I got the door in November 2020. I painted all the after assembling it. The problem I ran into is that the wood is still fresh and drying. After a few weeks all of the wood planks shrank up to an 1/8 leaving up to a 1/4 gap between planks. I had to remove the diagonal braces and reposition the planks to close the gap. In hindsight I would recommend taking all the wood out of the package and laying them flat on a hard floor and let the wood dry out completely. I would say up to a month. After being completely dry, I would paint all the wood pieces first before assembling. I would use primer before painting the final color. Let all the paint dry for at least 24 hours before completely assembling. The wood is very soft pine and assembles easily. Once you get the planks spaced where there are no gaps to allow light between the planks (I had some backlight it with a flashlight), I would glue the planks to the upper and lower wood supports to prevent the planks from shifting before screwing in the diagonal wood supports. I used Elmers glue. The last thing I would do is plug the screw holes with the wooden dowel plugs because once you plug the holes you will not be able to remove the screws to take the frame apart should the need arise.
Great Barn Door With Proper Pre Prepping
I got the door in November 2020. I painted all the after assembling it. The problem I ran into is that the wood is still fresh and drying. After a few weeks all of the wood planks shrank up to an 1/8 leaving up to a 1/4 gap between planks. I had to remove the diagonal braces and reposition the planks to close the gap. In hindsight I would recommend taking all the wood out of the package and laying them flat on a hard floor and let the wood dry out completely. I would say up to a month. After being completely dry, I would paint all the wood pieces first before assembling. I would use primer before painting the final color. Let all the paint dry for at least 24 hours before completely assembling. The wood is very soft pine and assembles easily. Once you get the planks spaced where there are no gaps to allow light between the planks (I had some backlight it with a flashlight), I would glue the planks to the upper and lower wood supports to prevent the planks from shifting before screwing in the diagonal wood supports. I used Elmers glue. The last thing I would do is plug the screw holes with the wooden dowel plugs because once you plug the holes you will not be able to remove the screws to take the frame apart should the need arise.