Round Barn? - or - Japanese Style Temple Barn?

[Cliff_Johns]

To give a round barn a slightly Japanese flavor, you would sheath it in a stucko like material, then put 1X6s above and below the window level going all the way around the barn (bands). Then you would put 1X6 verticles on each side of each window (as though the window was slid between posts and beams. No extra moulding around the windows). Add a few more verticles here and there to give the building a sense of strength without looking stout, and you have a Japanese looking round barn frame. The roof you would do standard round roof style, but with a slight bow becoming more exagerated at the tips. Leave the rafters proud and cut a shape (dragon head?) at the end of each, then put a special little roof extension over each extended rafter. Put a second roof some distance above the first also with plenty of overhang, but much smaller. Small windows or vents in the space between the roofs would help interior light or air flow, but painted rectangular panels will work too. Finish the roof off with green or red to match the suroundings (I suppose shakes would look nice too). For the doors, use a square pattern of 1X6's on the outside with no visable diagonals.

Note, the 1X6's aren't supporting anything, they just represent the timbers that would be used and exposed inside and out on a regular building

Just my opinion, of course.

Cliff

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I think I've settled on a Japanese style barn. But not a temple style. I snapped this picture a little while back while on a business trip. I really like the design. It would go well with our home.

The THATCH roof will probably be replaced with slate or some similar material. The barn, will be about the size of a 3 car garage, so it is going to be fairly small. 2 rooms, one for storage, one as a workshop area.

I did price thatch and synthetic thatch. It runs about $1300 per square!

Anyway, here is the general design I think I've settled on. The lovely Mrs_Bob doesn't seem to object to this, however, as our house is stained with a tan color, we'd probably have the stucco areas tan instead of white. Construction won't begin for a couple more months (got to get rid of the snow). I do need to get approval from the achitectural control committee for our area, so that could also cause some issues.

 

[khd]

Bob:

I've always been a real fan of Arts and Crafts and Japanese Architchture. Nice design. Will you have the stone stub wall and are you planning a timber frame or a stick built with faux timbers?

I am looking forward to a photo essay when it gets started.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Kevin,
The actual construction will very likely be done just like a pole barn or it may be "stick built." I am sitting down with the framing sub-contractor on Monday. I will very likely do much of the detail work myself, but I'm bringing in a crew to get the framing up. As this will be the size of a 3 car garage, I'm not sure if there is any advantage to traditional framing or pole barn type framing. It seems cost may be lower with post construction, but interior finishing may be more of a problem if I finish out a shop with drywall? Not really sure how that all works, that's why I want to talk to the framing guys for their ideas.

All the design details will be applied as non structural elements. The stone wall will probably extend up about 32" to 36". I will be using a stone that has more horizontal shape to it instead of these basically square stones. The timbers & stucco on mine will very likely be stucco sheets that come in 4x8 and 4x12 panels, the timbers will be false timbers, probably 2x8's, they will simply be used to cover the trim. On our house we have used rough cut 2x8 and 2x10 around the windows and doors and used them for horizontal breaks that wrap the house to provide more of a prairie design influence. We also played with shadow lines in the brick work by raking the mortar horizontally but striking it flush vertically so the sun leaves straight horizontal shadows. I really like the details on the picture I attached, it will give us a nice model to work toward.

As it is, everything is agreed upon between me and the lovely Mrs_Bob except for the roof. I want gable ends, she wants a hip roof. Our house has hip roofs. Gable ends would allow me to put a large fan in one end to cool the structure in the summer.

 

[khd]

I'd be inetrested in the framer's opinion on pole v. stick as in the design of my machine shed I went from pole to stick because as I started adding detail the fill between poles became as much lumber as stick and was starting to get out of hand.

I too agree with you on gable v. hip. Personally, the gable is certainly within the prairie style, provides a utilitarian contrast to the main house without competing with it and provides you clear span, height advantages in the interior. I think if you just keep the pitch low enough and the eaves proprtionally large she will be happy as long as wall height doesn't steal from the design philosophy turning it into a barn.

Attached is what I am working on, obviously I'm going for a more traditional design that focuses on details....thats me in the drawing to give myself a proportion sense.

