New pole barn

[Engine Mike]

OK now that i have grown up and have my own tractor I need a pole barn to store it and the rest of my stuff in. Can anybody suggest pole barn builders in the Lake City/Cadillac Michigan area? Also does anybody have advice on locating the barn. Close to the road or back from the road hidden by the trees. Also any advice on number and type of doors, windows, or other methods for natural light? Any advice would be helpful.

 

[Norm W]

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

 

[wolftree]

Plan for adding on to the barn in the future. Leave room to expand.

Look at Morton Buildings.

 

[jimgerken]

Either Morton, Cleary, or Northland buildings has a neat layout program on their website so you can put scale drawings of tractors, implements, cars, etc in the plan to decide how big to build it. Once you have an accurate estimate of what you want, double the size.

 

[masscity]

I was going to have a 33x53 built, but instead had a 40x60 built by Cleary Building Corp. 30% will be insulated shop and the rest cold storage.

I have 3 12x10 overhead doors, 1 for the shop and 2 cold storage. Three 3 ft windows, one in the shop. Best thing I did was having them put the top 2 ft of the cold storage walls are clear vinyl.

There's so much light in there that you only need lighting at night.

The closest Cleary for you would be northern Indiana. Also heard good words about Morton Buildings.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I've heard good things about Cleary and I've been talking to Morton and Lester building on the phone. Lester has a very simple, yet somewhat useful estimated on their site too.

 

[SPIKER]

I've heard good things about Cleary and I've been talking to Morton and Lester building on the phone. Lester has a very simple, yet somewhat useful estimated on their site too.

both Cleary and Morton are near top cost building mfg/builders. If you have any rural co-ops in area talk to them or pick up their free booklets and look at tads in back. Rural Electric company or Farm Co-op

Mark

 

[MinnesotaEric]

both Cleary and Morton are near top cost building mfg/builders. If you have any rural co-ops in area talk to them or pick up their free booklets and look at tads in back. Rural Electric company or Farm Co-op

Mark

In the southern parts of Minnesota, Morton and Lester offer turn key solutions but in my area they must contract out and contractors tend to be sketchy--as in a lot of guys know how to start, but not so many know how to finish, and many act like they are doing you a favor--neither of which are confidence inspiring.

I have a couple of contractors who are good, but because they are good, they have premium pricing, and from all accounts deservingly so. Either way, I'll check into your co-op idea.

Thanks!

 

[jimgerken]

Where is Nevis? I could suggest a good guy if you are anywhere close to Zumbrota.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Where is Nevis? I could suggest a good guy if you are anywhere close to Zumbrota.

Know where Leech Lake is? Nevis is to the west of Leech Lake just south of Paul Bunyan Forest.

My local go-to guys are suggesting I go stick built 2x6 24" on center because it will be easier to spray foam insulate. I told him I need a 10 foot high ceiling to accommodate a tractor. We're in the talking about it stage. I think I want to go with a gambrel roof and just build a small barn with a shed roofs on one side for parking trailers under. Something kind of like this.

 

[dclynch]

I dont know if you ever heard of Hoffman builders out of Bay City Mi. They are very good and reasonable. Also if you have any Amish up there I would go talk to them they usually do great work and are very reasonable on pricing. I have plans to build a 40x40x14 in the next couple of years. Mark Hoffman just built the same exact one for m brother in law last fall 22,000 complete with cement floor.

 

[jimgerken]

That is a nice looking building, I like it! Conventional stud construction does have a lot of benefit when it comes time to do interior finish. Here is another method I recently used which gives the benefits during interior finishing. Pole construction, with bookshelf girts. With this method, the girts that are usually 2x4 added onto the outside surface of the poles, are instead 2X6 elements, laid horizontal, installed between the poles. So the girts are flush to the outside and inside surfaces. By doing this, they are avialable for screwing the steel siding to the outside, and then later available flush with the inside wall surface to attach wall sheeting to. Other pole building methods require a whole bunch of extra lumber to be added to the inside surface to mount wall sheeting. If placed on the usual 24" vertical center to center distance (as recommended by the vertical steel siding manufacturers, the resulting space is perfect for an off-the shelf fiberglass batt (a batt made for between trusses in the typical attic). When you wait for a sale, these batts are as cheap as insulation gets. Installation of them is really easy: cut to length, pop them in, they stay there.
Of course you would use all the usual methods with this such as: Tyvek exterior, poly layer inside the figerglass and under the wall sheeting. Here are a couple pics...

 

[Knight9]

That is a nice looking building, I like it! Conventional stud construction does have a lot of benefit when it comes time to do interior finish. Here is another method I recently used which gives the benefits during interior finishing. Pole construction, with bookshelf girts. With this method, the girts that are usually 2x4 added onto the outside surface of the poles, are instead 2X6 elements, laid horizontal, installed between the poles. So the girts are flush to the outside and inside surfaces. By doing this, they are avialable for screwing the steel siding to the outside, and then later available flush with the inside wall surface to attach wall sheeting to. Other pole building methods require a whole bunch of extra lumber to be added to the inside surface to mount wall sheeting. If placed on the usual 24" vertical center to center distance (as recommended by the vertical steel siding manufacturers, the resulting space is perfect for an off-the shelf fiberglass batt (a batt made for between trusses in the typical attic). When you wait for a sale, these batts are as cheap as insulation gets. Installation of them is really easy: cut to length, pop them in, they stay there.
Of course you would use all the usual methods with this such as: Tyvek exterior, poly layer inside the figerglass and under the wall sheeting. Here are a couple pics...
View attachment 374247View attachment 374248

That's a great approach! I'm going to file that away. Seems like the best of both worlds.

 

[jimgerken]

Here are a couple more pics to "file away" to further describe it. I used 4X8 sheets and did not cut them to match the pole spacing, instead running them past and "splicing" as shown. Attachment to poles and girt was done with a 16 gauge by 1.75 inch long construction staple. MAN does the staple pull sheeting to the wall nice! I think its the staple head area that makes it pull stuff tighter than a nail would. The "splices" were held with a large channel lock in one hand while stapling with other hand. And a little construction adhesive was applied to the splices too.