How to attach barn door track to header board?

Hogeypokes

Hi there brains trust 🙂

I’m in the process of installing a barn door for my neighbour who has asked for my help. Little does he know, I’m winging it.

The doorway the barn door will be installed over has no header (it’s an open doorway to the ceiling). I attempted to install the track directly to the masonry walls, however with no anchor point over the doorway the barn door was just too heavy and pulled the rail away from the wall.

I will obviously need to install a wooden header board, however I’m a bit lost as to how I then attach the rail to the wooden header.

What should I do, also taking into account these are masonry walls, not stud walls? 

I purchased the Rolltrak rail system, I’m just not sure what screws I should be using to attach to the header once the board is mounted.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks 🙂

JacobZ

Hi @Hogeypokes,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and thank you for your question.

Having a look at the Rolltrak Barn Door Track Set Instructions, you should be using the provided screws and following their method as closely as possible.

The best way I can see to do this, both aesthetically and functionally, is to install a bulkhead at the top of the opening, using either 70x35 or 90x35 depending on the depth of the opening. See the below render as an example of what I mean.

You could then clad the bulkhead with plasterboard, plaster and paint it, and then install the barn track as you would normally, using the provided screws and masonry plugs. You will have to add masonry plugs where the track meets masonry and use just the screws into the timber. You can even build the bulkhead so the jack studs line up perfectly with the holes in the track.

The reason I would suggest this over simply installing a header board is that the screws provided by Rolltrak, which have been tested and deemed suitable for this purpose, will embed 50mm into the timber or masonry. Timber framing does not come in sizes thick enough to support this depth of embedment if they are just mounted across the opening. This would also mean the door will sit much farther forward of the opening than intended, which won't look great.

It's a bit more work, but I believe this is the best way to do it.

Let me know what you think.

Jacob