Help me Design Building for Tractors and Pickup

[Suburban Plowboy]

Don't know if this is quite the right subforum for this, but...

I am tired of parking my Kubota L3710 and John Deere 430 garden tractor in the rain, so I am considering adding a steel building to my property.

It looks like I will need something that will at least slow mice down, since they have already built nests on top of the garden tractor's battery and inside the truck's hood insulation.

I want to be able to put the tractors, a utility cart, and my pickup in there, along with a few implements. I have a bush hog and a subsoiler, and I am about to turn my chain-on forks into a quick attach implement.

I was thinking of making the building about 1000 square feet in a square shape, to resemble my existing workshop. It doesn't have to be fancy. I just want a couple of power outlets, overhead lights, and a door opener. My other building has 100 amps and all my big tools.

Wonder if anyone here has suggestions on configuring the building. Would a long building make more sense for multiple implements?

Another option is to build a big two-car garage for just the tractors, cart, and pickup and build a cheap pole barn without walls for the implements, which rodents can't really hurt.

 

[4570Man]

I like a building with garage doors on both sides. Aside from the obvious benefits of getting stuff in, the building with doors on both sides gets a breeze through it a lot better and stays cooler.

 

[LouNY]

I like a building with garage doors on both sides. Aside from the obvious benefits from f getting stuff in building with doors on both sides gets a breeze through it a lot better and stays cooler.

I would like that idea also if access is available on both sides or ends.
Personally I prefer my doors in the end of the building, I don't like the eaves dumping rain or snow in front of my doors.
So my preferance would be for a wide but shallower building, say 3 or 4 doors wide and 2 or 3 lengths deep, with the length being as an example the tractor and loader with the longest loader attachment plus the longest rear attachment being one length.

 

[Roadworthy]

I'm not sure a garage or shed is a good rodent' deterrent. I keep a pack of D-Con under the hood of my wife's car and another behind each of the headlights on my car. I figure if they're snacking on the D-Con they'll leave my wiring alone. It seems to work, I just need to be sure the trays are full.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't get snow here, so that won't matter. If I went with a square building, I was going to have a gable face the driveway, so the rain would come off the sides instead of in front of the garage door.

My existing shop has a garage door in one end and a roll-up on the other. The area behind the new building would be woods, so I was thinking it might be pointless to have a second door on the back. There wouldn't be much of a path to the rear.

I could get a carport with no slab for the farm stuff, if a closed garage is really no help against mice. I don't know how much protection an open roofed structure would provide.

 

[WranglerX]

Design your own here...

https://www.versatube.com/

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

A square gives you the most space per length of perimeter.. But, you need to think through turning movements to be sure you can actually put things in and out.

Look online for farm building plans. Just about every university which has an Agg Engineering program will have an online libraray of standard plans for farm buildings. Your county extension agent, can usually point you in the right direction, and once you fined one site, they normally have links to at least a couple of others.

 

[mcfarmall]

No matter how big you make it, it will be too small.

 

[Raul-02]

It looks like I will need something that will at least slow mice down, since they have already built nests on top of the garden tractor's battery and inside the truck's hood insulation.

Socks stuffed with genuine mothballs works pretty well. they don't like the odor.

 

[3Ts]

The most important part is:

with the length being as an example the tractor and loader with the longest loader attachment plus the longest rear attachment being one length.

Be sure your longest vehicle will fit. Then see how many others will fit beside it. For a square 1000 foot building you're looking at about 30x30 or 30x35. Draw up the plans on a piece of paper with outlines for the implements as to where you want them, then go outside and put all your tractors and implements in the space you plan for your barn (pretend that it's built) and see how things fit.