building a barn--update, what do you think of this quote?

[patandchickens]

We have a contractor looking at it and he gave us an estimate of $25000 for a 30x30 with 2 lean tos. I can't do that. We've looked at pole barn kits and it is still soooooo expensive.

The wider the span, the more expensive per square foot. So a 15x60 will be cheaper than 30x30 even though they cover the same square footage (disclaimer: this assumes a reasonable portion of the wall is left open, shed-style, on the longer building, and that you are not using egregiously expensive siding). There are two reasons for this: first, shorter trusses or rafters can be lighter-built and thus cheaper, and a narrower building can be shorter for a given roof pitch, thus a bit of savings on posts and end siding.

And you do NOT need a kit, just buy the individual materials, really Even if you decide to pop for a wider span, you can buy trusses from a manufacturer; if you use a narrower design, you can either build trusses yourself from common lumber, or use rafters instead which obviously are just lumber.

Hubby can get free telephone poles but they are coated with creosote and he doesn't want to use them in the barn.

I don't personally see a problem with it, as the animals needn't have access to them and if they are decomissioned telephone poles they will be pretty thoroughly weathered by now; however if you still don't want to use them, that's fair enough, just buy pressure-treated 6x6's.

At this point we want a dirt floor and planned on doing a raised wood floor with a utility sink in a milk room that was like 10x10.

If you do a raised wood floor, make sure it is WELL raised, so cats and terriers can easily get under there to do rodent purge work Otherwise it becomes a rat's nest, literally.

We were looking at doing a general loafing area for the rest of it. Problem is that to get adequate drainage and roof angles we will have to do a 10 foot side wall which will bring the roof pitch to a 7-12.

Run the loafing areas off the ENDS, making it a longer barn, not off the sides, in order to avoid the "has to be very tall" problem.

For whatever it's worth, I built a 14' tall, 600 sq ft horse shed (it is L-shaped, 12x40 plus a 10x12 'L') six years ago for approximately $7k in materials, and that was with using painted rather than galvanized steel siding and roofing so it'd match another building, and that's Canadian prices which at the time were running about 25% higher than US prices due to dollar differences and pricing differences. And I am pretty sure I could have done it significantly cheaper if I'd scrounged and shopped-around more, I was just in way too much of a hurry to get it done before our first winter here.

Another thing to consider: You can add on to pole-built buildings pretty easily in the future. So, what if you design something sort of modular, where you can build what you can afford NOW, and it is structured so that you can easily add on more (in a functional and aesthetically-pleasing way) in the future. Easiest way to add is to have the additions have separate roofs, so, add-on lean-tos and add-on lengthwise shed-type additions are easiest.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lorihadams]

Thanks you guys, hubby could do it if he had the time. That's the issue. We have 2 months to get it done and we still have a lot to do as far as the house goes. I'll see what we can do, we are thinking of a horse barn/type structure now, at least I am. We can get that done (12x28--2 10x12 stalls and a 8x12 storage room for around $7-8000 delivered and done with board and batten siding and shingled roof. I could easily make it work and we could add a lean to on the back side later on. That would give me a separate kidding area and milking room with some hay storage as well. I'll see if hubby will think about it. They're pretty nice and it is well within our budget.

 

[Mackay]

That sounds fairly reasonable in price. I like board and batton look better than metal.

If you have more money than time it may be the way to go and then the stress is off and your on to your next thing.
Around here we have more time than money.

Personally, I dont think treated polls would be a problem. Its not like the goats are going to eat them.

 

[lorihadams]

Okay, what do you think---$13000 for a 20x30 with 2 10ft lean tos. 12x20 room with raised floor, 18x20 loafing room with dirt floor. Metal roof, wood framing, board and batten siding. We are doing the windows and doors and plumbing and electric ourselves. We are also painting it ourselves.

Do you think that's a good estimate? He says it will probably take him 3-4 weeks to get it done. Should we take it??? It's the cheapest option we have seen.

 

[SKR8PN]

I had an Amish crew throw this shed up in a day. 20x24. I bought the lumber, and they charged me 1000.00 to set the posts(pole barn) run the stringers, set the trusses, frame 4 windows, one man door, one overhead door, sheet the outside and the roof, lay the tar paper and the shingles. It looked like this as the crew was cleaning up and getting ready to leave. 8 hours of work with a 4 man crew got it this far!! At this stage, I had about 4 grand in it, parts AND labor!! I did the siding, insulation, sheeting on the inside, and the garage door and a buddy helped me pour the floor. I got the garage door for 100 bucks, used!!

Whatever size you decide on, try to make it divisible by 8 as in 8 feet. Sheeting is 4x8 sheets and you have a lot less waste(cheaper) that way.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Whatever size you decide on, try to make it divisible by 8 as in 8 feet. Sheeting is 4x8 sheets and you have a lot less waste(cheaper) that way.

That's how we try to keep things measured out around here - which is why most of my barns have started out as 8x8's around here with removable walls for adding on later.

 

[philpatton]

Have you ever looked into using a cargo container? They can be bought for $2,000.00 delivered.

Sides can be cut and made into some really great farm buildings. There are even those that convert them into houses by connectin 2/3 together.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Have you ever looked into using a cargo container? They can be bought for $2,000.00 delivered.

Sides can be cut and made into some really great farm buildings. There are even those that convert them into houses by connectin 2/3 together.

this piqued my interest, so I googled and found this: http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/tag/cargo-container/

Neat!

 

[philpatton]

miss_thenorth there is a cult type Architectural movement to turn the containers into housing. Over the years Ive given some thought about getting 4 6 of them and connecting them together and doing an earth burned home type thing.

I even ran the idea past one of my buddies who is a Civil Engineer when we were working at a nuclear plant and he thought that it was fesible. Im just not sure if Id want to get into a building project while working a full time job. I may sneak a peak at it in the future, if I ever settle in one location.

The advantages that I saw was that if you were somewhere where it was hot or cold it would cut down on the heating/cooling needs because the earth would act like insulation. Also if one lived in an arear where there were tornatos or hurricanes you wouldnt have to worry about being blown away.

There are some of the engineering details tht I havent figured out but it is doable if one had the skills or the money to farm the work out. The last time I ran the numbers it came out to be around $100 K which included the land, well and septic. But it could also be done cheaper.

Do a little more research on the Internet and youll find all kinds of information about this type of construction.

 

[TanksHill]

I think we have a tread around here somewhere on those container homes. They have an entire dormitory stacked in Amsterdam I think. Cheap housing for the kids.

I never though of building them earth berm as a house. I did think about using one as a root cellar.

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