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32x40 Pole Barn - shop / man cave

6th Gear

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Sep 17, 2008
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261
Location
Ohio
We bought our house about 16 months ago, it has a 20x20 garage. I had a list of repairs/improvements by the wife and once I got through those, I was free to build!
I've been on GJ for about a year now reading & absorbing hoping to have my own build in a few years... But business has been good and I've been working on the list and my wife wants to park in the 20x20 again this winter so there's a few reasons to start building earlier than planned!
I got to know the local amish and had them build a deck, which was the biggest thing on the wife's list. They did a great job and were good people to deal with - and cheap!

I had them price a 30x40 pole barn with a loft and it ended up being reasonably priced, but more than I wanted to spend, as we most likely won't be living here forever. So I ditched the loft and added 2 ft to the width for a 32x40 with 12' ceilings.
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Here is the spot where the pole barn will go. I had to move the potting shed forward 6' and you can see where the bigger shed used to be, we moved it back a ways and 90° clockwise. We used a buddy's F250 to drag them :beer:
32' was as wide as I could go, 15' from property and 10' from septic.

The building is going to be the place where I store all my tools, JD318, a couple cars, and one corner is going to be the man cave. I plan to leave the inside open for the most part to keep it versatile. Depending on how things go, I may set up a photography studio for shooting vehicles in a year or two.

It will have radiant heat, electric & water and I would like to drywall but most of those may have to wait until $$ permits. I am getting the pex/slab installed this year though.
 
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OP
6

6th Gear

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Ohio
The amish showed up to start digging the post holes...

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I don't think they were expecting my clay to be so hard with all the rain we had been getting...


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things took longer than expected and they were out EARLY the next morning. I woke up and they were already going!

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I got home from work that day to find all the holes ready for inspection.
It was Columbus day so I couldn't schedule till Tues morning. They were approved Wed.


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Posts started going up Thursday

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I saw this friday when i got home from work!
As you may know, the amish don't use equipment or electricity. They have someone come in if they need that stuff done. They know a guy down the road with a lift who was free on friday. They only use gas tools, a gas powered table saw and a chain saw.

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Saturday morning... the last day of the cold rainy weather we have been getting here. I give these guys tons of credit, they work hard and never complain so I keep them well fed and have a cooler full of pop at all times. They love mountain dew!

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By end of the day saturday, they had the roof papered and the walls mostly done.
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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Today was the first nice day we have had in a while... 50's and sunny. Here's some closer pics of the building.

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You can see that the 8' door on the back was moved 4' away from the center. This was in an earlier set of plans to get some more space for a pool table in the 'man area'

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their table saw

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The only thing I found that I didn't like. The cut on the outer osb was a little wavy and leaves a gap 1" at the widest part.

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I went with a 5/12 truss for some usable attic storage.
 

Old61

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Nov 12, 2008
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Coming along nicely! Can you get a few more pics of their table saw?
 

Lippyp

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Shropshire, UK
Damn, nice work, we could do with some Amish people over here, I guess it'd take them too long to paddle their way across the atlantic though!
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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Yeah they would have to charge for travel Might take them a while to get there. I live right down the road from them, so I saved a lot of $$$ because of that. They said price goes up for the amount of time/distance they have to travel. If I lived about 20 miles away, they said it would have been about $800 more. That would mean they would need to leave their house an hour and a half earlier... like 4am! They don't have a problem starting that early though. I feel like a lazy pos around them :lol_hitti
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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I got home from work one night last week to see 3 HUGE piles of concrete/gravel mix
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The next day it was all leveled out, they had a guy come in w/ a bob cat to do it.

He also took all the extra dirt from the post holes out of the barn and piled it out back.

I took some pics yesterday:
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There was enough extra to extend the gravel driveway to the barn which really made me happy. I figured I would be mudding through the grass until next year when we could have the driveway done.

Siding and shingles are supposed to go on this week!
 

diggertodd

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Location
Athens, Illinois
Yeah, at $3.00 per gallon their fuel surcharge could get tough with the extra travel miles... no... wait, their using horses...hmmm... oats surcharge?

but seriously folks (grabbing my necktie):rolleyes2

Is Amish construction cheaper/more expensive than traditional quotes. No need for specific numbers, just if they are higher or lower?
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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I found that they are much cheaper. For our deck, I got quotes anywhere from $6-7000 to $12,000 for composite, complete.
I drew a picture, the amish made a materials list and had the lumber company give me the total. Their labor estimate for the deck was $1500, the materials cost me $4700.
I went to pay them cash (and found out they can take checks) and they said "Oh the labor was less, only $975"
Maybe they gave me a discount for keeping them well fed!

