Barn door
A barn door is a surface-mounted sliding door on a wall-face track. No cavity needed, but requires clear wall space beside the opening and cannot seal fully.
Ask Chalkline about this →A barn door is a door leaf that slides on a track mounted to the wall face (or ceiling), rather than swinging on hinges or retracting into a cavity. The track is fixed to the wall surface post-sheeting and painting, making barn doors one of the last items installed on a residential build. No framing modification is needed: the rough opening is a standard hinged-door opening and the hardware simply bolts to the wall.
Barn doors require clear, unobstructed wall area beside the opening at least equal to the door leaf width. They do not seal the opening fully: there is always a gap at the track side and, depending on the hardware, at the top. This makes them unsuitable for rooms requiring acoustic separation, fire separation, or smoke-tight closures. Track capacity must match the door leaf mass; standard residential barn door hardware is rated to 80 to 120 kg. The track must be fixed into wall framing members, not plasterboard alone, to support the cantilevered leaf load.
Also known as: sliding barn door, surface-mounted slider
Category: Doors and joinery
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Last updated: 2026-05-10. Verified: 2026-05-10.