Best DIY Door For a Hangar or Shop (Full BUILD) 

As an elevator mechanic I really like how you came up with the door opener and counterweight, it uses the same principles we use. I would however think about building a guard around the counter weight so they don’t crush someone if the cable breaks or a kid walks underneath it when the door is opening. That’s how most guys are killed in our trade😢we call the counter weight the “silent killer”!

The timing on this video was impeccable! We’re about to build a couple of doors and this will be the design we use. Thanks a million, Jonas!

An engineering mastermind at work. Brilliant.

Right in time, I am just about to start constructing my hangar door! Thank you dude! Mine is going to be 36.1feet by 12.5feet. I was thinking about swing doors, but you made me change my mind. Will think it over )

was thinking about making a bifold door for my garage, because it won't take the ceiling space of a conventional door. I think this is a better design and good compromise between inside shop ceiling height and reduced strain on the building. Thanks for sharing!

First, thanks so much! That build is amazing! Megan and I gotta get you to fly into our property whenever you're flying through Iowa. We're building our pond right now, on our 24 acre property, but then we're putting in a crosswind strip for our RC channel, which will include a heli pad, acting as the transition from the main RC runway to the "dam" runway, at the end of which will be our 60'X80'X20' building. We're calling that the "dam" gift shop, which will need a door similar to this design. Your video is a GOD SENT!!! Thank you so much! When the Dam gift shop is done, our finishing touch, and the culmination of decades pursuit will be the full scale runway, a full scale grass strip of about 1000 foot +/- depending on the way we position it. Our proposed location would probably already work fine for landing strip with the right STOL aircraft, but the dirt work to make it smooth, lessen grade changes over the length of the strip, and improve safety margins, will really make it really nice, especially for STOL aircraft! We've run into a few other guys over the last couple years who have expressed interest in flying in, and we'd love to figure out a way to make it happen for any and all who might be interested. My ambitions are coming to fruition, but one big difficulty is actually getting a few sets of aviation eyes on the site, so I can make sure I'm not missing any major problems that might be easy to avoid, or cost savings measures to speed up the process, and still end up with a great outcome. I appreciate what you're doing here, and love seeing the progress!

Although I will never build a hanger or door to go with it (age), this was an exceptionally well done video. Seems to be honest and forthright and informative on how to do it. Those folks having a need for a door now or later will certainly consider this video to help them make a choice. An excellent spokesperson too for the project and the company. Most people who know your work know as well that you would do it yourself if possible. There are a lot of people out there who don't have your skill or the tools to go with it. Now, let's fill that hanger with a worthy plane to go with it. A plane that will safely carry you and mom and that beautiful baby. Family fun flight videos yet to come!!!! I prefer that over a married guy flying alone sharing beautiful scenery and an occasional mishap.

That is an awesome design, especially using a garage door opener, you can open the door when you pull up to your hanger with a remote.

Awesome Jonas! You da Man!! Best door I've seen. A large hydraulic lift door at our county airport collapsed from the up position. One of the welds at the frame opening where the hydraulic ram attached failed. As the door twisted and came down the other weld failed, and sheet metal screws started popping out by the hundreds. Luckily no one was under it and no airplane. Ever since then I have become wary of them. I don't like to stand or walk under them.

Very well done.

I really like Trent's hanger, but this is one I might be able to afford. Nice job Jonas! And when it comes to form or function, I'll take function anytime, and this works.

Really nice work, well thought out and I believe this is the most simple design you can use for DIY a door and pretty easy on the building structure too.

Great video Jonas. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I drove through eastern ID the other day. That wind and cold is no joke. I bet you're glad to finally have a weather tight place to get stuff done. Awesome job.

What an awesome design.

I had a remote at first for my HydroSwing door on my shop (19' wide by 14" high) but quit using it when I found the "all at once" sudden shock of the remote commanding the door to open was stressing my framed building. After researching various ways to make the remote do a soft start, and coming up empty, I quit using it. I also welded some flat bar to the door center by the ceiling, and ran it clear back to the opposite end of the building to quit stressing just the building front so much. Now I operate the hydraulic opening valve by hand, and made a longer lever for it to make it easier to very gradually start the opening process, once open a few inches the initial stress goes largely away. My hangar HydroSwing, being bolted to a concrete wall, is bulletproof. The main reason I went HydroSwig, is the harder the wind blows against it, the tighter it seals, it seals as tight as a man door.

