a second truck or needs to be welded together on site. I like my bi fold door better than my track doors except that the bi fold doors require electricity to work while track doors do not require electricity.

In the DF/W area, the HOA has stopped the construction of two new hangars and told the owner he will need to sue to get permission to build, so there are two bi fold doors for a 50 by 50 hangar that might be for sale cheap, since they are stored outside which is illegal at our airpark and will cost $300 per month in fines to the HOA board.
 
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two observations: What ever size you build it won't be big enough. Second, my 12ft height is enough for any airplane I will fly but two short for my 35 ft fith wheel. Schweiss cable pulleys need maintenace. Sure like the webbed strap system. Schweiss sold a neighbor a cut down door that failed do to undersized cables. The door was too heavy for the number of cables but they fixed everthing but it was a big bang when it came down.
 
Sounds like you haven't selected the hangar yet. You might want to take a look at FulFab. They build hangars and they build their own doors and work very well. They are electric bifold and hang from a truss structure on the building. The loads on the building are not high, the motor is above the door (so the door doesn't lift the motor and cable spool), and since it's designed for the building, it fits very well. You can assemble the hangar yourself, or have their crew do it for you in just a few days. I've built 2 hangars. One of them has a Schweiss door and it works well too, but cost as much as the hangar. Then I built a row of ten T-hangars and they were the FulFab ones. Much better cost-wise and the whole process went very smoothly. FulFab has been in business for a long time. Check them out: Fulfab.com. Good luck. We all wish we lived on a runway.....
 
Best DIY hangar doors ever...

DIY hangar doors

You can build these doors yourself for a couple thousand bucks... far less than a bifold door. We could open them easily with one hand and close them again in about a minute.

Everyone at our airport was extremely pleased with these doors for over 10 years. Then an F2 tornado took the hangars, several barns, and a couple small towns to the ground last May during one of the outbreaks.

The doors were at no fault. Nothing would have survived that tornado. We also lost a hangar with 2 bifold doors that day.

So, I can't provide any other photos, dimensions, or other info. Only that while we had these doors, we loved them.
 
my hanger is a 12 year old erectitube design with a bifold door. these stood up well during hurricane katrina and have served us well through frances and jean. the bifold doors are the cats a%$. park 2 feet in front and up you go. raise it to any level if need be. of all the other designs i have seen, i would go with a bifold again. :)
 
Cool air doors

After the sticker shock of electric doors I found Cool Air Doors. http://cool-airinc.com I must say I was very pleased with the quality and simplicity of their product. I have A 46 X 70 "s" Style metal building from American Duro Steel and I am pleased with the building for the investment!

John
 
Hangar Doors

I have the the webbed strap system from Schweiss 14' X 42'.
I have been very happy with it no issues. It and the building structure were engineered to interface very well.
Three other hangars here have the Hydroswing. One has had a cylinder failure.
We all face to the North. In the winter following some ice and snow the Hydroswings could not be opened untill the snow and ice had been removed to clear where the door swings out as it raises. One was during a time critical period. The owner elected to pull the door open with a backhoe after minimal cleaning. Using the strap system I have not had an issue opening the door, however I could not move an airplane in or out untill the snow (3" high) was removed.
 
SChweiss 50X50

Like everyone else. Great folks at Schweiss. If I could do it again I would make my hanger 60 wide. I have a Debonair and a 7A. One has to go out to get the other out. Also have a 14X14 RV door. I have a 12X12 and my 5th wheel will not clear it. My hanger has 16 ft walls so you can make the door like you want.
 
Has anyone had any luck with Impact Building Systems here in San Antonio?
Started researching hangers and doors, for a build date next year.
 
Schweiss Bi fold electric door wont come back down

I have been tweaking the up limit of the door trying to get it up higher by a couple of inches. I have not hit anything but when I press on the down switch it just buzzes? No manual so shooting in the dark...any schweiss experts out there? Any suggestions?
 
If it's a simple bifold, once you get the bottom edge rollers up there somewhere near the level of the fold-line of the door then there will be so much side load on the rollers (and near zero down-load) that the door as no 'motivation' to come down. If you go another fraction of an inch higher, you might get a really ugly surprise when the door goes over-center, the bottom edge travels up against the top hinge, and the fold line drops below everything else. Then it's time for either a forklift, or lots of floor jacks & 4x4's to lift the fold line back up, followed by lots of repairs to bent parts.

There's a commercially built door out there (probably mentioned in someone's earlier post) that has extra 'legs' with rollers that force the bottom edge of the door outward as the door opens, pushing the fold line up so it can never get 'over center'.

I like the simplicity of one-piece doors, and I like counterweighted (no motor) one piece doors even more. But you do have to exercise more caution if you open the door from inside the hanger, to make sure there's nothing on the pad within swing distance of the door.

Charlie

edit: since it's a commercially built door, it likely has hard limit switches at the top of recommended travel. Some systems might disable supply to the motor (in either direction) if the hard limit switch(es) get opened by the door exceeding design travel.
 
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I have been tweaking the up limit of the door trying to get it up higher by a couple of inches. I have not hit anything but when I press on the down switch it just buzzes? No manual so shooting in the dark...any schweiss experts out there? Any suggestions?



Bart, call Roy Bradham, 321 295 2365. HE's good for service on hangar doors.
 
there's a commercially built door out there (probably mentioned in someone's earlier post) that has extra 'legs' with rollers that force the bottom edge of the door outward as the door opens, pushing the fold line up so it can never get 'over center'.



I have had a Hi-Fold installed for nearly 10 years. It operates daily. Never had a minute's trouble.

I did replace the oil reservoir because the plastic can cracked. They didn't charge me for a replacement.

It has the support legs someone mentioned.
 
Hangar Door

About two summers ago we replaced our old hangar door with a Higher Power Hydraulic door. The installation was quite simply and we had the door up in no time! Not to mention its a very sleek and advanced design. Its a great company and Roland and Linnea (owner and founders of the company) are just as nice as they can be. I thought I'd post the link to the website for you: http://www.hpdoors.com/:)
 
Input

I went with 50' x 55' on my hangar (Lester) with a 42' x 12' Hi-fold door, and insulated. I wanted to go a little longer on my hangar but was limited on space and the extra 5 feet in length was mainly so it wouldn't look like a typical square building. I went with the 12' height figuring I don't anticipate to park anything any higher than that in there. But for a prospective buyer in the future, a couple extra feet higher may be an incentive to accomodate a motorhome.

In my airpark, I noticed most of my neighbors built their hangars to accomodate the style/size of aircraft they fly, which are either ultralights or LSA's. Hence, the small doors and ceilings.

Either way you look at it, it is an investment and most importantly, your Man Cave. Ten years and counting with daily cycling of the door and I've had no issues.
 
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