Advice on building a tractor shed?

[paulsharvey]

I think what to build comes down to what your personal ability are.
If you aren't a builder and want 3 or 4 walls, a metal carport type structure is probably the best bet,
If you aren't a builder, want most sq ft and or most height, a hired in pole barn company is probably the best bet.
If you have some basic carpentry skills; building a pole barn is best.
If you can do block, and have the time; CMU is a good option. With that, you have to have good/easy access to the site with a block truck and a concrete truck
If you are a Good framer, and want the most finished space, but not as worried about max height or max square footage conventional framing is the easiest to finish out. Basically, finished detached garage.

If you just hate yourself, quanset hutt style; not very cheap, a pain to erect, almost impossible to finish interior,

 

[paulsharvey]

With the prefab metal pole barn roof trusses, you can get 12 ft wide bays. You use 2x6 purlions, attacked to the truss flange, in the upright position to get the 12 ft span. It does work, but in the kits; i dont like the idea of walking on 29 ga metal, with 12 ft spacing; just from an installation stand point.

So, the trusses for a 16 ft building will cost right around $200/ea; and you can free fly atleast 12" of metal past the last attachment; so; thats easily 18 ft of cover. The same truss for a 14 ft building is about $170. Unless there is a specific, hard, property/placement issue; I would go atleast 16 ft

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I wanted to keep tractor closer to driveway for snow clearing in winter. My neighbor gave me wood that was sawn on my property sawmill, new old stock, 40ish years ago. (was for a garage for his wife) While it will be a tight fit with ROPS down, it will fit. Still deciding on door style to keep snow out, as wind drifts it in front of garage and now lean to. Garage to inside post is 10'. 8' tall at garage down to 58" at post x26 feet long, as I can keep implements inside with plenty of room. Will have a temporary plastic sheathing on roof until that material is purchased. The best I could do with existing topography is 4:12 pitch, so I will have to do some snow raking if the snow doesn't slide all the way off. Garage is 5:12 with no issue of snow shedding on it's own. There is a 4+' rise going up to barn. Once I gather enough metal roofing, I'll lay purlins down on top of HD plastic.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

USDA standard plans can be downloaded for free:

Building Plans

These building and facility plans were developed over many years by engineers at Land Grant Universities. They provide conceptual information that is excellent for planning purposes.

www.ndsu.edu

https://web.utk.edu/~ggrandle/Programs/PlanList97.htm

Free Barn and Agricultural Building Plans from the MidWest Plan Service

These free downloadable plans for animal shelters, barns, grain storage buildings and equipment sheds are sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture.

todaysplans.com

 

[sunandsand]

Took a quick peek at one of them - small guest house - plans date from 1948 - I do think, or at least I sure hope that building techniques and materials have improved in 75+ years. Some of the plans are dated 1930 - makes them 95 years old.

That isn't to say they are "bad", but I think they are obsolete at the very least.

Wonder how they'd update using light gauge steel, SIPS, aerated concrete, Simpson Strong-Ties, PVC pipe and so forth. Also the electric services are utterly inadequate for 2025.

They're interesting but I wouldn't build anything that way nowadays.

Best Regards.
Mike/Florida

 

[paulsharvey]

The 22x30x10 machinery shed; i mean, fundamentally, for a conventional framed; it just needs some updating; 1" plank roof, thats 7/16" osb; 30# felt under the slab, thats visqueen; 6/12 roof, thats pretty extreme in most of the country, a 4/12 is fine. Replace the forge with a welding table; remove the wood stove and add a window AC, ect.


They do have some "odd" details, like the stem wall is 10" above finish floor elev, and 4" wide "curb". Not sure what function that plays, and then you have a free floating, non tied in, 6" concrete floor. Man, monolithic, thick edge; or a stem wall with the slab tied into the footer blocks; not a separate system... Times change

 

[paulsharvey]

https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/aben-plans/8011.pdf

This 3 bed, 2.5 bath, home from 1980 is not far from what is built today. Yeah, replace that T1-11 with hardi, change that one kitchen wall to a knee wall with bar, remove some of the unneeded doors. It actually kinda surprised me with the number of outlets, and they appear pretty well placed

 

[ultrarunner]

Older homes had lots of doors to control how much space heated at a given time.

 

[sunandsand]

You're right - we're still building this way. And we were building this way long before 1980 when these plans came out.

There are some materials changes, some uprated code requirements and some better components, but we are still building houses the same way as in the 1950s.

Friend of mine is building (more correctly having built) a real high-roller fancy big-buck house, it has been under construction for almost a year now and it is not particularly behind schedule.

It is built the same way the houses in the 1980 plans were built, start with a pile of 2 by 4s and sheets of plywood, and hammer it together one stick at a time. Slow and expensive, highly labor intensive. Lots of waste, too.

If we built cars this way, start with chunks of cast iron or aluminum, and a stack of steel sheets to make the bodies, plus a drill press, a hacksaw and some files, nobody could afford cars, they would be far too labor-intensive.

If we are ever to have even semi-affordable homes, we need to update the procedures and components. Instead of building walls one stick at a time in the field using saws and hammers, we should be building subassemblies in factories with automated machinery - faster, less expensive, more standardized, better quality control - and assembling houses like Lego blocks, semi-finished wall panels with insulation, plumbing and wiring already in place, assembled quickly on the job site.

But everyone wants their house to be unique! Our cars aren't unique (mass production is why we can [almost] afford them) and nobody complains that their neighbor's car has the same size tires as they do. Standard parts . . .

Unfortunately, there's a well deserved stigma for manufactured housing - a/k/a mobile homes, which are not exactly the finest representation of the builder's art.

If we took the techniques used in mobile home manufacturing and made standardized modules using quality components, we might be able to get the cost of homes down a little, get them built better and more quickly than now.

That's why pre-engineered steel buildings are (comparatively) inexpensive and go up fast. All the prep work and fabrication is done someplace else, inside, out of the weather, the "kit" shows up on a truck and is done in a few days - there's your building.

Is it going to change? Not any time soon. Most of the people I talk to, building inspectors, code people, lenders, even builders, say we are building houses now pretty much like we built them a hundred years ago. Materials are better, details change, but it is still slow, expensive, hand labor for stick built one at a time houses.

Best Regards,
Mike/Florida - who used to be a slumlord and knows lots of ways NOT to build houses . . .

 

[ultrarunner]

New 200 unit apartment buildings going up and just completed are as you describe… a crane lifting modular trucked in units in floors topping out 5 stories high…

I know 100 year old homes here that have aged phenomenally well…

Not sure how the modular 5 story builds will hold up…

We will know in a hundred years I suppose.