Pick a door badly and you will curse it twice a day for twenty years. A door that is too short for the tail of a plane, too narrow for a combine or too heavy for its header becomes the one thing everybody at the building complains about. The good news is that door problems are almost entirely planning problems, and they get solved on paper.
A large opening in a metal building is not just a hole in the wall. It removes bracing, so the frame has to be designed around it. It adds a header that carries the roof or wall above. It adds jamb columns that take the door's wind load, and it needs a slab edge, track or threshold detail that works with the door type. We handle the opening and the door together, so the engineer sees the whole picture.
If you are weighing a hangar, a farm shop or a vehicle bay, this page covers the door types we install, what pushes the price up, and what to settle before the frame is ordered.
Sectional overhead doors are the everyday choice for shops, equipment bays and storage, and they come insulated or not, with windows or without, manual or on an opener. Rolling steel doors fit loading docks and tight headroom. For wide openings, a bi-fold door that lifts on straps and folds outward is common on smaller hangars. Hydraulic doors drop down from the top as a hinged leaf and are popular where the opening is wide and the weather needs a tight seal.
For the largest openings there are horizontal sliding doors on a floor track or a hung track, and stacking leaf systems that tuck into a bay at the side of the opening. Each one wants something different from the building. Sliding systems need clear wall or pocket space. Hydraulic doors need a header stiff enough to avoid sag. We lay out the options for your clear opening and show the tradeoffs in space, cost and weather performance.
A farm shop usually wants a 14 by 14 or 16 by 16 sectional door, sometimes two, plus a walk door. A fleet yard wants multiple 12 by 14 bays with the posts protected from truck bumpers. The owner of a private hangar wants a clear opening wide enough for wingspan with margin, and tall enough for the tail with the door open and the plane on its gear. Our aircraft hangars page goes deeper on those layouts.
Industrial buyers care about turning radius and dock height. Municipal owners with fire apparatus need openings that clear the tallest truck with a few inches to spare. Retail and commercial tenants often want fewer doors and more storefront. Whatever the use, the first number we ask for is the tallest, widest thing that must pass through, then we add clearance for tires, mirrors, antennas and load shifting.
Door size is the obvious driver, and it is not linear. Doubling the width more than doubles the door cost, because the header, jambs, hardware and wind-rated panels all scale up. Insulation, glazing, an operator, a hurricane or high-wind rating and custom colors add to it. Foundation work also climbs, since a wide door wants a stiffer slab edge and sometimes a track recess.
Operators matter more than owners expect. A big hydraulic or motor-driven door draws real power, needs a dedicated circuit and a manual release for a power outage, and it needs maintenance. We price the door, the operator, the electrical rough-in and the controls as separate lines, so a quote that looks cheap at the door does not turn expensive at the panel.
Oklahoma wind is the reason door ratings deserve a hard look. The National Weather Service Norman office records an EF3 tornado in Woodward County that crossed a 34-mile path in April 2012, and spring storms across the western half of the state put big doors under repeated gusts. A large door is a big sail. Each door we order carries a design pressure rating that matches the building's wind load, and the frame's jamb and header are checked against the same figure.
Permit review will want the door schedule, the wind rating and, for hangars, any fire separation items the local reviewer applies. The state adopted the International Building Code with amendments, while many cities still reference the editions, so we confirm with the building department. Our anchor bolt and foundation work covers the slab-edge details a door depends on.
Frames are made to order, and changing a door opening after the bracing is designed means redrawing the wall. So we ask the door questions at the start: size, type, operator, wall space on either side, headroom inside and the finish floor elevation. We tie each answer to the frame drawings and make sure the engineer has accounted for the opening before the steel ships.
Installation then follows the building. We set the jamb framing, hang the header, mount the track or hinge hardware and test for plumb, level and smooth travel. Seals and weather stripping go on before the door is accepted. After that we leave you a short sheet on lubrication, spring and cable inspection and what to do in a power loss. Springs are the part that can hurt people, so adjustment and replacement should be left to trained hands.
Big airport projects show how seriously door planning gets taken. American Airlines announced a 193,000-square-foot hangar for larger planes at its Tulsa maintenance base, and AAR broke ground in April 2024 on 80,000 or more square feet of hangar and warehouse space at Will Rogers World Airport. Those are far larger than most of our work, but the questions are the same ones a private hangar owner faces: how wide, how tall, how it seals, how it opens when the power fails.
For a smaller project, think about whether you will ever upgrade the plane, the truck or the combine. The extra two feet of width cost a little now and a lot later. Also think about snow, dust and driving rain. A door that closes tight keeps the interior cleaner and the insulation drier, and our insulated metal panels pair well with an insulated door when you want a conditioned bay.
Tell us the tallest and widest thing that has to roll through, and we will recommend a door type and draw the opening. If you are still deciding on a building, see our aviation and agriculture and agribusiness pages, or ask about a self-storage metal building where roll-up doors are the main feature.
Very wide, with the right design. Clear openings well over 60 feet are common on larger hangars, using bi-fold, hydraulic or sliding systems with a deep header or a dedicated frame. The practical limits are cost, wall space and how the building is braced. We size the frame around the opening rather than the other way round.
Yes, for safety and for the day the power fails. A hangar door that cannot be opened without electricity strands an airplane or traps a vehicle. We include a manual or battery option in the design and show you how it works at handover.
Sometimes. Cutting a wide opening in a braced wall can weaken the frame, so an engineer has to check it and may call for a new header, jamb columns or reinforced bracing. Our building expansions and additions work includes this kind of modification.
It varies by type and by maker, and oversized or custom units take longer than stock sectional doors. We confirm the lead time when we price the door and set the install date to the delivery. Check it early because the door sometimes arrives later than the steel.
Tell us about the site, the building and the schedule, and we will set up a review of scope, schedule and permitting.
See the services, building types and industries we plan and manage across Oklahoma.