Pole Barn house building

[Redneck in training]

We built our house in 2004. We purchased Morton Buildings barn Morton Buildings - Pole Barns, Horse Barns, Steel Buildings, Metal Buildings, Storage Buildings, Farm Buildings and finished it into a house by ourselves. The biggest issue was financing. We couldn't get a loan. The main issue was lack of comparable houses in surrounding area. At the end we got a loan for about half of the total cost of the property. We ended up owning about half of the property right of the bat but had no cash left to buy in example a tractor. I never calculated the exact cost per sq foot but the number is somewhere between $80 and $90/sq foot. The cost includes, Grasshopper lawnmower, pond and 850 ft long gravel driveway. We put in estimated about 60 to 70K of our own work.
The house is 4300 sq ft under the roof (includes porch), 3800 heated space (includes 1400 sqft garage) by geothermal floor heating.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

If you want to live in it, don't call it a pole barn. That gives the wrong impression to people, like banks, who only know traditional construction. The correct term is Post Frame Construction.
http://www.nfba.org/files/public/PostFrameConstructionGuide_lowres.pdf

 

[Redneck in training]

If you want to live in it, don't call it a pole barn. That gives the wrong impression to people, like banks, who only know traditional construction. The correct term is Post Frame Construction.
http://www.nfba.org/files/public/PostFrameConstructionGuide_lowres.pdf

That is right comment. While ago I talked to a guy who also lives in Morton and he told me that they never used Morton or barn or pole barn in the loan application and had no issues to get a financing.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Morton builds a lot of commercial buildings and churches. They typically will put in a standard foundation, and use U shaped anchors embedded in the foundation wall to attach the post, so the posts don't sit in the ground like a typical pole barn.

 

[KB9UDE]

I want a wood floor in the house and 3-4ft of crawlspace height. Can I put up say a 12ft-14ft sidewall building and come down 8ft from bottom of truss with my floor? I know I would have to put in piers down the center and build a header so my floor joists could be joined and supported.

 

[bearhawk]

I want a wood floor in the house and 3-4ft of crawlspace height. Can I put up say a 12ft-14ft sidewall building and come down 8ft from bottom of truss with my floor? I know I would have to put in piers down the center and build a header so my floor joists could be joined and supported.

You could just use a floor truss and not worry about supporting the center.

http://www.sbcindustry.com/images/publication_images/ttb floor truss fact sheet.pdf

My first floor is done with 28' trusses and we have a completely open basement. It also allows plenty of space for utilities.

 

[KB9UDE]

I like those trusses!! I have seen them before but had forgot about how easy a system like that would make it!!

 

[bearhawk]

I like those trusses!! I have seen them before but had forgot about how easy a system like that would make it!!

Just keep in mind the depth of the truss, my 28' ones are at least 20" deep.

 

[KB9UDE]

Does anybody know an approx cost per ft for these floor trusses??

 

[jusalooking]

I have known a older couple who has lived in a Morton- House for yrs, the one thing to remember is to heat the floor, at least i would, We was going to build one are selfs but we got another place with a log home, The other thing as far as i think is the tin roof, I have a 40x60x14 KC building with a 24x20 office build on and when it is really raining you can,t hear yourself, I even have it insulated on the ceiling but it still gets loud,