Once again I will look forward to you documenting and sharing the progress.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Kevin, I spoke with one framer yesterday, one more is coming Monday, and the third sometime next week? Anyway the guy yesterday said that stick built framing is more rodent resistent than pole built. Pole built is less expensive. Stick built is easier to finish out on the inside if you want drywall - and I want drywall in the shop room. . . so pole built loses some cost advantage if finishing the inside is an issue. Pole built limits placement of doors and windows because you have to place them where the poles are not, however that doesn't seem like a big issue in my mind. Obviously the framer I was talking to was trying to sway me to stick building. Monday afternoon the framer who is coming is a pole building dealer and a custom house builder so he will be familiar with both types of construciton.

I am curious from other folks if there are any reasons to pick one style versus the other. Cost is SOME consideration, but realistically this will be fairly expensive per square foot because of the design details. Due to area building restrictions, this simply cannot be a steel sided basic barn. It will have stone, wood, stucco as the exterior no matter how the internal framing is constructed.

 

[OkeeDon]

<font color="blue"> "I am curious from other folks if there are any reasons to pick one style versus the other." </font>

I have some reasons, but no practical experience to prove them. I favor stick construction. Before I get started with my reasons, let me hasten to say that they are MY reasons for MY taste, and are not intended to reflect any opinion on what anyone else has done. In other words, pole barn afficiandos, please don't get mad at me!

First of all, I'm simply uncomfortable with sticking poles in the ground as the primary means of support. A lot of that comes from my Florida location, with its tropical rot and potentially high wind loads, but I think I would have the same discomfort anywhere. Second, I'm uncomfortable with having the floor separate from the building. I simply like the idea that the floor and walls work together, whether the floor is the foundation (slab) or the floor is built on the foundation, still it just seems to me that one should have a floor before one has walls.

Third, and again it's partially because of my location, I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of having widely spaced trusses with purlins, rather than trusses spaced 24" on center. The whole affair seems rickety to me.

The primary reasons I can see for using a pole structure are because it goes up easy, goes up fast, and goes up cheap. Exactly what a farmer needs when he doesn't care what it looks like or how long it stands. After all, if it falls over or blows away, he can put up another one easy, fast and cheap.

Stick construction IS more difficult, slower and more expensive than pole construction. There must be some pretty good reasons for doing it, however, or most buildings would be pole structures.

All that said, the truth of the matter is that even though I don't yet have any direct experience, I think what I really favor is SIPs. Unless I come up with some problems I haven't yet foreseen, I plan to use them for my house. I'm still working on the idea for my barn -- the original plan was to build the barn myself, and stick is a lower cost for materials. However, now that I'm going to have to pay someone to build it, the lower labor costs with SIPS is looking attractive.

 

[Ray_H]

Bob, I have been in a similar dilema with the Japanese style barn. In fact my whole project is a Japanese garden theme, that's why I'm buying this tractor. I built my home with SIP's and if you're looking for one step frame and insulation, it's a great way to go, especially if you're going to be on a slab. Your interior walls can be finished later, anyway you want even just painted. They go up extremely fast, in just days. The panel company makes them to your specs and you can even do your roof with them. I've decided to use them again for my barn project this year, I just haven't made a decision on my roof. The panels are structurally strong enough for tile and need to be thicker for R-value but it becomes a real expensive roof.

The attachment is of a Japanese style timber frame.

Ray

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ray . . . for what I am looking for, structural panels seem like overkill? I've looked into them and considered them for my house, but nobody around me want to tackle the project with SIP. I think it was lack of experience of the builders.

I met with one of the contractors yesterday. He is a dealer for WICK BUILDINGS. They are a pole barn type builder. He is also a custom home builder. In laying out what I want and what I want to use the building for, he pushed the pole construction. Basically on price. He said it would come in about 25% cheaper, but still look the same from the outside. As the inside is going to be a garage & shop area, he pointed out there was no reason to finish out with drywall and showed me some very attractive, and potentially durable steel interiors. So I asked for him to bid it out with steel interior walls. The whole thing will be insulated, exterior is going to be brick up to about 3' and either stucco or clapboard up to the eves. The roof will very likely be slate or one of the premium artificial slate alternative, but I'm not sure if the framing will have to be enhanced so much to handle the weight that it will still make sense to use pole construction to handle the roof weight?!?

OkeeDon . . . yup to what you said about the floor and walls working as a system, but it will be hard to pass up a 25% cost savings. I guess we'll have to see how it all shakes out when the bids really start coming in.



Anyone have any experience with WICK BUILDINGS? Wick Building Website

 

[rdln]

Bob, interior walls tend to have items colliding into them especially with kids and also big kids tend to hang items with nails, screws etc, and then decide it wasn't a good spot for it. My point is drywall is easier to patch and paint than steel paneling.