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40x56x14 Indiana Pole Barn Build

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FIVE_LITER

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Feb 27, 2019
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37
Location
Central Indiana
40x56 Shop build

Well after many years of dreaming I'm finally getting a pole barn.

It's actually bigger than I had initially planned. I was planning on doing 40x40ish but the boss lady demanded I go bigger. Terrible I know! Ended up with 40x56x14 to keep it within the budget. The boss said it needed to happen this spring before our son comes in July. So I obliged and got the ball rolling back in March getting quotes and finally deciding on the builder and signing the contract.

Plans for barn include a couple of lifts. It'll be used mainly for storing and working on all my junk 😃

Details of the barn are:
40x56x14
Standard Trusses 4' on center
Three 12x12 overhead doors
One man door
1 foot overhangs on all sides
6 inch gutters
House wrap on the walls
Condensation barrier on the roof
Wainscoting
No windows
4" concrete slab

Here's what it should look like for the most part (colors are a little off)
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Trusses showed up a week earlier than expected, and as soon as they came they brought the posts and a load of lumber.
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I'm having the amish build it for me. They were supposed to start on Monday but we got about 3.5 inches of rain late last week and over the weekend and the weather man said we were going to get hammered with rain and storms all day so we pushed it back. We ended up just getting some sprinkles on Monday and a very light shower on Tuesday so they started this morning. They showed up around 8 and had all the holes drilled by 930 and had to wait an hour for the county to come out and inspect the holes. After that it was smooth sailing and they got all the posts in the ground and started framing up the eave side walls. They were gone by the time I got back home around 345.

Heres what we've got so far after one day.

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If the weather holds out for tomorrow and Friday they'll set all the trusses and have a roof on so I can start drinking beer in it this weekend if it rains during my diaper party.

Stay tuned I'll keep this page updated as things progress.
 
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Daubs

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Eastern Nebraska
Awesome! Two questions...

1. How long will it take them to complete the build?
2. What plans do you have for power and lights?
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Location
Central Indiana
Daubs said:
Awesome! Two questions...

1. How long will it take them to complete the build?
2. What plans do you have for power and lights?
Click to expand...

Probably have the shell done by the end of the week next week I would imagine as long as the weather cooperates.


Don't have a plan 100% in place for power yet. Hoping to get something figured out this weekend. Going to run some wire from the house meter to the barn (hoping I can do 200 amps) then run a sub panel off that to the other side of the barn. Going to trench in some conduit under the floor for the sub panel box.

As far as lights I have no Idea other than a bunch of LEDs. For the short term I have a couple boxes of 4ft t5 LEDs that I purchased off Amazon that'll I'll use until I make up my mind on lights. I can put those in ran off an extension chord to at least light up the barn a little bit while were doing the fill and concrete work.
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Feb 27, 2019
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Location
Central Indiana
Crew showed up today to my surprise. Got rained out but in a couple hours they managed to get the trusses set before they got rained out again. The boss sent me this picture when she got home for lunch.

View media item 92340
Starting to actually look like a barn! Hopefully they get a whole day in tomorrow and can get the roof on.

Speaking of roof... the metal showed up today along with a few rolls of the condensation barrier for the roof.

View media item 92341
 
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Fireman1317

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May 4, 2019
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Central Indiana
Do you mind sharing who you are using for your build? I'm also in Central Indiana and am waiting to to hear back form a couple builders with quotes.
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Feb 27, 2019
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Location
Central Indiana
Well after many weeks passed with miscommunication, 3 different trucking companies trying to get stone, a builder who wouldn't answer his phone or return phone calls, and less than ideal weather we finally got the floor poured and started putting steel up.

Floor took around 200 tons of stone. Averaging around 12" of fill throughout the entire barn. I bought a tractor with a loader so I could spread the stone. Also bought two compactors. A jumping jack tamper and a plate compactor.

My international 574.
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Both the compactors
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Put down 10mil vapor barrier on top of the stone.
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Concrete truck showed up around 730. Right after my builder told me they weren't going to put the wire in the slab like we had talked about multiple times. I wasn't happy about this so we he went and bought some to put in. The first load was put in while he was heading out to get the wire.
View media item 93274
We got the wire put down just in time for the 2nd truck to come.
View media item 93275
All poured now they're floating the mud.
View media item 93276
Missed all the power trowel action, but they started putting steel up. Heres one side at the end of the day.
View media item 93277
And the slab after they left. Hopefully it turns out alright, got poured on right after they finished toweling the first time and we didn't get plastic up on the open wall in time. So they had to blow off all the water with a leaf blower and redo the 10 feet closest to the doors.
View media item 93278
Hoping that by next week it will be completely finished. They're coming back tomorrow to finish putting metal up and cut the control joints in the floor. It's been a frustrating build so far. 28 day cure time is about a week before our son is due so hopefully I'll be able to get the densifier and sealer down before he comes into the world.
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Central Indiana
The amish came and worked for a little while today while I was at work. Came home to this.

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Theres a couple ****** spots on the slab I'm not thrilled about, and some of the metal going to have to be replaced because it's bent.

***** how everything has transpired, I've seen these guys work before and I know they can do better. We'll see how they deal with all my complaints.
 
