Need advice on pole barn cost--

[Bob Vanderlinde]

Hi,
I'm building a pole barn to work on and store my tractor, cornplanter etc. -- Sick of working on this stuff on my gravel driveway!

Anyways, I have a quote from a reputable guy in my area:

Main part of barn: 40*40*14
Lean to sides: 15*40 on each side (one side enclosed with concrete, the other outside with gravel)
Upstairs over main part of barn will be 16 ft wide by 40 long reachable by staircase with flooring for storage etc.
One man door.
One overhead door 12*18 on one end and a 12*14 overhead door on the other end--both insulated.
Some anti-condensation pannels on the interior roof, but otherwise no insulation.
Cost includes concrete: 40*55=2200sf inside and 800sf pad across front of barn, so total concrete: 3000sf 5 inches thick.
Does not include excavation, gravel, electric or any plumbing.
Metal is galvalume 29 gage.
posts are laminated.

Quote from Contractor: $42,000 This is $15/sf for the area that has a roof over it (that is, the main barn plus both the inside leantoo and the outside leantoo are includded in the "square footage"/cost figure.

What do you guys think of this quote.
Thanks in advance!
Bob

 

[MotorSeven]

I can't help you on the quote much, but seriously consider insulation throughout. When I build the Quonset I only insulated the living quarters not the shop side.....big mistake.

 

[mx842]

Actually that don't sound too bad for having it built but there probably is a little wiggle room and I would try to get them to throw in the sub grading for the pad and then it would be right on target. That way if they do the site work they will be more careful and get the grade work done correctly and the proper compaction of the sub base materials to a proper level because they will be responsible for the finish product. Sometimes contractors like to separate the finish product from the sub base preparations so if the concrete cracks of a portion of the building settles they have an out. They can say they didn't do the sub base so it's not their fault that the concrete has a million cracks in it or there is a 4" fall from one side to the other a few months after the floor is poured.

I'm doing one now that is about the same size as what you are planing. I have done pretty much everything myself and I have the roof and siding done, my plumbing is roughed in, the floor is ready for concrete with 1" foam board, vapor barrier, rebar, and pex tube installed for my floor heat and I am about 3/4's way done with my electrical work. Right now I am working on putting in wall studs around the exterior walls to hold my insulation and to have a place to nail my inside wall panels to. I plan on putting up medal siding for the inside walls up to 8' and from there to the 14' ceiling height will be osb all painted white. To date I have all the framing materials needed about 90% of the electrical and plumbing supplies bought and paid for plus about 80% of the parts needed for my heat system already bought and installed. Concrete will be my next biggest expense at around $5000.00 and insulation next will cost me around $3500. Hopefully I will be able to get some more cheap siding panels from my pole barn building buddy to do the inside walls and if I do it will really help.

So far I have right at $27,000.00 in the project and about $5000.00 of that was to rebuild part of two walls that got wiped out when a tree fell through the front and side wall during last years hurricane. I had hoped I could build it for around $32,000.00 finished but that was before I decided to add floor heat and an addition or two. It started out to be 32X40 but now with the two side and back additions it is 55X40 with a 20X20' off the back end all under roof.

 

[deezler]

mx842.... got any pics? Sounds perfect for what I need to do, too (eventually).

 

[mx842]

mx842.... got any pics? Sounds perfect for what I need to do, too (eventually).

Yeah about a million of them...I thought I had some of them posted in my photo album here but I guess not. If I can find the time I'll put some up.

****, I see we don't have a photo album here oh well I guess it's about time to update my pole barn smashed to pieces thread, it's been awhile since I did so.

 

[Gittyup]

I think the price is high. But geography matters. My buddy had a 30x40 built. One double garage door. One entry door. Insulated ceiling. On slab. Fully wired with 100 Amp service; lights and outlets everywhere. His cost for everything (including excavation and stone) about $20K. This was about 4 years ago in WV.

