Who's Built Their Own Pole Barn

[Conservation]

I had the frame and metal put up on my 40X40X15 pole building and the garage doors put up. I am finishing the rest. Those guys put the entire thing up in two good 8 hour days. Just 3 of them, and the 3rd was only there for part of each day! I just seemed to move along for them.

 

[john_bud]

The other thing you could do would be to contract out having the posts set and the rafters raised. A 3-4 man crew with a lift and a hydraulic PHD can get that done in a day. Then you can monkey around with the rest. Labor for that would probably be 1000 or so at a guess.

I did a 25x32 extension (with help for the posts and rafters!!) and it took about a month to 6 weeks of diddling around mostly on weekends.

 

[easeup]

I put up an all metal pole barn by myself a couple of summers ago. It is 30x30. all welded. didn't take that long to do it but hand digging the holes is hard.

 

[Redneck in training]

Hi All, Just new here but been lurking around a while. Retirement is just around the corner and I have bought some property in Bancroft, Ont. I plan on retiring to. First thing I will need is a pole barn style garage/shop. Saving money is important and I'm pretty handy so I'm thinking of building it myself or at least some of it. Can anyone advise on wether this is feasable or what part of the construction would or would not be? Thanks

We bought a barn from Morton Buildings in 2003. They build all perimeter walls, installed three pane Pella windows, garage door, perimeter doors, reinforced styrofoam insulated concrete floor, perimeter wall insulation, 1200 ft long water line, septic, floor heating (the tubes and their installation was paid to another contractor) and all under floor plumbing. All for about $35/sqft. Then we hired a couple of guys to frame inside walls. After that we installed electric wires, plumbing and inside wall insulation, air-condition, geothermal heating, ceramic tiles and maple floors, kitchen cabinets, bathrooms etc. Another contractor did drywall and painting. I estimated that we saved minimum 60 to 80K dollars by doing a lot of work by ourselves. The cost of finished house was about 85 to 90 dollars/sqft and it took about 4 months of intensive work to finish it enough that we could move in. Because it was non traditional house the biggest problem was to get financing. The bad thing was that we had to sank a lot of our cash into the construction but good thing is that we already own about half of the property.

Morton Buildings - Pole Barns, Horse Barns, Steel Buildings, Metal Buildings, Storage Buildings, Farm Buildings

 

[dillo99]

I have a small pole barn (20 x 16) with a loft that I built entirely myself. And I mean entirely - every nail pounded in by me...and no assistance holding or lifting, etc. other than my Kubota. It was a lot of work but can be done. If I was building anything much larger I think I would line up assistance for the upper parts.

It will really depend on how large or elaborate your design is. Pole barns are definitely the easiest type of build.

You can see the barn behind the tractor in this picture. Some might call it more of a large shed!

 

[Baby Grand]

Hope this isn't too off topic. I want to rebuild a decaying 40'x12' shed that's open on one of the the long sides for use as a storage space. I'm having a real hard time finding the "poles". I was thinking that used utility poles would be just the ticket, but my local utility company says they can't/won't sell their used stuff. Any suggestions where I can get them? There must be thousands of them retired every year. Any linemen for the county out there?

-Jim

 

[Redneck in training]

Hope this isn't too off topic. I want to rebuild a decaying 40'x12' shed that's open on one of the the long sides for use as a storage space. I'm having a real hard time finding the "poles". I was thinking that used utility poles would be just the ticket, but my local utility company says they can't/won't sell their used stuff. Any suggestions where I can get them? There must be thousands of them retired every year. Any linemen for the county out there?

-Jim

I got seven of them when the utility was changing them on my property. It is possible that the utility doesn't have them becasue they give them away to the owners of the land they have the lines on. They even sank them wherever I ask them.

 

[SpringHollow]

I built my own 30 x 40 two story barn. Had the holes dug by a rental bobcat with a post hole digger and had the slab done by others. My brothers helped some. Took a while. Came out very nice. Overbuilt like i like to do. Used rafters instead of trusses because i could handle rafters.

Now that i am "older" - i would not try it lol. But at 32 it was not too bad.

Ken

 

[bbowman]

I did sort of a 'hybrid' construction...not really a pole barn.

I framed this one with rough 2 X 6 poplar and white pine (cut off of the farm), then ran horizontal purlins and boxed it with 1 X poplar and pine.

This was my first attempt at anything like this...I even got brave enough to wire it myself! As someone mentioned above, I left the slab and block foundation to the pros, but I did the prep work for the slab.

It took me two full years, but saved a ton in labor costs.

 

[Baby Grand]

Red-
Thanks for the insight. Maybe a wanted ad on Craig's will generate some responses from local land owners.

Bbowman-
That's a sturdy looking building and I like the lines. Congratulations.

Jim