Friday’s Pole Barn Humor

Just follow along here…..

A client wrote for Technical Support:

“I have had the roof and insulated walls on for quite some time and am currently enjoying an almost complete pole building.
Just yesterday I installed the two sliding doors with a friend. This leaves only the trim to be completed.
However, we did have one major issue as we assembled the 12ft. by 10.5 ft. doors. Those stupid slides don’t work at all. The trolleys hit every screw protruding from the top inside of the track. This is unheard of. Most of the time the top of the doors needed to be slammed past each screw. The designers used button head hex cap screws inside and it would seem they should have used something flush like a countersunk screw. I have not put the metal siding on the doors yet, and I am reluctant to even try since the obstructions are so bad. We tried making sure each screw was completely flush, but that did not help.
What’s going on here? Do you have a remedy for this? I will call tomorrow.”

Now we sell thousands upon thousands of sliding doors, and this is the only time I’ve ever heard of this issue. Actually, we just never get any negative feedback on sliding door assembly at all other than the occasional: “You mean we have to put it together?” which always gets a chuckle out of me as these ARE pole building kits.

More from the client the next day:

“After pondering the situation I decided that the button-head cap screws must be protruding too far into the rail space. I looked closely at them and discovered what I thought was a perfect explanation. The cap screws are threaded into the top of the rail, and they are not threaded all the way to the screw head (as none ever are). It appeared that there was a washer between the screw head and the rail hole keeping the screw from tightening flush to the top.

I spent a couple of hours today going to each screw and enlarging the screw hole to allow the button head to snug up flush to the top of the rail. Alas, it is too late tonight to determine the outcome, but I am not encouraged. Since the door frames are already installed (without siding) I must remove a few screws, enlarge the holes, and then reinstall the screws on half of the rails. Then after that I must slide the two doors over to the side I just completed, then work on the other side.  When I slid the two doors over to the other side the trolleys had to be forced past each screw with at least as much effort as before the work was done. So I do not think that the work I did made much of a difference.

It is good to hear that you are not familiar with this problem. Maybe I have some weird one-off problem with the rails being formed too tightly or something like that. Or maybe the contractors who assemble the doors never stop to see how the slides work before putting a load in them. I have not put the siding on these doors yet, maybe the siding pulls the rack apart enough to allow the trolley to ride lower in the track. That would seem to answer the problem. (It does raise others though, if that “fixes” it.)

When I have daylight I’ll make up a video and upload it to YouTube so you can see for yourself.”

I did advise the client to take a close look at the sliding door assembly instructions in our Construction Manual, as I was seriously totally baffled by his situation.

I did quickly hear back:

“Wait… You guys are in MN… have I still not got the right Hansen?  Ugh!! This is irritating. I wanted someone else.  Sorry.

Grrrr, my mistake. Wow, I feel stupid.”

As I love to say to our clients and friends…”Have a Great Day”!