Awesome I am redoing my garage great timing

Exceptionally detailed educational video. G,day Jonas and Silvia from Sydney Australia. The locking brackets along the top of the door are ingenuity: second to none. I'll need to watch this video a number of times, to extract multiple layers of fabricating content. Kind regards 🌏🇭🇲

How about putting your extra counter weight on the other side of the door. Tie the cable to the frame on top. Run along the track into a pulley back to the wall, around a pulley to your dead weight.

Great job and great video Jonas!

Yes, definitely building this, and I would probably have the counterweight first and design the lifting mechanism to lift The counterweight and then the door can just go along for the ride. I've been struggling with many different potential door setups. I can't have a whole lot of the door sticking out to the outside below 14 ft. but it needs to be a single sheet. I think this will solve everything without having to use hydraulics and having to have pits for the cylinders. I love things that are designed with the principal of kiss (keep it simple stupid). I love how you cleaned up the look of the cables on the outside.

Some impressive engineering that goes into that. I like it. I have no need for one. But want one now.

Excellent how to!! Thanks for taking the time to go through the complete construction and installation .

Wow - I am really impressed with your design. Great Job!

Beautiful, Jonas! When a plan comes together and works. It looks nice as well!

this is awesome and informative! Thanks for sharing!

Great job, Jonas. I love the DYI features you built into your door. I trust it will serve you well for many years.

Great diy door build

Excellent video! I’m actually more than likely going to be building the door shortly and I was looking at this design.

Very very nice! When I build my hangar, I will most definitely use this kind of hangar door. I really like that it gives full clearance when open, and offers so much less stress on the structure of the building. Cheers from Winnipeg.

Outstanding job. Looks great and operates fantastic 👏

Nice! I went the other way with my Hangar doors and made them just slide on wee rail tracks. Actually angle iron set in concrete. easy peasy. Regards, Jim the Brit in NI UK

Awesome video and fantastically explained 👌 watching from the UK 🇬🇧

My Motorglider spans 13 meter, needs a 46 feed door, hopefully to be build in next Summer. Having now 11,5 meter door and requires swingin the plane when taking it in and out. Good luck for your hangar. It is a big difference if you have 36 feed or 46 feed door to make.

Great job and thanks for sharing. I’d encourage you to take a hard look at wind load and whether you should have a truss or two on inside of door for extreme wind events. Walking through the process would make a good video too.

One of your best videos, seriously great

Awesome job Jonas! Definitely inspired me to try this style on my shop

It's cool to see your process and how this project came together.

Thanks a ton ! I’ll have to watch this about 50 times but cool!

Thanks for a great video Jonas! I'm about a month or two away from building my own hangar door and I was really hoping you would have your door ready before that because I knew you would have a smart but still economic solution 😅. Love the design and smart solutions so I will for sure copy this in my build 😁

Absolutely wonderful video. I will be building at least two of these. I will send you photos of how I am building my sawmill building. I think you will appreciate it all. Very well done!!

Another great video. Gutsiest door build I’ve ever seen man. Congratulations.

Awesome build, might do something like this for an RV garage because even those rollup draws are too expensive, and I too enjoy building things.

dud that came out amazing!

excellent tutorial. i made mine almost identical but used some hardware from ultimate door. i used a winch but also used some counter weight so that there is always some tension on the cables even if my winch goes slack

Well done Jonas!

Nice work. Nice Vid. Thank you!

Really neat build. Thanks for showing us how it was done

probably one of your best videos..although the sprocket on the dirt bike to launch you on skis was over the top too!

Really nice job on your hangar/shop! Loved this video

Took a long time, but it’s done! Good job! So proud of you🤍

Great video, thanks for the ideas!

Really great video Jonas, very well explained with some great common sense engineering. Unfortunately I’m not in need of a hanger door, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Looks fantastic. 👍🙂

I installed a residential single car garage door, it took me 3 days to dial it in! NICE WORK!

Thank You for doing this video!!

Very, very impressive………..

Great stuff 👍👍 … I’m going to have to watch this over and over many times, as it is packed with great design tips 👏 Well done Jonas. Thank you for sharing 🙏

Higher power doors builds a similar operating single piece door. There is some information on how they seal their door in their installation manual that might be useful for someone building a similar door. The higher power door is hydraulic powered but one major benefit is that is self supporting with no load on the building.

Aut-O-Locks _ I also used them on my Bi-fold Hanger doors. A properly engineered door and header opening spreads the load of the weight applied to it and eliminates or minimizes thrust and shear forces.

Good morning from Minnesota! Good episode!

Great design.

This is awesome!

