Is there such a thing as a "Green PoleBarn"?

[RattytatTom]

Heres the background:
We have 4 acres north of Charlotte, NC.
Its pristine wooded land surrounded on three sides by County wooded land. The ultimate wooded estate.
We initially wanted to build a 50x100 building, then house. Plans have changed since the economy dumped and we're stuck in the armpit of the midwest (Michigan). We still want the building but with an apartment inside. Local zoning says it's ok.
Here's the question:
Is there such a thing as a Green PoleBarn, Green Metal Building, Green ---?
More importantly, anyone done this near Charlotte?
I've been tracking many amazing garage builds at this forum. Can anyone see this being done? Can we ultimately be "off the grid"?
I'll take any ideas and all comments.
Thanks everybody!

 

[Gary S]

Sure there is. Watch "The Woodwright's Shop".

 

[RattytatTom]

Message from Roy Underhill:
"Knowledge is one thing; understanding is another"

 

[Bib Overalls]

Pole barns are very "green" buildings from a construction stand point. Minimum amount of wood and enclosed with a recyclable exterior material. You can actually have it green in color.

It becomes a lot more complicated when you start adding living quarters and specify "off grid" power. At that point all of the arguments about the true "life cycle greenness" of various building methods comes in to play. As for power, going "off grid" with the bare minimum of conveniences we expect requires a substantial investment in hardware.

All very doable. All done before. But not to be undertaken with out a lot of study and a complete understanding of the lifestyle compromises you will have to accept to make it work for you.

 

[onemoretry]

Take a look in my sig. The buildings are not marketed as green, but they could be. Everything is built on site, almost no waste, very easy to insulate, right cost, etc.

 

[blkhonda1991]

anything can be built "green" but it really depends on how much you are willing to spend to be "green" most alternative power sources probably wont provide enough power to be truly off the grid if your garage is a power hog and you use a lot of power there.

 

[Jbullfrog]

Use soy based spray-on expanding foam insulation.

 

[Lippyp]

From what I've seen on watching various TV programmes and reading a fair bit about this most people living truly off grid in a green manner tend to use a minimal amount of electricity, wood for heating, keep their leg hair long for insulation and knit their own yoghurt so an off grid garage from renewable resources may be tough. Not going to be easy to run a decent welder from PV and wind without a huge battery farm.

That said when we move to what we hope will be our last house we want to do at least some of this, green insulation (often sheeps wool or shredded waste paper treated to be fireproof) , some renewable energy, solar water heating maybe ground source heat if wer have enough land to do it. My mother has just had some solar panels fitted to heat water and even in the middle of the coldest winter for 30 years they've already made a big dent in her heating bills.

One of the things that seems to gaining growing acceptance here is straw bale building (think three little pigs!) Cheap, renewable, in effect a waste product and very warm and durable. The way most of them are built is as infill around a timber frame and then its plastered with a lime plaster to seal it, water and fireproof.

 

[Kevin54]

knit their own yoghurt

 

[kbs2244]

Pole barns are just the current name for a multi century old building technique.
The use of dimension cut wood and the “W” truss with a low roof pitch is the only new thing.

As you drive around your new neighborhood you will see a number of old buildings with what is called “slab wood” siding.
That is a log slit lengthwise once but not the second time for flat edges.
Usually about an inch thick.
It is almost always from a local guy cutting local trees.
The end results is a kind of scalloped bottom edge with the bark still on it.
Often not painted or stained or anything.
Just left to age.

That is pretty “green.“

BTW,
If living in the barn is just temporary, until you get the house built, think about parking a house trailer in it.
It can be any size from camper to full sized house trailer.
It gives you a fast and easy place to live that doesn’t offend any local visual sensibilities.
And it is easy to get rid of when the time comes.

 

[Falcon67]

I was given directions once that included "turn right at the red pole barn" but I couldn't find it. Turns out it blew down in a storm.

>I've been tracking many amazing garage builds at this forum. Can anyone see
>this being done? Can we ultimately be "off the grid"?

Sure - ask Larry Hagman. http://gomegasolar.com/testimonials.php
Go ahead and get yer wallet out - green ain't cheap.

 

[1320stang]

True dat, it's takes a LOT of green to be green....

 

[lo c dan]

Does "Green" mean spend a dollar to save a nickle? Almost seems that way.