I got a quote about 6 months ago for a 20x30, on stone floor: $8500 similar door/insulation arrangement.

 

[mx842]

I think the price is high. But geography matters. My buddy had a 30x40 built. One double garage door. One entry door. Insulated ceiling. On slab. Fully wired with 100 Amp service; lights and outlets everywhere. His cost for everything (including excavation and stone) about $20K. This was about 4 years ago in WV.

I got a quote about 6 months ago for a 20x30, on stone floor: $8500 similar door/insulation arrangement.

Where in the world are you located? There are either some really hungry builders where you are or somebody is fudging on the numbers somewhere. You can find kits around for buildings the size you mentioned (20x30) in the $8500.00 range but that doesn't include anything but the shell delivered to your door in a pile and you have to put it up yourself or have someone do it for you but good luck on getting someone to do it for you for nutin'.

 

[trihounds]

Concrete pads run $9.71 a sq ft around here for 4"...forming and materials only. Then you've got to build the structure!!

For my region, your quote looks great.

 

[Gittyup]

Where in the world are you located? There are either some really hungry builders where you are or somebody is fudging on the numbers somewhere. You can find kits around for buildings the size you mentioned (20x30) in the $8500.00 range but that doesn't include anything but the shell delivered to your door in a pile and you have to put it up yourself or have someone do it for you but good luck on getting someone to do it for you for nutin'.

I was quoted $6200 for a kit, 20x30 back in the spring from armour metals (no stone). As for my buddy's $20K, WV can be cheap especially 3 or 4 years ago when every contruction crew was hurting for work (and many still are). And my pal does drive a hard bargain.

I ended up going with a closed side heavy duty carport, 20 x 25 x 9 open ends for $2500 fully constructed. I excavated and bought my own gravel. I'm really pleased with the carport too. Not a full enclosure, but meets my needs for much less money. I think I could have gotten it with closed ends with a garage door for about $4000 fully constructed.

 

[Gittyup]

Just wanted to point out that I couldn't get near my buddy's price either, especially with concrete. I know he got a deal and I'm envious everytime I go to visit. And I'm sure NY is much different than WV. BTW, I'm in Maryland and a pretty good bargain shopper myself. Shopped long and hard to get the $8500 price. This is what I ended up with for $2500.

 

[rtimgray]

The disparity in pricing is amazing to me. I am working on a 1,500 sq. ft. addition to our house (doing all the work myself) and it is going to finish out at about $22-$25 per sq. ft. A friend at work got quotes for having a house built (about 2,000 sq. ft. and the quotes averaged $91 per sq. ft. I know this isn't the same as pole barns, but there is obviously quite a premium for having someone else do the building for you.

I also find it interesting that as we have been going through this process, we are comparing to the costs for the house that we built between 2004 to 2007. Almost every material that we are buying now (lumber, sheet goods, insulation, drywall) is cheaper by 10% to 50% (example: 2x10 floor joists were about $15 each when we bought them for the first house; just under $10 for them now). The only items that have gone up have been concrete by a few dollars per yard and asphalt shingles. It seems that now is a good time to be building, due to relatively lower material costs, at least in my neck of the woods.

Good luck and take care.

 

[mx842]

Just wanted to point out that I couldn't get near my buddy's price either, especially with concrete. I know he got a deal and I'm envious everytime I go to visit. And I'm sure NY is much different than WV. BTW, I'm in Maryland and a pretty good bargain shopper myself. Shopped long and hard to get the $8500 price. This is what I ended up with for $2500.

Yeah I understand how prices can be all over the place in different parts of the country. Talking about being a penny pincher......I have squeezed every oz of juice out of every cent I have put into my project and it looks like I'm still going to come in a little over what I expected to build my barn for. Of-course I have done a couple upgrades I had not figured in when I first started like my in floor heat system and an add on or two but in the end it will be worth it.

