How To Close the Gap on Barn Doors

Got a new barn door attached to your room? Now, if that barn door has a gap, your privacy will be breached pretty easily if it’s not fixed as soon as possible. Your room will not remain your own personal space as it once was. But once the problem is fixed, your privacy will be back in its place.

How To Close Gaps on Barn Doors

There are a variety of ways to close the gaps that form between your barn doors. Weather-stripping is the simplest and fastest way to close the gap on barn doors.

Here are a few easy options that you can use to close the gap and soundproof your barn door.

1. Add Weather-stripping

Weatherstripping is an efficient way to reduce sound in a room. Moreover, it also limits the presence of external light and dust.

This strip bridges the gap between the baseboard and the sliding door by filling up the shortfall.

Start off by attaching a self-adhesive weatherstrip over the side trims. Make sure to use weather strips of the right thickness to minimize the gap as much as possible.

Moreover, you can use a nail gun to fix the piece over the rim more efficiently for higher durability.

Now, attach a strip at the bottom of the door as well if there is a prominent gap. Use a weather strip that glides smoothly on the floor and closes the gap.

2. Add Soundproof Curtains

Curtains or drapes can do an awesome job of soundproofing your barn doors.

What you need to do is ensure the material is heavy enough for the job.

Heavy material deflects most of the sounds that your barn door may be creating.

The curtains help a lot with noise problems. Moreover, they also add to the aesthetic of your home.

Now, all that you have to do is find one that best suits your interest. You’ll find a lot of designs out there.

Some designs I recommend you to use are frills or pleats. They add to the weight of the curtains, making them thicker.

Make sure that they cover the entire area surrounding the door.

3. Use Moving Blankets

Moving blankets are a very old way of dampening noise. But they are more efficient in dampening the noise than curtains.

They are made from a more dense kind of material that is capable of dampening more noise. You can fix rods above the door to hang the blankets.

Though the blankets dampen most of the sound that passes through them, they are not a complete solution. They will not provide 100% efficiency.

For that, you should be looking somewhere else.

4. Install Acoustic Pads

Using acoustic pads is a very pleasing way of filling the gaps in your barn door. They work best when your door is thin.

Installing acoustic pads adds to the thickness of your door. Moreover, it absorbs all the echo and noise reverberating from the barn door.

These panels are usually made of fiberglass, which acts as an amazing medium for soundproofing. They cushion the noise.

There are two ways of installing acoustic pads on barn doors.

1. You can pin hang strips on the panel and hang the pads onto them.
2. You can use an adhesive spray to stick the pads to the door.

Both methods will work. But their effectiveness depends on how you use the door.

If you are rough on the door, then I’d recommend you use an adhesive to stick the pads.

On the contrary, if you don’t use the door much, pinning hang strips would be a good bet too.

For the perfect finishing, it would help if you got the correct measurements of your barn door to know the size of the panel required.

5. Add Foam Corner Bars

You can use a soft foam-based block to solve your barn door’s gap problem. Foam blocks are inexpensive. Moreover, you can get them in flexible sizes.

Now, if your barn door is placed at least an inch away from the baseboard, cover the door’s corners with a foam block to fill the crack.

A major benefit of sticking these soft pieces on the door’s edge is that they do not scrape parts when sliding the door.

If you want, you can paint the blocks with an identical shade to the barn door to hide them.

6. Use A Draft Stopper

You can seal off the space using a board or door draft stopper where the door is nearly in contact with the ground.

You still need to make the right measurements to get a finish that will let the door close or may not leave a gap.

Moreover, the board helps close the door tightly. Therefore, no sound can penetrate from outside or inside the room.

A more temporary way to deal with the gap below the door is to put a piece of cloth there. This is not very convenient because you’ll have to fix it every time you use the door.

Now, let’s move to the next hack.

7. Use L-Shaped Side Rims

The benefit of an L-shaped side rim is that it covers the gap with the open end. As the door slides to close, it touches the inner corner of this side rim, which completely covers the gap.

Make sure to choose the correct measurements for the side rim. The measurement ensures that it covers the corner of the barn door completely.

To make it more efficient, add a foam strip in the rim’s inner corner so that it bridges the gap between the door and rim, adding more soundproofing.

8. Add More Wood to the Door

You can close the gap on your barn door by adding moor wood to the door. This is a risky way to go, and it would be better to call a professional before you do it.

Whatever wood you use for this should be thick and heavy. The most commonly used wood is plywood.

You’ll need to know the measurements of your barn door to get the right size of wood. Also, you need nails to pin the wood to your door.

In some cases, you can use screws and adhesive sprays. The process requires a lot of focus, and it would be better to let it be if you cannot dedicate everything to it.

Otherwise, the more natural way to go is to call a carpenter to help you with the job.

9. Call A Professional

This is the last resort. If it seems like none of the hacks are being done right, it’s better to call a professional.

DIY projects might seem intriguing. But the wrong measurements can lead to all kinds of disasters.

So, I recommend that you call a professional to at least check the measurements for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

There are a variety of ways to close the gaps that develop in your barn doors. Depending on your experience level and needs, there is a good option for all occasions. If you’re still looking for some inspiration, make sure to read my guide on DIY barn door ideas.