Question on semi-finishing the interior of my barn

[JJT]

WOW, I'm 3 hours east of you and have several Amish sawmills within a couple of miles. I bought 2x4x8' and 1x8x8' rough cut in the past two weeks for $3.20 each, your prices are more than double mine. Is that for planed wood? Pine and hemlock are the same price here. I prefer hemlock - no pitch and no knots, but way heavier.

 

[JJT]

Are you talking about an entire board or per board foot?

$3.20 per board, that comes to $.60/board foot.

30 years ago I bought 14,000 board feet of big timbers for my timber frame home and paid $.50/board foot. Log prices haven't changed much in years, yet the big box stores are getting $6+ for an 8' 2x4.....

 

[JohnnyMX]

That is a good point about Amish sawmills.... I was checking for rough cut on Facebook Marketplace Probably not going to get a hit there.

 

[Massey_Man_97]

My recommendation for organizing to make things easy to find would definitely be cover all walls with peg board and paint it white makes it very easy find all tools and looks very nice once finished.

 

[joeyd]

I did this when OSB was much cheaper, 8' osb on the bottom and 4' of drywall above it and on the ceiling painted white. When the florescent bulbs burn out I will probably upgrade to LED lights. Pegboard above the workbench for tool storage.

 

[wolc123]

I have been doing the same thing with my pole barn. The shell (36’ x 50’ x 12’ with (2) 25’ x 10’ porches) went up in 2018. There were (2) 36’ x 46’ x 16’ post and beam barns on the site, that my great great grandfather put up in 1883. They had considerable foundation damage and the roofs were failing, such that it would have cost many times more to repair them as it did to put up the new pole barn.

I hated to tear those old barns down but couldn’t afford the necessary repairs. I had to get one down to make room for the pole barn. I sold a couple tractors and other stuff, consolidated all my remaining stuff into one of the old barns, and dismantled the other.

After the pole barn shell was up, I repurposed much of the old posts and beams, siding and granary wood from the old barn to make a 30’ x 12’ loft, with 20’ x 12’ wood-shop, and 10’ x 12’ metal-shop below.

The loft is floored with 1” thick American chestnut roofing boards from the old barn, topped with 7/16 OSB (it was $ 5.99 a sheet in 2018). The shops are “board and batten sided with American chestnut granery wood from the old barn.

Most of the barn is gravel floored, which I prefer for storage, but the shops and one porch have concrete floors.

I just finished up the wiring today. I had buried a 2” PVC conduit out to the barn when I did the site work, and I just fished a 30 amp, 10-3 UFB wire thru that. The wood shop has (2) 4 ‘ LED lights and the metal shop has (1). Each porch has a light bulb fixture, there are (3) more out in the main storage area, and (1) up in the loft.

There are a total of (20) 120 volt outlets on (2) 20 amp breakers and the lights are on (2) 15 amp breakers. I also put in a 30 amp breaker and a 240 volt outlet for a welder.

When I finish taking down the last “barely standing” old barn, I am going to enclose the back porch, and build another porch off that for firewood storage. I need more posts and beams and the rafters from that old barn for that project.

I am thankful to not need to buy any more lumber at today’s inflated prices, but the wire and other electrical supplies hurt a bit.

 

[JohnnyMX]

I am starting with the first wall that is just OSB. I painted white with Killz basic white and it already is much brighter in the barn. I also added french cleats to the wall so I can get at least that part organized. The paint pictures are in the day with the overhead door open. The one with the cleats is at night. I will move one of the UFO lights as well to better spread out the light.

 

[JohnnyMX]

Rough cut was going to be about $450 for this portion of the barn so I ended up giving pallets a try. I did spend about a 100 on the breaker and air locker (de-nailer) but it made it a breeze to end up with stacks of pallet wood. There is a pool store near me that routinely leaves almost 8'x8' pallets that are new 2x4's on top of the pallet planking.
I am getting there one section at a time. Spent about 5 minutes just throwing things back on the wall so I don't have it just right yet, but this beats the mess that was.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Rough cut was going to be about $450 for this portion of the barn so I ended up giving pallets a try. I did spend about a 100 on the breaker and air locker (de-nailer) but it made it a breeze to end up with stacks of pallet wood. There is a pool store near me that routinely leaves almost 8'x8' pallets that are new 2x4's on top of the pallet planking.
I am getting there one section at a time. Spent about 5 minutes just throwing things back on the wall so I don't have it just right yet, but this beats the mess that was.

To me that pallet wall looks way better than I would have imagined and very fitting for a barn.

 

[JethroB]

I’ve wanted to experiment with the thin vinyl 4x8 sheets as a wall covering. Often used in public restrooms and commercial food prep areas and kitchens.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/48-in-x-8-ft-Embossed-White-Wall-Panel/1000174771