Barn size and related questions

[BadDog]

Your dad is a wise man.

I've built this whole place 'big enough', and it currently still is for our needs, but if we stayed here much longer I'd be adding on for sure.

However, now the wife wants us to 'downsize' so she can focus on riding/showing vs. shoveling manure and managing pasture. She's decided that having our own horse property is too expensive, too much work, and ties us down too much. Frankly I have to agree but I never thought I'd hear the words come from her mouth; having her horses at home has been a dream since childhood for her.

Sooooo, we're boarding the horses in a fancy-schmancy training facility, moving down to PA, into one of them-thar fancy Toll brothers McMansions in the midst of hunter/jumper/dressage country. Swimmin' pool, movie stars....

Once this place gets close to selling, I'll be auctioning off the tractor and implements of destruction... That makes me a little sad, but it has all paid for itself at least twice over and the tractor, FEL and BH are still under NH warranty!

I'm a bit perplexed as to what I'm supposed to do with all the spare time coming my way, but I'm sure that'll get figured out quick.

 

[M4800]

I have a 30'x40' shop and it filled up quick. I'm thinking about adding on now. If I had it to do again I'd add a 20' overhang to the gable end of the shop during the build. If you build a shop with 40' of ridge row you could add a 20'x30' overhang off one end fairly cheap. The thing to remember is to have the builder install a big enough beam on that end so if you decide to close the overhang in you won't have a pole in the center of the shop. You can also save money by using gravel and then concrete later if needed. This also gives a good place to put a door in the end of the building and a great place to work in the summer with easy acess to your tools. Bottom line is this gives you an easy way to add on later. All you would need to do would be move the end wall out and add two side walls and you would have a 30x60'. This probabably wouldn't cost much more than the lean-to but would help with future expansion.

 

[daTeacha]

The posts in the center of the end wall are just there to stabilize the wall, not to support the truss overhead. The truss is designed to transfer all the weight to the side posts, just like all the other trusses in the building. If they want to sell you a "gable end" truss, it's just built different to make it easier to hang the siding on. You can just pull the end posts out when you expand the building's length.

Just to make you feel better, tell the builder what your plans are. You may have some local code details to deal with.

 

[npaden]

I think I will spray paint the outline and park my stuff in there to get an idea.

I really think the 30' x 40' will be plenty big for me. I have a 24' X 16' shed already and it just amazes me that I would be able to fit 3 of my sheds inside the new barn.

As far as codes that is one thing about living in the country in Texas. There aren't any codes. This can be good or bad depending on your viewpoint. When building my house the only thing I had to do was get the septic tank inspected.

I'm leaning toward just going ahead with the basic barn and then I can add the lean to on later if I need it. The builder said it wouldn't save any money to do the lean to now, he builds it basically as a separate stand alone structure up against the side of the existing building.

I may go ahead and get some cement poured where the lean to will go in the future so I can set my loader and rotary mower on a nice slab for now at least. Just a 20' long X 10' wide slab along the side of the building.

The other problem is that I have a slope where I want to put the building. 2' from front to back. They want to charge me an extra $1,800 to level the site out on top of the building price. He said that they would pour the footings down to the original ground level on the low side and level out and pack it down.

I'm not planning on insulating it but do plan on puting electrical of course and will stub in a drain and maybe a spicket for a hose and a sink.

This is too hard of a decision! Buying the tractor was easy.

I appreciate the input so far.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[M4800]

Most builders around here go with I beam trusses (free span buildings). To do this they use 6" I beam on the ends and a 12" I beam in the center. The 12" will support the wieght of both sides but the 6" needs a center colum or you can use a door frame to hold the wieght. You are correct that trusses are designed to distribute the wieght to both ends but I don't think many builders use anything others than I beam trusses anymore, it's just to time consuming to build angle iron trusses.
I'm asuming we're talkng about metal buildings.
If you are looking to build a 30'x40' metal building with 10' side walls, I beam trusses and 1 overhead door the price you quoted sounds really good. You might think about insulating the building it will be around $1,500 extra but is well worth it.

 

[wushaw]

Nat,
I insulated just my roof and it keeps the temps the same as outside temps but the sun does not make it hotter.
You can do the filling in and leveling of the pad yourself and save yourself some $$$

 

[npaden]

I was thinking about trying to do the filling and leveling myself now that I have a tractor with a FEL. (Actually at one time I was using that as an excuse for why I needed a loader)

My only concern is getting it packed in good.

 

[jmc]

npaden,

I built a 36X53 polebarn and did my own site prep. As far a compaction, the front wheels on your tractor with a full load of dirt in the loader do a great job of it, if the ground is dry enough. This is my second building I've compacted this way and neither has any floor cracks where they shouldn't be. You do need to do it in layers, though, instead of the whole 2 feet at one time. Some say 6 inches at a time, and my layers were no more than that.

Not only do you need to get all your stuff in there but you need to get to it without moving everything else. Think about that in your spray paint trial, especially with door(s) placement.

As one poster said, adding length is cheaper than adding width, BUT, there is some minimum useful width that allows you to manuever your tractor within the building widthwise. This can allow you to keep implements (and everything else) along either wall and still get to them all via a center aisle you keep clear. 36' wide seems to work and maybe 30' will too.

Some thought on shelving will keep you from using valuable floor space on smaller stuff.

If you make it long, wall off the back for your shop to save the valuable space near the door for big stuff. If I didn't have a separate shop, I would have also put a deck over the shop for storage, then insulated the shop's smaller envelope for comfort and to keep steel from sweating as often. Add some heat and you have a year round place to go when the wife uh, makes the house too small.

John

 

[albmn10]

Hello Npaden, If i may ask where did you get your steel buiding from for that price. I had a fire last week and lost almost everything i own in my barn garage.. I did manage to save my tractor but lost about 35000 dollars worth of tools and belongings. Basically the building was worth about 60000 but im only getting 23000 from the insurance company. So i have to try to put up a metal building as well..... The old building was 30 by 80 . I was hoping to find something in the 30 by 60 range. Any help would be appreciated... Matt

 

[daTeacha]

When you said "steel building" I followed Ohio thinking and was picturing a steel sided building on a wooden frame, the typical pole barn. I think you might find the cost of one of these less than an all steel, and you can easily go more than 30 feet wide with wooden trusses. My FIL's barn that I mentioned above is a pole barn, and very wide. They keep a combine in there along with several tractors and a pickup and still have plenty of room to work on stuff.