Barn Door Install with Gearwrench part 2
Ready to install this rail? Sweet, let’s do this. For this part, you’ll need a stud finder and a socket wrench. These rails are designed with holes for the lag screws at 16in on center, which is the standard distance between studs. My wall is a little wonky (old house stuff!) so one of my lags needed an anchor, but the rest all had a stud. You’ll need to find where the studs are on your wall and mark those at the height where the rail will go. Your barn door hardware will come with directions on how to measure how high you want your rail.
This project is much easier if you have someone to hold up the other end of the rail as you’re installing, but it’s doable alone! The hardware comes with spacers that hold the rail away from the wall so the door can easily slide. Hold up the rail, then slide a lag screw through a washer, the hole in the rail, through a spacer, and hand screw it into the wall until you feel resistance.
Now for the fun part: grab your socket wrench and go to town on that screw. This Slim Flex-Head Ratchet and Socket set comes with two handles, one that’s 6in, and one that’s 12in. The 12in one worked great for this project, but I’m already anticipating using the short one for the work I’m bound to be doing on my vintage Winnebago RV this coming summer. Plus, if you need to get into some tight or awkward spots, the head tilts on both handles to give you more access. I think a socket set is one of those must-have tools to keep on hand in the garage and I even have one that I always keep in my RV— which I’ve used several times in random parking lots after breaking down, an inevitability when you drive around something 50 years old.
My rail came in two pieces, so I used a level to double-check that the rail was level and then screwed in the lag screw in the middle of the first piece. The third screw in that first piece bisects both rails, so I screwed that one most of the way in, then popped in the end of the second rail piece and continued the process until the whole rail was installed, checking the level as I went to ensure the rail was straight.
There are stoppers included that you’ll install on either end of the rail to prevent the door from flying off the end. If you’re installing the rail close to the corner of the room, you’ll want to put that on before you screw the rail into the wall, otherwise you may not be able to get in on after the rail is installed. If you’re installing in the middle of a wall, though, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Now all that’s left is to hang the door from the rail! The wheels have a channel in the center that the rail will fit perfectly on and the door will glide super smooth. That was easy right? Having the right tools for this job made it go so smoothly.
Here’s the 6-inch handle, which will be so handy for working in smaller areas where I’m not able to have a big swing radius, which can be a very frustrating part of working in tight quarters. You can see in this pic too, the tilting head which, again, helps immensely when working in tight or awkward spaces. If there’s anything I know about working on older houses and cars, it’s that there are always awkward and tight situations where a tool designed for just that comes in so handy.
Another thing to note about this set is that the head takes (and comes with a set of) quarter inch driver bits, so you can also use it for screwing things in tight spots as well where you can’t fit a standard screwdriver. I’d never even thought of a wrench like this being able to be used as a screwdriver, but it’s a genius solution, especially if you don’t have a lot of space to screw something in or out. So useful!
