Barn conversion

[ldw208]

I've been lurking here for a while now, finally starting my project.

I've got an old dairy barn I'm converting to my shop. The building is about 32 X 80, with a 9w X 10h door centered on one 32' end. I will be putting an 8 X 8 door centered on the other end. The building has block walls with brick facing. At each end, about 5 feet inside the doors and a little outside the door tracks, are a pair of posts that support the end walls. These posts and the doors CANNOT be changed.

There is a hayloft over the entire space, but there is only about 7 feet of clearance for the first floor, with supporting posts spaced about every 12 feet in each direction. The barn is about 35 feet tall, with an arched roof that was sheeted with new steel about 4 years ago. I've put several cables about 16 feet above ground level and 2 X 8 bracing closer to the peak to tie the structure together so most of the loft can be removed. I'll leave some of the loft along the edges and ends for extra storage.

I'm planning on using the space for car/old tractor restoration & maintenance. I'd like to plan for a lift in the future, a clean area for wash/wax/paint, a small office, and possibly a spot for rotisserie. I'd like to heat a portion of it in winter, but certainly not the whole thing.

Pictures are the entire barn before new door and after new overhead door was installed. The loft floor is basically at the top of the exterior brick. In the pictures, the old silo room is to the right of the big door, and at about 7 X 14, will probably become the office area.

Looking for recommendations on:

area to set aside for each of these uses
spacing in a deep rather than wide shop area
ceiling height to frame in for each area
how much loft to leave in place
how to insulate the block walls

 

[-olllllllo-]

all i can say is you ****!!!

the wife and i would love to have an old barn to renovate.

 

[nonhog]

Looks like an awesome starting place. The only advise I can give is search,
study, shop around take your time. Visit other converted Barns if you can.
good luck to ya!

 

[ldw208]

Any ideas on these questions (or anything else) about turning my barn into a usable shop??

 

[JohnK007]

I'd consider insulating the block walls by attaching 2X4's flat against the interior block 16" OC., then rigid foam panels between this cavity, plastic sheeting for a barrier, and then skin with painted OSB or plywood. You'll only get 1 1/2" thick foam in this space but it'd help. The expensive part will be insulating above the block wall.
How about an interior shot so we can see what you have to work with?

 

[Brad54]

What's the loft floor constructed of, and how is it supported below? My uncle used to park tractors and tandem axle dump trucks in the top part of his barns, with the hay loft above that in what would be a third story.
Might you move the shop up there for more headroom and clearance?

-Brad

 

[e-tek]

How about some interior shots? Walls could vary for different uses, especially if you are going to heat only a portion, you should consider heating a portion with a ceiling. Atfirst I thought: heat the spray-booth portion, but then it depends on what that winter holds - maybe you'd want to heat the lift portion.
If I had that much space, I'd for sure designate a portion for dirty work (grinding, media blasting, sanding bondo) and a space for clean work (painting). For ceiling heights, you want 12 -14 feet for a lift for sure. A large part can be cold storage as well.

 

[Lhorn]

You're gonna have to buy more cars.

 

[Mattlt]

What does the floor look like? Do you have to rip out stanchions? Fill in gutters / mangers?

The dairy barn I grew up with did not have a level floor. The center alley section was several inches lower than the outsides, I suppose so everything flowed toward the gutters (which were located on each side of the alley, behind the cows, obviously.)

If the loft is built like I'm thinking, you'll need to leave all the posts in place - they are needed to support the loft. These posts will seriously get in your way. The loft above will hold some serious weight, think of this area piled full of hay bales.

I don't like to talk people out of projects like this, but maybe you'd be better off building a separate shop and using this barn for storage of project vehicles, etc. Then, just tearing out the stanchions and filling in the gutters would be sufficent for storage.

Where in MN are you located? I'm in the Hutchinson area.

 

[ldw208]

The stanchions are long gone, the gutters will need to be filled. The floor will not be level, but it'll be pretty good. I've got an old cement mixer, and will fill the gutters myself when time allows.

I plan on taking out most of the loft, leaving some on the edges and ends, and probably a second level room or 2. Already have another smaller metal building for storage (30 X 40 or so), and the barn is very well built and not really being used for anything (other than innefficient storage).

Hutchinson is about 30 miles from us, we're just north of Gaylord.

I'll try to post interior pictures soon.......

 

[qdvuu]

Nice barn!

I don't understand your intention for which level to locate your shop: on the ground floor or on the hayloft/2nd floor? The 7 feet of headroom on the ground floor isn't appealing, and I don't see a ramp or hillside for easy car access to the loft.

Maybe you can get gov't tax incentives to "go green" for energy-related items such as insulation, heating, solar heating, heat pumps that use groundwater, etc.

 

[Blue]

Cool barn.

If you dig around the 'net, there is a lot of info out there on converting barns. I have a bunch of links saved--will post them if I come across them.

One of the biggest strikes against old barns is the fact that the ground floors have low celings and small doors--whereas most people need tall ceilings and large doors for modern farm equipment (or a shop).

Some guy out there had developed a technique for redoing the interior structure of the barn to allow you to take out the hayloft but keep the structural integrity. The construction was based on the design of bridge trusses, IIRC.

 

[ldw208]

Intention is to have shop located at ground level, taking out enough loft to make working on cars & tractors possible. I'll leave some of the loft in areas where access would be difficult (corners, and near the 4 posts I need to leave alone for the end wall support), as well as areas where the ceiling height wouldn't really need to be higher than 7' (benches, office area, etc...).

I'll have to frame a ceiling structure above whatever area I plan to heat, otherwise after taking that part of the loft out, it would be open to the roof about 35 feet above.

I've put in a 9 X 10 door on one end, it was as wide as I could go without knocking out block and doing major structural changes on the endwalls

 

[ldw208]

Here's a few pictures of the interior, sorry they aren't that good, the lighting is poor.

4- shows the low ceiling, lengthwise
5- gives a little better idea of the steel posts and placement
6- one of the 4 posts that help support the endwalls
7- earlier attempt to fill the gutters, I will knock this out and do again

Pay no attention to the massive mess inside the barn, as long as it's still just a barn, it kinda ends up being a dropoff spot for all things that I just can't seem to part with yet.......

 

[RPH]

I have an old barn that I am converting to a shop. Biggest issue I face is air infiltration. Barns are made to breathe. The storage of hay requires lots of air movement. And the animals on the bottom send a lot of moisture into the air, hence it needs air. On mine I have 1 " gaps between the boards for this. Sealing is the biggest problem as I do like the look of the old timer and lumber. Don't know if I should cover the exterior or do the inside. Analyze this part of your shop first as it may decide where you start.

 

[ldw208]

I've kind of come up with a tentative plan.

A wall, close to the rails of the overhead door, to about 6 feet in, then angle out to within about 2-3 feet of the outer wall, about 15 feet in. Leave about 2-3 feet of loft on each side. Continue that way until about 60 feet in, and put a wall accross . leaving about 30 wide X 20 deep, enough to park 3 cars. This would give me a loft above the 3 cars (potential future woodshop), and a work area about 30 X 45, with 2-3 feet of old loft for shelving along the edges. The shop area will kind of resemble a funnel, 10 feet accross for the first 6 feet, widening to 24-26 feet at 15 feet in, and staying that way for 45 feet.

If I open up 24-26 feet wide, could I somehow make this shop ceiling area a floor to a second story without posts/walls below? Kinda doubt I can span that distance without some major expense.

Am I going to get the lift area, paint/clean area, and dirty work area into this space with only the central door for access?

How much space should I allow for a future 2 post lift, used for maintenance and restoration of cars from the 30's to 70's?