Central TX Pole Barndo and shop

[mattlikesbikes]

My wife and I just bought 30 ac in central TX, with 20 mile views looking at Canyon Lake. It's a great recreation place and only an hour from our house in Austin. Since our place in Austin lacks much of a garage and since we need something quick and cheap, we are going with a pole barn and adding an apartment to it. They dropped the dirt last week and should start framing next week, be done by the end of the month. This is my thread to try and consolidate questions in.

36x46x10ft, with 36ft trusses on 5ft centers and posts on 10-12ft centers. The apartment will be about 26x26 and in the bottom left corner. Leaving a 20x36 garage and a 10x26 shop area. The garage will be pull through, with a 16ft garage door on one side a 10x10 roll up on the other, centered off each other.

View media item 100855https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/album.php?albumid=7281&pictureid=100855

Since we are doing metal only, no wrap or plywood, we are planning to spray foam with close cell, probably 1-1.5" on the walls and 2" on the roof. I may ultimately blow some extra insulation into the attic area.

For now, we will move fast on building out the apartment, as we have noplace to stay at the property. Once that is built I will work on the garage portion (other than overhead lights and a few outlets right away).

 

[Falcon67]

My only comment is that 10' wide is pretty narrow. This is what 12' wide x 24' deep looks like here looking from the bench area back.

 

[pmiranda]

Are you going to build a house on the property later and demolish the apartment?

Consider higher sidewalls/roof pitch so you can do living space above the kitchen/bath space and get more shop/garage space.

And of course, make sure you have good fire-rated walls and door to the roof to separate living space from garage space. Seal every tiny opening with fire block expanding foam to keep vapors out of the living space.

Looks great!

 

[mattlikesbikes]

Sadly, the shop size is what it is. While we will eventually build a house on the property, the plan is to keep the apartment as well. All is not lost. While we have the double garage door, we really don't plan to use it as a garage all that often. We will have a mini truck we park in it along with lots of ranch toys (bikes, quads, etc).

My plan for now is rolling workbenches. I have a set now in my current garage that will move over. 2x8 tables on wheels that latch together to make a 4x8 table. My garage in Austin houses the classic car, so this garage and shop are mostly knife making, and a woodshop. Worst case, we build another out building if I need even more space in the future.

We looked at using steeper pitch and attic trusses, but the cost started getting silly quick. We also wanted to keep it short so it blends better with the surroundings.

 

[Redwards329]

Beautiful area! I’m right down the road close to devils backbone. Holler at me if you need any skid steer work out there!

 

[wyliebrent]

Add to the toys. Buy a travel trailr/5thwheel with slides instead of apt. Park in shop until house is done and then park under a lean to and open up the shop for even more toys .

 

[QwikKotaTx]

Super jealous of your location and property size.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[bradpac]

Looks like a nice place and the location is pretty. My in-laws have a few acres in the Wimberley area and it's a really nice place.

My only suggestion is doubling or more your insulation and do at least the roof in Galvalume or a light color. Seems like the dark gray and black metal is popular around here right now, but it sure does heat things up and it's only getting hotter.

 

[mattlikesbikes]

Beautiful area! I’m right down the road close to devils backbone. Holler at me if you need any skid steer work out there!

We back up to the southern branch of the backbone, off Purgatory. Our views are into DB. Might need some help pushing up a berm/backstop down in the bottoms for a pistol range!

Looks like a nice place and the location is pretty. My in-laws have a few acres in the Wimberley area and it's a really nice place.

My only suggestion is doubling or more your insulation and do at least the roof in Galvalume or a light color. Seems like the dark gray and black metal is popular around here right now, but it sure does heat things up and it's only getting hotter.

Yep, roof in Galvalume, walls in Light Stone and trim in a slightly darker Desert. Large mature cedars around it should keep the walls in the shade. We will come back in short order and build an awning/pergula over the porch area.

Once we get drywall up on the ceiling I likely will blow in more, relying on the CCF to provide a vapor barrier and some insulation. The local insulation guys have all said that 2" on the underside of the roof will be significant. Since we won't condition the space much except for the weekends when we are out there, I don't feel like I need to spend thousands more to save a couple kwH of cheap electric.

 

[mattlikesbikes]

For drywalling/plywooding the interior side of the exterior walls I was planning to use bookshelf girts, 16"C. My post spacing is all under 12' with most closer to 9ft. So am I ok to use 2x4's or do I need to use 2x6 to match the width of the posts? The exterior metal will all be on exterior 2x6 girts.

10ft ceilings. I know i can order 10ft drywall, or do I stick with 8ft and run it vertical with a 2ft spacer (at bottom or top). If I do bookshelf girts and vertical drywall, do I need to throw some kind of 2x4 spacer vertically between the girts every 4ft for the drywall edges?

 

[dcg9381]

Welcome, Mike.. I'm up the road in Austin.
Your insulation is a good starting place and "good enough" to combat the Texas heat.
Make sure you put conduit in that slab. I'd recommend conduit at all 4 corners (even if you don't need it right now). I did 3" electrical / 3" drain, and I'd recommend 1" feeds at all 4 corners to the outside.

Consider HVAC location(s).

Consider going "across" the slab, inside to inside, with conduit also. This makes it so much easier to move water, air, or electrical. A 1" conduit can handle 3/4 PEX or 60A+ of power.

I used OSB instead of drywall. Drywall has no structural value for screwing things in. The way I have it framed I can remove 4x8 OSB panels if I need to work on what's behind the OSB. It's not the same finished look as well done drywall, but with a little paint, I haven't seen any complaints. Tons of room behind if I wanted to blow in or roll in additional insulation over the foam.

 

[pmiranda]

The trick with spray foam is that it typically isn't fireproof, and worse off will give off toxic gases if there is a fire next to it. So a couple choices: ask your spray foam guy if he can add a spray-on fireproof coating, or you need to cover it with something that is fireproof, like type X wallboard, or (something I didn't know existed until now) "flameblock" OSB.
I'm going to look into that since I don't really want to deal with wallboard but I want sprayfoam.
Edit: just looked and it's cheaper to layer normal OSB with fire rated drywall than it is to buy fire-rated OSB!