Round Barn? - or - Japanese Style Temple Barn?

[Bob_Skurka]

<font color="red"> drywall is easier to patch and paint than steel paneling </font>


I did think of that. But the steel inside looks to be something that can be screwed through for hanging shelves, so that is no real disadvantage for mounting things to the walls. As for patching holes in drywall, I do have one hole in my garage drywall now. I put it there. It was a bad day that day. So I would agree with you that a dented steel wall is going to remain dented forever while a drywall wall could be easily repaired, but I'm pretty easy on my structures so I see the main advantage to steel as a zero maintainence issue. It is just a nice bright white finish that should be very easy to keep clean.

My biggest concern is that the pole framing won't be strong enough to support the roof load without increasing the number of posts to a point that it loses its cost competitivness to stick building.

 

[bontai_Joe]

Glad to see this thread pop up again. Lots of very interesting pics from several folks, and all are attractive buildings.

Bob,
I've no experience with Wicks buildings, but they have been around for a long time. And as far as roof loads go, a properly designed timber framed building can handle tremendous loads. There are post and beam buildings in Scandinavia that are over 1000 years old with snow loads a lot worse than what we design for in most of North America. I think you should have no problems with the roof loading.

 

[Ray_H]

Bob,
I'll be interested to see what you settle on. I keep making mine larger this week it grew to 48' x 60'. I talked with my mason and he gave me a fair price on stacking blocks, so as of today it looks like I will have some walls in split-face cinder block and stucco. There is a company, Gerard, they make metal roofing that looks like slate or tile so you don't have to frame for the weight. It's expensive though $300-$600 a square is what I was quoted.
http://www.gerardusa.com/about.htm
Ray

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ray, here is the stuff I settled on. About $320 to $360 per square plus installation. This photo shows grey tiles but I picked tans and browns. But this photo gives a good look at the detail. These are a full 1/2" thick and should outlast me.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ray, here is a small field of browns and tans from my roofing contractor. This picture shows the colors, but not the detail that the other photo showed. It gives a better indication of what the look of my roof will be.

 

[Ray_H]

Looks real nice Bob! I would like to do something like this. I actually found a guy who can get the tile and has experience with it but his business is in WA.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ray, I love that, but the lovely Mrs_Bob won't go for it. The prairie school buildings and the Japanese structures really do harmonize well together. My small barn is going to be about 125' to 150' from the back door of my house. My plan is to expand the "dog yard" (the fenced area where the dogs run free) so that it meets up with one wall of the new barn. I've been working with a landscape designer and asked him to work on a plan for the newly expanded dog yard that would be heavily influenced by Japanese gardens. I've not seen any preliminary plans from him yet, but as we have 8" of snow on the ground and the exact placement of the barn is still in question, I guess it would be too much to expect.