Pole barn, what size?

   / Pole barn, what size? #1  

POC

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
334
Location
Southern Indiana
Tractor
Mahindra 3215 4x4
Getting ready to start building a general purpose barn.
A few things I know:
I want a bathroom.
I want a kitcheny area for butchering deer, extracting honey, making goat milk cheese...
My dad is giving me and my daughter his 1950 Studebaker and it has to have a house. I'm thinking of putting it's area crossways of the building with an overhead door in the side wall to get it in and out.
I do general mechanical work on my 35hp tractor and vehicles.
I am wanting to get into making rustic cedar furniture. Like beds, so I'll need some room for that.
I've been planning on 24 x 48 x 9 or 10. I've seen some people building 30 x 40 or 30 x 50...why the extra width?

What say you?
Thanks
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #2  
It is all subjective as what your need are and if you understand how fast they fill up seemingly overnight.

I would build a 40x60 if not larger, personally. Ten foot minimum height provided you will never have any camper or tall tractor to pull in and work on. Garage doors are at least 1-2' shorter than the walls so if you want a 9' building a garage door might be able to have an 8' door. I built a 14' sidewall pole shed with 12' OH doors. Then I got a camper that is 12' 8" high so it would never go in.

The bathroom will take 60 sq ft. The kitchen will take a couple hundred. And it all depends if this will be a storage area for your stuff or do you have another building for items you just need to keep but don't want them outside or in the house.

I had a 36' x 54' and stored my truck and tractor and attachments plus workbenches and everything else. It was fair but I needed to put attachments on rollers to maximize the room. I put big shelves on one wall to be able to store things all the way to the 14' ceiling.

Whatever you do, try to build it in a place where you can add on to the length if needed.
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #3  
Years ago, i tore down an old 40x80 on it's own concrete pad, built a 24x30x9 with a 10' open area on one end, have since added 20x30 to the rear(open stalls/hay storage) & need to add to the other end another 20', just maybe, i'll have enough room then w/o having to move vehicles to get another one out, MAYBE!

Ronnie
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #4  
I've never known anyone to complain about their barn or shed being too large...
Figure out your current needs and allow for expansion...
My dad started out with a metal shed to house his camper...
He eventually lengthened it and then enclosed it with a door...
Finally poured concrete for the floor...
I use it now as my main shed, work area, storage area...
I think it is 45'x20' with a 16' overhead door...
 
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   / Pole barn, what size? #5  
Wide is good if you want large doors. Much easier to put a wide door in a gable end than the sidewalls which support the roof.
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #6  
24' wide is pretty narrow. If you have a loader on your tractor and an implement on the rear, how much room will you have if you backup to a side wall? Mine is 30' and its tight when I do that.
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #7  
My shop is 24x30 with 12 foot walls. It's a good sized space for wood working projects, but with storage and workbenches on three walls, I don't have enough room for more then one project at a time. If I am doing a project, I cannot get my truck, or anything else into my shop. I have come to realize that I need to convert this work shop into a two car garage. It's attached to my house, so it's an easy conversion. But that means I need to build another work shop. My current plan is based on the space available to build it, and knowing that this is going to be used just for working on stuff. NOT STORAGE!!! I will build another barn for storage. The work shop will be 32x48 with 12 foot walls and an upstairs area for a gym that will have AC. I will have water, but no toilet.

I think that 12 foot walls are important. When handling wood, a lower ceiling gets in the way. A flat ceiling is going to be easier to insulate. Another advantage to 12 foot walls is that if you ever want to add a lean to onto the sides of your barn, it's already high enough to make it easy to go out 12 feet or more depending on the pitch you want.

My 10x10 roll up door is great for most things, but if I had to do it over again, I think I would be happier with a 12 foot wide door. My F-150 truck fits through the 10 foot opening with very little room to spare. I only park in there when we are worried about a hail storm, but sometimes I've had concrete on my 16 foot trailer and needed to park it in there to remain dry during rain. It's a tight fit. Doable, but you have to go slow and there is no room for error.
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #8  
We're in the process of designing an implement shed for our ski trails. I got the measurements of all our implements and tow machines. In that was tow machines while being attached so as to be a drive through building with 2 large doors. So roughly 1/2 the space is the drive through storage, machine repair area. Then added some extra space which includes an compact tractor and its many attachments. Its much easier to have extra space designed into it now, as apposed to adding more later. I came up with 45x60 with 16ft tall interior.
 
   / Pole barn, what size? #9  
Simple answer: as big as you can afford.
 
 
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