hilld
Well-known member
When we first bought our place 5 years ago, there was an existing 30 year old pole barn 24'x32', nothing special, but the focus was on re-doing the house and building a studio, so my "barn" had to wait. Fast forward 5 years and I finally get to "upgrade", "rehab", or "make over" it, depending on what you call it. I had even considered replacing the entire structure, but in the end decided that the lower cost option is the better move, allowing me to purchase a better lift instead (it will go with me when we sell). If the rehab can make the building last another 20-30 years, I am way ahead.
The old pole barn had some issues, such as no insulation, a severely cracked and sunken slab, a few leaks in the roof (every year I am caulking more), a crappy aluminum window, gaps along the bottom of the metal and lots of air leaks.
Step 1 was to get everything out of there (big job) and move it into my wife's garage and a few items into our studio. The slab was busted out and hauled off, a new 6" slab poured and a small parking pad for the tractor, mower and other implements. I don't have pictures of the concrete work, but here is the parking pad. (Note: the barn will be painted later this year)
Pic of the tractor:
Inside of the barn after pressure washing the walls and ripping down the ceiling felt (new floor is covered up).
Window already replaced:
View out of sliding door, note the man door on the right is being taken out as well as the light panel being taken out of service.
One of the goals was to have the building usable in all weather, the previous winters were just miserable, if I heated the building the condensation was just dripping from the walls, causing many of the tools to rust, so my goal was to have great insulation and seal off all of the air gaps. After doing some research, I decided on closed cell foam, 1.5" thick. The closed cell foam is rigid (somewhat structural), air and water tight and sound deadening. The spray foam application took about 3 days (there was a equipment breakdown on the first day and they didn't get very far, so about 1.5 days of actual spraying).
The truck that contained all of the spray equipment.
This concludes the foam insulation, next is to move everything back in, put up some peg board, tool hooks and modify 2 of the trusses for the 2 post lift.
The old pole barn had some issues, such as no insulation, a severely cracked and sunken slab, a few leaks in the roof (every year I am caulking more), a crappy aluminum window, gaps along the bottom of the metal and lots of air leaks.
Step 1 was to get everything out of there (big job) and move it into my wife's garage and a few items into our studio. The slab was busted out and hauled off, a new 6" slab poured and a small parking pad for the tractor, mower and other implements. I don't have pictures of the concrete work, but here is the parking pad. (Note: the barn will be painted later this year)
Pic of the tractor:
Inside of the barn after pressure washing the walls and ripping down the ceiling felt (new floor is covered up).
Window already replaced:
View out of sliding door, note the man door on the right is being taken out as well as the light panel being taken out of service.
One of the goals was to have the building usable in all weather, the previous winters were just miserable, if I heated the building the condensation was just dripping from the walls, causing many of the tools to rust, so my goal was to have great insulation and seal off all of the air gaps. After doing some research, I decided on closed cell foam, 1.5" thick. The closed cell foam is rigid (somewhat structural), air and water tight and sound deadening. The spray foam application took about 3 days (there was a equipment breakdown on the first day and they didn't get very far, so about 1.5 days of actual spraying).
The truck that contained all of the spray equipment.
This concludes the foam insulation, next is to move everything back in, put up some peg board, tool hooks and modify 2 of the trusses for the 2 post lift.
Let's call it the ultimate grocery cart or in my case golf cart as I have been hauling my clubs around for a while now and hitting the driving range at lunch a couple times a week.