4:00 lolz time(weather) was right to keep more Of the outdoors out of your indoors😂!! Feels great to have your planes at your house eh!?!!

Very Nice!

Extraordinario Trabajo, no hay nada mejor que cuando tu mente y tus manos hacen el trabajo, muy bien explicado el paso a paso, la solución a cada problema lejos lo mejor, desde Chile un abrazo para ti y tu hermosa familia, me encanta

Enjoyed learning how to build a garage door, PLUS, we got to see the wife and kid!

That’s slick dude!

Sweet door especially for the price and yes the grooming was bad was last night and runs in the morning were dam fun also

Great video Thank you!

Great job it is basically a modified old one piece garage. I had a garage built on my property from the late 40's that I tore down when I built my house.

What an awsome build. Even though its not, I love the "Rube Goldburg" feeling. Now you need to have colored lights start flashing, a smoke machine add fog around the plane and the marching theme music from Star Wars start playing every time you open the door.

Bravo, mate 👍

nice design jonas!! give the baby a hug for me!!!

Super cool Jonas. Looks great.

Now that's sure "uptown" if ever there was. Great job Jonas. Nice to see yer Bride and beautiful baby. Trust Y'all had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks for sharing in such detail. 👍🇺🇸♥️🖐😎

I have really enjoyed watching your hangar build from the beginning dirt work all the way through. The choices you made definitely reflect your prior experience with hangars! Awesome. I would be curious to hear about how the GeoThermal is working out now that you have a door.

Awesome Job Jonas!! My 60x80x20 hangar skin just got completed; again. Had to get al new panels because 1st contractor screwed it up. Should have done it myself like you did. I'm getting ready to build my own 48' x 14' door but a different type of open/ close idea. I'll post the video when I'm done.

Great job 👍

Nice 👍

Awesome.

Nice!

Great ideas! Thanks.

wow just wow

Nice design.

Nice job, new dad ! (Well pretty new).

Oh man, I like multiple cables throughout the door so you dont have to have the strongback truss running the width of the door. Makes things so much lighter and stronger! Thanks for the tips!

You’re hanger and your videos are way better than Trent’s!!

one thing about counterweights is to not have them free hanging without a safety tube around them. if the cable breaks that thing is gonna come down fast . you can just build a tube around it with plywood and lumber. or use a round pipe of some kind. spiral wound round metal ducting is a good choice if you can have it round. that you can get at industrial hvac supply places not the big box stores. it comes in sizes from like 3 inch to 24 and up to 60 diameter .

Bob ladds “ultimate door “?!

In the next video, I wana see you hit the buzzer from the “cockpit” of the AirBike, and taxi straight in!

another possible chice instead of counterweights is garage door springs but you would need multiple springs and likely extra pulleys for more multiplication to get more stroke if your stroke is long.

Awesome! Copious amount of Work!

I would use a torsion spring and tube setup like a normal garage door except use 4 cable drums and an on shaft opener

Nice 👍👍👍

We have one similar to that I think is 60 feet wide and works perfect but no cables and the good thing about it because I’m in Montana is the vertical movement to begin with so if there is a big bank of snow in front it doesn’t interfere with it opening like a hydro swing, and that is way cheaper then a bifold.

I have built doors similar to this for years. I use electric over hydraulic for power. I use a 4 foot ram.

Awesome build. I’m curious what you used for limit switches for fully open/closed?

Hey Jonas, do mind sharing your design drawings. I am building a hangar and am thinking of using your design.

Awesome project! Now that the building is fully enclosed, wondering how the geo-thermal heating system is working?

I like this design. I see that the door travels upwards a bit before laying down. How much space above the header is required for this type of system? I'm considering building on in place of my bi-folding door one of these days. My header is already pretty high up on the wall.

Hi Jonas. It has been a long time since I have seen you. I built the double hanger in Blackfoot that you showed at the first of the video with the Aerocoupe high on the wall. I also built the door that you showed. You got some good ideas from copying what i did years ago. I built the 40x11 door you showed with the cables on the outside. The door on the other end of the building was a 50x11. Same idea, just bigger. The building has a partition wall in the center to make two separate hangers. I like the modification you came up with. I used winches and counter weights on both doors. I learned a lot building the doors. No one there had anything like it to copy. I had to figure it out on my own. I spent less than a thousand on my door, but that was several years ago. One thing, I had to modify the catches at the top because if the wind was blowing when closing the door would flex enough to miss the catches. I had to make the latches with a guide to make sure it guided into the latch. Glad to see that you are still flying. Enjoy you new hanger.