40x60 pole barn advice

[EscapedSuburbia]

I'm new to this community so hopefully this post is OK. Let me know if it's not and I'll delete it.

We're closing on a rural property on July 1 and the first order of business will be getting a 40x60 pole barn built. I'm trying to get my ducks in a row to get quotes. The entire ground floor will be shop space with a mezzanine over part of it for a living space. The shop space will be divided between an area for automotive and machine maintenance and another section for woodworking. The woodshop will be walled off to control dust.

We'll have to have power, water, and sewer run to it. I assume the water will be teed off the well serving the house. The septic field is on the north side of the house and the pole barn will be south of it, probably a couple hundred feet. Does this mean a separate tank & leach field since it's so far away with a house in between? I've always lived in areas with city sewer and water so this is new to me.

I'm also curious about HVAC. This is central Indiana so it gets cold. The mezzanine apartment will need AC but I'm on the fence about the shop space. I'm leaning towards no AC for the shop but I'll want heat. I talked to a couple people who recommended in-floor coils with a propane or diesel boiler. I kinda like the idea of diesel since having some on hand in a tank would be handy for the tractor/mower/motorhome. So what do you folks think? Will I regret not air conditioning the shop? What kind of heat do you prefer? If I do in-floor heating do I handle the mezzanine apartment with a heat pump or mini split?

Any other advice? Things you did or wish you'd have done when building your shop?

 

[Torvy]

I have a 30x40x16. We put the living portion on the ground floor. The loft above is noticeably hotter.

No A/C in the shop. It gets hotter here than in IN. We have doors on 2 sides for cross-breezes. If it's too hot, it's time to do other work in the house. No heat, either, but it doesn't get really cold here unless you've never lived in real cold (grew up in SD).

Our septic handles both. It's about 15' between the buildings. Talk to your septic guy about how far is too far. Basically, you're just running the drain further, but there's a drop over distance issue. Those should be all planned out before anything gets started.

Good luck and welcome to TBN. There's whole sections about rural living.

 

[BigGG]

Before you get too far, make sure you understand the local code and insurance implications. I was thinking about a barndominium arrangement, but the county code would have required the whole thing to meet residential code, increasing the cost a bunch. So I built a 'farm' building which didn't have to meet any code. Even then, they put up a little stink because I put a drain pipe in the slab for a future rest room.

I think fire and egress for living space over a shop may be an issue.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

Good point on understanding local rules about living spaces. It's rural Indiana zoned agricultural/residential so hopefully not a problem. Even if there's no living space I'll want sewer and water for a laundry tub so I'm not going back to the house all filthy. Where do you start to gather information on local requirements? The zoning commission? Some other county office? I don't want to count on a builder knowing the rules.

 

[ponytug]

Good point on understanding local rules about living spaces. It's rural Indiana zoned agricultural/residential so hopefully not a problem. Even if there's no living space I'll want sewer and water for a laundry tub so I'm not going back to the house all filthy. Where do you start to gather information on local requirements? The zoning commission? Some other county office? I don't want to count on a builder knowing the rules.

Welcome. You might want to update your location in your profile. That helps folks better tailor advice for you.

Again, check local codes. AHJs sometimes get twitching about signs that the space might be inhabited and start treating the space as such. Around here things like a sink and a single window is likely to trigger residential concerns and regulations. If the AHJ does have concerns, you might consider a lean to At the house for a washing up area. That would also save on septic, etc.

For Indiana, I would think that for the metal and for the wood shop that you would want some humidity control, if not temperature control. If you decide to heat the shop, and are pouring a slab, I would think about in floor heating. Shops being shops, if it were me, I would go above and beyond for the compaction of the floor, and encourage you to consider pouring a knee wall as part of the slab as that great increases the floor stiffness, and resistance to cracking.

Finally, shop doors are almost never too tall.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Doorman63]

Septic- we built a smaller building with bathroom approx 150’ away from our existing home.
Waste goes into a tank with a grinder pump then a 2” pipe to the main system. Works really well. Septic guy cautioned against a separate system due to minimal use.

Power-it was cheaper to have an additional service installed versus tapping off existing home service.

Insulation-closed cell spray foam……cry once!! It’s worth it

Floor heat for shop-we decided against it. Turning off/on wasn’t efficient for the minimal use it sees.
Mini split for the win!

 

[dadohead]

Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) was the township for us. Don't make too many plans until you have a discussion. Our township president said "should be no problem" at our initial conversation. At the township meeting with the full board present: problems.

 

[Torvy]

Out here, only septic needs any sort of approval. I was able to put in a few things that would have been against code in a city nowadays. Nothing drastic, just a minor plumbing thing.

I love living here.

 

[3Ts]

If you're doing a machine shop as part of that, you may want to consider embedding anchors in the concrete slab. I don't have one in my shop because I didn't know about doing that. So, when I poured a driveway, I embedded one in that close to the shop. I have a vise on a post I put in the anchor and I can really crank on stuff now.

 

[bigtiller]

We're closing on a rural property on July 1 and the first order of business will be getting a 40x60 pole barn built. I'm trying to get my ducks in a row to get quotes. The entire ground floor will be shop space with a mezzanine over part of it for a living space. The shop space will be divided between an area for automotive and machine maintenance and another section for woodworking. The woodshop will be walled off to control dust.
Any other advice? Things you did or wish you'd have done when building your shop?

The only thing I would do differently is make it bigger.
54X75 x 14 is just to small.