This building is $15,800, that price includes everything you see so far - the gravel too, the pex + install, the concrete (4.5" slab) vinyl siding, owens corning shingles, insulated doors, 4 windows... pretty much everything except insulation, the rest of the heating system, and they don't touch electrical.
I would have not been able to get the building this year if they were not building it. As with anything though, there's good amish builders and there's bad ones... I'm lucky the ones near me are good builders.
 

diggertodd

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Apr 4, 2009
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Athens, Illinois
Well from one gearhead ad agency to another... looks great, Thanks for the education on Amish building... I had never thought about the electrical wiring thing....
 
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OP
6

6th Gear

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Here's how I plan on fitting everything inside

edit: the attachment script really shrunk the pic down... I'll host and post it again
 

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6768rogues

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Western NY
Very nice. The only thing I would have done differently is to enclose the walls before the roof. If the sides are open and the roof sheathed, it creates an airplane wing and an unexpected windstorm can lift the roof right off. You got it enclosed without any problems, so it worked out well.
 

Nostraquedeo

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Oct 23, 2009
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So, anything put in place that needs cut, gets done with a hand saw then? I have just about every tool, but not sure I even own a handsaw. If I do, I don't know where to find it. So how to they go about cutting the sheeting for the windows. Some sort of handmade drill to create a hole big enough to get a small handsaw in? What a PITA way to do things. I am pretty anti-techno, but I do appreciate tools that make life easier.....Props to them!
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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Ohio
I'm betting they will do the windows/man door with a chain saw, but also curious to see.

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Here's how I plan on laying out the inside. I thought about diving the back half to keep the dirty area and the man area separate, but that would really limit the use of the garage in other ways. The building faces west and we have a breeze pretty much every day where we live. (only ran the air twice this year!)
So the plan is to open up the back 8' door and have a nice wind through the shop to carry through dirt, sawdust etc through and out of the back corner. On nice days, I'll roll the table saw, welder etc to the slab outside the 8x8 door and do all my dirty work outside.

I'm keeping the space as wide open as possible because I may be using it as a photography studio shooting vehicles, but not for another year or so. That's why I went with the 12' ceilings.

People say build it as big as you need, then add a little more.
32x40 is big enough for now and the near future. After seeing how big this building is, I can't imagine having gone with a 32x48'. That extra 8' would have been really nice but this size is already looking like a monster behind our house! I'm just going to have to learn how to use my available space better and actually try not to collect as much car parts (or as my wife says, junk) but that's what the attic is for! :beer:
 

Jeepskate

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Apr 28, 2009
Messages
218
Location
Mid-Ohio
Very nice. I should've had the Amish build mine...I could've afforded to finish my heating system and buy a lift. I'm at about $30k before electrical (had an extra $3k or so in site prep since I ended up building on a slope due to zoning restrictions, I went 15' on the wall height, and I ran my roof the other way so my trusses were a bit more expensive...I also entertained doing a loft until I saw the truss prices for that). The guy had the holes done & inspected and about a third of the posts set the first day, but your guys were passing him up by day three. Slow, slow, slow. They'd show up around 7:30-8:00 and leave around 5:00-5:30 (usually left earlier on Fridays).
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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261
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Ohio
I think the Civic and the Mustang are gonna wrassle...

you wouldn't think it... but the civic would win! :wtf:
here's what will be in the garage:
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I've been the civic for a while now and just finished the turbo setup this summer. It's only tuned to 5200 rpm right now, and it already scares me

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The mustang has your basic I/H/E, lots of suspension goodies, shifter, a little exterior... but it weighs almost twice as much as the civic and it's too nice to cut into, so it's more the car I go somewhere nice with the wife in. She won't ride in the civic and hates it more than anything else I own :lol_hitti
 
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honda-boy

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Oct 27, 2009
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Belgium
Civic for the win :beer:

Really nice shop your building man :thumbup:

Wish we had room to build something simular here but when you see the prices for a piece of land here you need to be sitting down :scared:
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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updates!

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insulation down

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Pex tubing layed over the insulation

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Concrete truck came on Dec 15th

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Then I had to wait 10 days for it to cure. I was out of town so I waited 15 days.

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Then they got the shingles on.

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And it snowed....

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Then siding, cold weather doesn't slow them down a bit.

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Door seals...

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And it's all done! It passed inspection a few days later.

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Our driveway is a mess! The yard has a lot of sitting water around the building & driveway. That's gonna have to wait till spring.

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All moved in! Well, for now... I'm keeping as much as I can at my parent's place & in my basement until I get everything done on the interior.
I'm going with OSB on the walls. White sheet metal on the ceiling, and galvanized sheet metal for the bottom 4' of the walls (kind of like Chipotle has)
I'm going to order everything this week because prices go up in a couple of weeks. Then I'll be doing the electric & plumbing in the meantime.
I'm not going to bother with the heating for now... It's going to be warming up in a couple months, so I'll have 6 months to look around for a deal on a water heater.
 

gts340

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Apr 27, 2007
Messages
60
I would love to have a garage like that. Yours looks very nice, I'm jealous.
 

