Building a shop / shed / barn / greenhouse

[EddieWalker]

Good progress.

Are you sure that an 8 foot lean to is going to be big enough?

 

[deezler]

Thanks for sharing the plan. I seriously reccommend you swap a few windows around. You can have a pair of 60x24s on the back (east) wall to match each other, and a pair of the 47x47 sliders on the south wall. I just think aesthetically, it will look sooo much better to have matching window sizes instead of totally random. I definitely feel you on the salvaged windows though. My own pole barn has 4x 30x60 single-hungs that I got for $20 apiece.

Whats going in the cold storage section? If any equipment or tractor stuff, that 6' sliding door might feel pretty narrow.

 

[deezler]

Agree with Eddie, go 10 or 12 feet on the lean-to if you can swing it. 8 is almost nothin.

 

[PandDLong]

Thanks for sharing the plan. I seriously reccommend you swap a few windows around. You can have a pair of 60x24s on the back (east) wall to match each other, and a pair of the 47x47 sliders on the south wall. I just think aesthetically, it will look sooo much better to have matching window sizes instead of totally random. I definitely feel you on the salvaged windows though. My own pole barn has 4x 30x60 single-hungs that I got for $20 apiece.

Whats going in the cold storage section? If any equipment or tractor stuff, that 6' sliding door might feel pretty narrow.

Good suggestion on the windows - I hadn't thought of that. I had laid out where to put windows in the plan before I got them, then I just assigned them to spots. I am going to relook at what goes where.

The cold storage is for straw, some feed, outdoor decorations, and other odds and ends. No equipment - although I could just squeeze the tractor in if needed to load/unload. The size constraint is based upon that being a load-bearing wall and the posts are 6' on-centre (which makes the opening only 5 1/2 feet) - I could do beefed up posts and a header to widen the door just wasn't sure it is needed.

Michael

 

[deezler]

Your posts are 6' on center ?!? (Or do you just mean in that cold storage section of wall.) 6x6 ground-contact posts? Or re-using those glue-lams from your current barn?

I don't see if you mentioned whether you are building this yourself, or having a company/crew put it up for you. Do you need permits and inspections way up there in 'berta? Just wondering if you are stuck with the post layout or can adjust it to your needs. Whether 6x6 glue-lam or single piece, I'm quite sure you could span that 18' wall of cold storage with only one post in the center (9' on center instead of 6') as long as you had appropriately robust truss carriers (headers). This was accomplished in my pole barn (admittedly with probably lower roof snow loads down here) by using some LVL beams for truss carriers instead of plain 2x12s, in certain sections.

 

[PandDLong]

Good progress.

Are you sure that an 8 foot lean to is going to be big enough?

I have debated that exact point. It seems big enough compared to a little lean-to I have now that I store my powered attachments under (my first plan was only 6' but I did realize that was too small). I just don't have any other personal experiences to draw upon.

My one concern on making it bigger is what does the head-room end up being at the outer edge... Need to relook at my math maybe.

What does one store in a 10' or 12' lean-to?

Michael

 

[EddieWalker]

I've had two barns with lean-to's, and both where 12 feet deep. I always thought that was barely enough, and when I build my next barn, I'm going to make the lean-to 16 feet

How tall are your walls? Before committing to anything, maybe wait until your walls are up and then see how much room you have to work with.

 

[gsganzer]

I agree with Eddie. I did an 8' porch and realized it should have been 12' or more. 8' won't protect things from the weather.

 

[PandDLong]

Your posts are 6' on center ?!? (Or do you just mean in that cold storage section of wall.) 6x6 ground-contact posts? Or re-using those glue-lams from your current barn?

I don't see if you mentioned whether you are building this yourself, or having a company/crew put it up for you. Do you need permits and inspections way up there in 'berta? Just wondering if you are stuck with the post layout or can adjust it to your needs. Whether 6x6 glue-lam or single piece, I'm quite sure you could span that 18' wall of cold storage with only one post in the center (9' on center instead of 6') as long as you had appropriately robust truss carriers (headers). This was accomplished in my pole barn (admittedly with probably lower roof snow loads down here) by using some LVL beams for truss carriers instead of plain 2x12s, in certain sections.

The posts are 6' on-center for the entire building. The new building has screw-piles supporting a concrete grade beam and then saddles for posts will be wet-set in the grade beam every 6 feet. I am reusing the top 10' of my glue-lams from the old shed (discarding the portion that had been in ground contact). 6' on-center seems to be the standard in this area - I think every post-frame builder I investigated and talked to uses that format (even the one who uses 4-ply 2x8 glue-lam posts).

I have a contractor putting it up for me (I have insufficient time and talent - mostly talent). It is just himself (and his mother when he needs an extra set of hands - she pulled out all the nails from that stack of dimensional lumber that came off my old building). It is someone I had used many years ago for some bigger landscape and driveway projects - but since he did those, he has shifted pretty much exclusively into acreage developments - buildings, foundations, septic, etc.

I do end up helping out from time-to-time - I did some of the demo work and pad prep and I am penciled in to help with preparing the floor for the pour. An advantage of the single contractor is that we talk every day and work out details and he will change anything along the way for me. The companies I talked to all used crews who had a system and once you committed to a plan and site - that was pretty much it until it was done - and none of them would consider any reuse of my old shed materials.

I will talk to him about the idea of spacing out the posts - not sure what he has planned for truss carriers at the moment - but I like the idea of increasing that doorway.

I do have a permit which allows me to not have a permit . As a farm building, there is no inspection and no engineering drawings required but I had to apply to get this "status" and avoid a regular building permit. Electrical will be inspected though.

Michael

 

[PandDLong]

I've had two barns with lean-to's, and both where 12 feet deep. I always thought that was barely enough, and when I build my next barn, I'm going to make the lean-to 16 feet

How tall are your walls? Before committing to anything, maybe wait until your walls are up and then see how much room you have to work with.

I will definitely look at this. I like the idea of waiting until the walls are up and being able to fabricate a temporary lean-to section and check it out - I have already made a couple changes to the plan and site location based upon being able to do a makeshift simulation.

The walls are only 10' - that creates a limiting factor - as does the roof pitch to handle our snow loads. But there is a 5" concrete grade beam and I don't have to bring the ground level up to the top of it and I can look at how much slope I give the ground under the lean-to.

Michael