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lakeroadster

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Central Colorado
Nice space you've got going there.

You mentioned a couple auto lifts?

I'd be concerned about:
  • sub grade compaction since you put in 12" of gravel (should have been placed 4" thick, compacted, another 4", compacted, the final 4" compacted,
  • the lack of wire reinforcement, and how the reinforcement was placed
If they threw the mesh on the vapor barrier, then pulled it up as the concrete was placed, the mesh isn't where it needs to be. Most of it is laying on the vapor barrier.

How thick is the concrete... and what strength is it?

As for quality issues... yep that *****. What I learned on my 2nd barn build was it's not the company, it's the on-site workers you happen to get. Good workers = Good Quality... and then there's the other workers.
 
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F

FIVE_LITER

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Feb 27, 2019
Messages
37
Location
Central Indiana
lakeroadster said:
Nice space you've got going there.

You mentioned a couple auto lifts?

I'd be concerned about:
  • sub grade compaction since you put in 12" of gravel (should have been placed 4" thick, compacted, another 4", compacted, the final 4" compacted,
  • the lack of wire reinforcement, and how the reinforcement was placed
If they threw the mesh on the vapor barrier, then pulled it up as the concrete was placed, the mesh isn't where it needs to be. Most of it is laying on the vapor barrier.

How thick is the concrete... and what strength is it?

As for quality issues... yep that *****. What I learned on my 2nd barn build was it's not the company, it's the on-site workers you happen to get. Good workers = Good Quality... and then there's the other workers.
Click to expand...


The subase and sub grade were very well compacted. Every 3-4" of stone was compacted with multiple passes. I have no worries about the base nor the concrete being up to snuff. The concrete is 4.5-5" thick 4000psi.

As far as the wire, it is what it is. I watched them lift it up and it appeared to be staying in place in the middle of the mud. I'm sure some of it didn't make it up like it was supposed to but I feel pretty good about it.

The guys that are doing my barn are the same guys that did my buddies barn 4 or 5 years ago. His barn looks great. Mine doesn't look bad but there's definitely some things that need addressed before they get their final check. The garage door track hangers made of wood that's falling down is so shoddy I can't help but laugh.
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Feb 27, 2019
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37
Location
Central Indiana
So I'm still waiting for the barn to get finished...

The gutter guy was supposed to come out last Friday but he never showed up. Haven't heard back from the builder on when they're going to come out and fix things. I've started going around and fixing quite a few things on the list like some of the trim by the overhead doors cause they annoy me everytime I walk outside.
One of my main concerns though is they didn't install vented soffits like what is in the contract.

Anyways, here's a few pictures of things that I'm all warm and fuzzy about. Maybe you guys can tell me if I am being nit picky or if I should be even more concerned about some of them.

Screw ripped through the metal
View media item 94311
Rust already showing up?
View media item 94312
Trim scratched to all hell.
View media item 94313
Janky trim work.
View media item 94314
This is my favorite part about everything... got wet after they finished troweling and left this ugly rough spot on the floor. Luckily its on the far end of the barn so I have to walk my lazy *** 50 feet to go see it.
View media item 94315
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Feb 27, 2019
Messages
37
Location
Central Indiana
On a more positive note though I did purchase some ghostshield 4500 and 8510 today.

I also poured a small 3x3 pad outside the man door the other day. No pictures of the pad just the forms. For what ever reason I didn't take an after picture.

View media item 94316
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Location
Central Indiana
Had a busy weekend working on the barn.

Cleaned out all the **** and trash the builders left in there and outside of the barn and hauled it of to the dump. They're supposed to take care of it but the pile outside of the barn has been there for two and half months and I'm sick of mowing around it, not to mention I have no idea when or if they are ever going to come back.

Also swept and pressure washed the floor to prep for the ghostshield 4500. Once the floor dried and the temperatures got below 90 I put the densifier down.

View media item 94649
View media item 94650
This stuff is super easy to apply. I was kind of surprised. Hardest part was watching the floor to make sure no puddles formed.

Next weekend the ghostshield 8510 will go on then I can finally start using the barn!

I have to give a shout out to (wish I knew how to tag him)Justin at Garage Flooring LLC. Emailed him Monday, got a quick response back, ordered Tuesday, and had my order sitting on the back porch Friday by the time I got home. Highly recommend him!
 
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FIVE_LITER

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Joined
Feb 27, 2019
Messages
37
Location
Central Indiana
So the other weekend I managed to get the ghostshield 8510 down before the wife and I went to the hospital to be induced. Wound up spending Sunday through Friday in the hospital and the amish showed up while we were there with some vented soffits. They got all of that replaced but I'm still waiting on gutters.

Anyways fast forward to today and I had the inspection done so I could finally put my stuff in the barn. Started the move with the toolbox, which unfortunately I wasn't able to just roll into the bucket of the tractor and take from the garage to barn. So I took out all the drawers and rolled it there.

View media item 95209
One of our dogs came to hang out with me while I was putting the box back together.

View media item 95207
Both my trucks, my lawnmower and my tractor fit with plenty of room to spare!

View media item 95208
 
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