Brad Beam

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Jan 5, 2010
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Did they actually take the sod off, or did they just put the stone on top of the grass?:headscrat
 

Dano5509

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Jul 27, 2009
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Very nice building...Thanks for posting the pics and I hope you put up more as you continue to move in/finish it off.
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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Ohio
Nice Garage. SInce you have a Mustang and from Akron, surprised you're not on Buckeye Stangs.

I'm on there :thumbup:

No new progress on the pole barn, except sheet metal for ceiling & walls arrived this week :thumbup:
Prices go up around the 3rd week of Feb, so I wanted to order in time.

I took a break from the garage to build a snow cave :lol_hitti

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built it from snow on our driveway

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inside

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labatt never tasted so good!

The plan is to keep building it bigger until I can have people over to drink cold ones in my snow cave :beer:
 

debrights

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Nov 26, 2009
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Location
weatherford tx
very nice. are you gonna paint or stain the osb? I am gonna search to see chipotle's. That is how I have been considering doing mine, and staining the osb
 

klogan121

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Jan 23, 2010
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Linden, MI
OP
6

6th Gear

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Yeah, the local supplier sells some 4' wide rolls just for pole barns. R19 6" thick. I'll probably do R19 in the ceiling too, I want to put some flooring in the attic so the insulation can't be too thick up there.
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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it's been a while... work has been getting in the way of my project.

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Ceiling is all up!

Also dug a trench and water & electric is installed.
I ran an extra conduit for cable/internet/alarm.

Next I'm going to finish the floor :thumbup:
 
OP
6

6th Gear

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I'm a slacker in keeping this updated... but still working on finishing the garage!

Here's some pics of the progress...
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ceiling is done, next came the floor

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I had found a deal on some used t8 lights on craigslist. They were all pulled from an old 84 Lumber warehouse, but had been upgraded to newer ballasts.

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This was in October, so everything wasn't moved in for winter storage yet.

I decided to do OSB vs drywall, so I needed to put up some bracing between each 6x6 post for the OSB to attach to.

I ran a 2x6 vertical, between each of the posts, so that the 2" side was facing out for the OSB to attach to. So the posts were 8' apart, with a 2x6 in between, so every 4' I had a column to attach the OSB.
Then I ran 2x4's horizontally, between the posts and the 2x6. I ran one along the bottom, one about 4' up from there, and then another one about 4' from the ceiling. The 2x4's had the 4" side facing the osb, since the middle 4x8 sheet was going to share a 2x4 with the top and bottom sheet. This gave me all the surface I needed to attach the 4x8 osb.
The vertical 2x6's were in the center of each 4x8 sheet (I hung them horizontally.) and the 2x4's were there to support the top and bottom edges.

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I got around to finishing the radiant heat setup before it got too cold. It's amazing how efficient this heat is!

Then I got the insulation up asap since it was getting cold...
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and everything came in for winter lol.

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Moving everything around as I worked on the walls... Insulation & vapor barrier, then 7/16" OSB

I just finished doing the blown in for the attic and now I can be out there working for a few hours and not even have the heat kick on once!

I also sold one of my civics and bought a new toy...

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I've been looking for a decent Toyota pickup for a year and a half and so many up here are rusted through. I found this '85 on ebay, turns out the owner only lived 2 miles from my house! It was meant to be :bounce:

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It's been pretty useful so far (that's the Atticat insulation blower for the attic)
but my wife hates it :lol_hitti

In the first truck pic, you can see I have the vapor barrier up and I'm currently in the process of putting up 7/16" OSB sheets. Then I need to build some cabinets and it will be complete!
 
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NickWheeler

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Nov 19, 2010
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Location
Castle Rock, Washington
Wow, that's REALLY nice!!!

I see in the last photo you got the concrete apron/approach put in.

I really love how you're finishing this out... will be SUCH a nice space!!! :bowdown: :beer:

Wish we had Amish folks here in Washington to do a build like that, you couldn't even dream of a price like that for everything around here.
 

Re-Volv

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Mar 11, 2008
Messages
77
This is a great build! Can you give us some more info on the radiant heat?

You said the PEX was included in the price from your builders, how much was the heater and other components to finish out the system? How is it working in a garage with just radiant heat?

What do you expect the total cost to come in at once you include finishing the heating system and doing electrical etc?
 

jakeb

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Feb 11, 2008
Messages
317
Location
Bay City, MI
Can you show some better pictures of how you put the insulation in the walls? I have a pole building and want to add insulation and then drywall and some wall cabinets but debating how to go about doing it. Either build a stud wall inside the poles or what.... I don't want to put the girts on the inside of the poles because I will loose a few inches all the way around.

nice looking building!
what sort of power does the civic put down?
 
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