 

[RattytatTom]

Ok, I get it. No, were not going to be woodland gnomes, or lost-in-time hippies. Realistically, we probably wont be off the grid.
But, if we plan things properly, like many of you do out there, I'm sure there are things that we could do that are not that far from normal construction methods.
- lighter colored metal roof with water collection runoff
- solar collection thin flexi panels between roof ribs
- geo-thermal heat pump system
- graywater recycling
- LED lighting where possible
- maximum insullation
- etc.
There must be some local architect that specializes in this Green technology or wants to showcase something other that residential timber homes in NC.
I will say that if I thought we would be in that building for a shorter duration, the trailer idea wouldnt be half bad.
Going Green isnt necessarily cheaper, but we would hope to recover some costs in the long haul.

 

[1redTA]

I think you should contact Al Gore, I heard he got a nobel peace prize for being GREEN. He even flew to the land of Switzs on his own airplane to accept the award. But then again his electric bill is higher than my house note x2.

All kiding aside I would love to be able to be green. But the upfront cost are high I have a coworker who moved into a house that already had a buch of solar power cells but she had to buy batteries for rainy days.
I have another friend thinking about a windmill but he is going to conduct a wind survey on his property at 80 feet above ground level.

 

[RattytatTom]

Take a look in my sig. The buildings are not marketed as green, but they could be. Everything is built on site, almost no waste, very easy to insulate, right cost, etc.

Just read your thread. Wow. Wow again. Instead of being in your location, can you picture a similiar building in the woods, surrounded by tall pines and over looking what could probably be a state-record giant oak?
The construction and (lack of) waste are very impressive. For some reason, I think the build cost factor would scare me; maybe not? The GeoBarn has lots of flexibility for both an apartment and shop.

 

[onemoretry]

Just read your thread. Wow. Wow again. Instead of being in your location, can you picture a similiar building in the woods, surrounded by tall pines and over looking what could probably be a state-record giant oak?
The construction and (lack of) waste are very impressive. For some reason, I think the build cost factor would scare me; maybe not? The GeoBarn has lots of flexibility for both an apartment and shop.

The price was better than I expected, though not what I would consider low for a pole barn. It was almost half what I was quoted for stick built and more than a basic pole barn. go to PM if you want details, though Bull and Floyd have posts on the same builder here.

check out Georges website, some of the pictures will amaze you and fit exactly what you describe.

 

[JamieK]

I've always thought that people that buy old houses that are getting ready to be torn down and moved onto their land are green. You see this all the time on HGTV and DIY. Theoretically, you are not cutting down one tree for building lumber. Plus, depending on how you think, you are getting a better built house with more history and character than anything new. Since you're not in a hurry to move, maybe you could put out some feelers in the Charlotte area to find some leads. Maybe contact a historical society, or even house moving companies.

 

[Tman]

There are some construction pictures of our Strawshop on the board here somewhere so maybe I can answer some of your questions.

Our place is partially pole construction, part stick frame, part Strawbale. I used my place to "guinea pig" some ideas I had been working on for several years.

We have a natural silver galv tin roof that dowes reflcet a buch of heat. We plan on rainwater collection down the road for trees and garden (we live in an almost desert location).

I used a fair amount of salvage and overstock type items. Lots of trim is milled barnwood from an old homestead here. The ceiling upstairs is 1=12 bug killed spruce that normally would go to waste. Windows are takeouts, prob replaced with some ****** vinyl new ones. We work and live in it. 2800 sq ft overall.

 

[alamerang]

I guess you could kinda live off the grid if you got really creative and have some really good friends at a salvage yard. You could build your own windmill using old car parts and such. Or build a diesel generator to run on waste vegetable oil or something like that. You can even build your own solar panels using broken or mismatched solar cells you can find on ebay. Here's the youtube link:

Again like it was mentioned above, this is going to require a lot of work and lifestyle compromise but at least you can say you're "off the grid" and you'd be even more green because you're using salvaged materials.

 

[nate379]

One of my friends was telling he knew this old guy that used a windmill and an old railroad tanker (like the fuel cars I guess?) for his air compressor. I don't know how many gals a tanker is, but talk about thinking outside the box!

 

[RattytatTom]

I've always thought that people that buy old houses that are getting ready to be torn down and moved onto their land are green. You see this all the time on HGTV and DIY. Theoretically, you are not cutting down one tree for building lumber. Plus, depending on how you think, you are getting a better built house with more history and character than anything new. Since you're not in a hurry to move, maybe you could put out some feelers in the Charlotte area to find some leads. Maybe contact a historical society, or even house moving companies.

You're exactly right. We need to find the right local builder or architect who sees that a big building (50x100) in the middle of the woods won't look like an abandoned Home Depot.
Although the more I look back at the GeoBarns website, the more I think this guy is even impressive than the first time I read his stuff. What would be ideal would be his style of building combined with all the NASA-like technology on a blue-collar budget.
I gotta hit that Power-Ball lotto I guess!