Best Barn Door Floor Guide to Get Rid of Swaying Barn Doors

Find a High-Quality Barn Door Floor Guide: A Buying Guide

It is common to fall for inadequate and inefficient products without sufficient knowledge. Here is a comprehensive barn door floor guide with all the information required to make a fail-proof selection of barn door hardware. 

Why Does a Barn Door Require Floor Guides?

Sliding barn doors are an aesthetic addition to any home and prove functional due to their unmatched ability to save space. However, despite the aesthetic and functional appeal, the swaying and swinging of the barn doors off the tracks is not only incredibly annoying but also ends up causing harm to the baseboards. In this manner, the bottom guides increase the longevity of your barn doors and relevant hardware. If a smooth sliding action of the barn door without much swaying and swinging is what you desire, a floor guide is mandatory for you.

Although floor guides are minimal and inexpensive items usually made of metal and alloy steel, they keep the door on track and end up saving you from a great deal of hassle and preventing the incidence of any accidents and hazards. 

Types of Barn Door Floor Guide

The barn door floor guides can be classified on two bases; based on the mount and form. 

Based on the mount

The barn door floor guide can be divided into two types based on the mount; wall mounted and floor mounted.

The floor-mounted guides are the most common type of barn door floor guides. They are drilled into the floor below the barn door. They are an affordable and easy to install option.

The wall-mounted guides essentially offer the same function as the floor-mounted barn door floor guides except for the placement on the wall or the baseboard instead of the floor. While floor-mounted guides are the most common type, the wall-mounted guides are a better option when drilling into the bottom does not seem viable.

Based on the form

There are two types of barn door floor guides based on shape and form. The first type is a fin-shaped bottom guide, a singular piece with a central extension. It is also called the L-shaped guide. The other type is a channel floor guide which is U-shaped and has three sides.

The fin guide can either be wall-mounted, or floor mounted. It is most commonly used for barn doors with a notch in the middle. In other cases, a notch could be created in the barn door to make it compatible with the fin-shaped bottom guide. However, if the door is devoid of a notch and creating one is impossible, a U-shaped guide comes in handy.

Other types

Newer types of barn door floor guides are the roller guides that possess ball bearings and rollers instead of the guides. They are an excellent choice for the thicker barn doors and exterior barn doors or can simply add a rustic touch to your barn doors through the creative use of hardware. They could either be wall-mounted, or floor mounted and are a great way to add a touch of modern and minimalist appeal.

How To Choose the Perfect Barn Door Floor Guides

The selection process becomes more manageable once you know the available choice and types of barn door floor guides. 

Compare the available types of barn door floor guides with your doors. Once you have compared, choose the most compatible bottom guides that complement the construction of your barn doors. 

The barn door floor guides have varying visibility. The roller guides are completely visible, while the wall-mounted ones are partially visible, and the floor-mounted fin-shaped ones are entirely hidden. Depending on your aesthetic and choice, choose the one that checks all boxes for you.

The sturdiness and durability of the floor guides are also an essential consideration as failure to comply with these properties will result in a frequently damaged bottom guide that will require replacements and prove to be quite counterproductive in the long run. Moreover, the floor guides should also offer a noiseless operation; otherwise, they can be a sore spot.

It is also vital to consider the installation process while selecting the barn door floor guides. A complex installation process requiring excessive hardware is not suitable for novices, and one must steer clear of these. A bottom guide with a simple installation process and all included hardware should be the ultimate choice.  

Barn Door Floor Guides Pricing

Barn door floor guides are simple and inexpensive items. The average price of a barn door floor guide ranges from $10 to $40. The simpler fin and channel types are much more reasonable as compared to the roller types. However, the heavy-duty floor guides are quite heftily priced and can cost up to $100.

How To Install Barn Door Floor Guides

The installation process for barn door floor guides is quite simple.

The first step is to take measurements and mark where floor guides have to be installed, and it can either be the wall or the floor, depending upon the choice of mount. The next step involves drilling the holes for placement, following that the floor guides are set in place and secured using appropriate equipment. Once the barn door floor guide passes the trial stage, it is set to be used.