There is an advertiser on here, Carter Lumber that offers pretty good pricing on kits, I'll find a link in a minute and post it. I almost bought one of their kits but decided against it because of the steel structure I wanted to build inside the barn would not have worked out as well so I decided to go piece by piece. And it was easier to come up with two or three thousand at a pop than it was to come up with ten thousand all at once. Here is the link to their kit pricing....

Kit and Package Estimates There is a link on some pages here but I posted it here for good measure.

I looked at those carport type buildings and almost bought one just to store my junk until I could get my shop built but I opted out for blue tarps instead I can buy a bunch of those for $2500.:laughing: They are good storage building though.

 

[mx842]

The disparity in pricing is amazing to me. I am working on a 1,500 sq. ft. addition to our house (doing all the work myself) and it is going to finish out at about $22-$25 per sq. ft. A friend at work got quotes for having a house built (about 2,000 sq. ft. and the quotes averaged $91 per sq. ft. I know this isn't the same as pole barns, but there is obviously quite a premium for having someone else do the building for you.

I also find it interesting that as we have been going through this process, we are comparing to the costs for the house that we built between 2004 to 2007. Almost every material that we are buying now (lumber, sheet goods, insulation, drywall) is cheaper by 10% to 50% (example: 2x10 floor joists were about $15 each when we bought them for the first house; just under $10 for them now). The only items that have gone up have been concrete by a few dollars per yard and asphalt shingles. It seems that now is a good time to be building, due to relatively lower material costs, at least in my neck of the woods.

Good luck and take care.

I built my house in 91/92 and I got shafted right in the middle of my build by one of those big hurricanes that hit down in Fl or maybe it was in SC. I didn't have room for both the first and second floor lumber package at the site because of how my house was sitting in the woods so I went ahead and paid for the first load and figured I would order the second half 4 or 5 days later once we used up what was on the ground. We had a couple days rain which held me up for another few days and by the time I went to pay for the second half of my building package the hurricane inflation had took over and there wasn't a piece of plywood anywhere on the east coast that could be had for less than $44.00 a sheet. A week earlier it was $24.00 for 3/4 sheeting. Framing 2x4's went from .94 cents apiece to $4.00 and this really put a hold on my whole project. I had to Blue tarp the whole thing and wait for half of the South to be rebuilt before prices stabilized to where I could afford to continue. The thing was, prices never did come back to where they were before that storm, they did come down but overall prices stayed about 50/60% over what they were before the storm. This really put a hurting on my build because I had a construction loan and couldn't get them to up the funds so I had to cut back on some of the extras I wanted so I could still get it under roof and dried in before the due date on my construction loan to where I could convert it over to a regular loan.

Concrete prices have come down a little compared to a few years ago and have been around $95.00 a yard for 6 or more yards at a time it had gotten up to over $125.00 a yard for some time and hopefully I can get my floor poured in my building before it goes up again. I bought a hundred 8' 2x4's the other day and paid $2.64 each which was the best price in town that I could find.

When I was building one of the side sheds off the side of my barn I needed 50 2x6's and I went to Lowes to pick them up I could buy salt treated 2x6's cheaper than I could buy regular pine boards (salt treated boards were a $1 apiece cheaper) so I built the whole addition out of salt treated lumber.

 

[Gittyup]

The thing about the carports is the basic package is OK.... for a carport. But if you upgrade the frame to 12 gauge, add braces and gable construction with high walls. They are actually pretty nice and quite sturdy. I also went with mobile home anchors to keep it from blowing away. I"m very happy with what I got for $2500. I can now use the extra money for other things, like another property or a European vacation.... or maybe a boat

 

[tedj12]

I just had a quote about a couple months ago for something similar to this. I had 16' instead of 14' and had two enclosed lean-tos instead. I came out(just for the kit including shipping) at $31k. This was for one of the farms in Kansas not sure how we compare to other areas like on the east or west coast. When I was searching around I found it cheaper to do wood buildings then metal buildings.