Looking for input on a barndominium....

[Roothawg]

I am trying to lay out the big barn theory. I have been pondering this for the last 30 years. I am looking at building a 60'x100' steel building with a living quarters on one end. It will be a 30x60 with a loft so roughly 2400 sf of living space. I was thinking we could have a garage for the finished hot rods and cars which would be a 20'x60' that separates the shop from the house. This would help with noise and fumes. I would put a door on each end to drive through.

The question for y'all is this. How would would you lay out the doors on the remaining 50'x60' for the shop area? I am struggling with useable space. If I have too many doors I lose wall space for tooling etc. I build hot rods on the side fyi.

 

[ZRX61]

2 decent size doors on one 60ft side with 18-20ft between them
1 door on the 50ft side.
Maybe another door on the opposite 60ft side to get good cross flow to help cool it.

 

[jack stand]

I find that generous open (50x60) spaces are hard utilize effectively with automobile sized "bites" being taken out of it. That's not hard to do if you're only storing them, but for building hot rods a single door per "bay" that's 30-34' deep x (fill in the width) would be my target. All this said with your wall space comment in mind. Many people overlook this very important point.
I've built 3 and am still figuring it out.

 

[ZRX61]

I find that generous open (50x60) spaces are hard utilize effectively with automobile sized "bites" being taken out of it. That's not hard to do if you're only storing them, but for building hot rods a single door per "bay" that's 30-34' deep x (fill in the width) would be my target. All this said with your wall space comment in mind. Many people overlook this very important point.
I've built 3 and am still figuring it out.

The formula for a single car build is 3 bays. One for the car, one for storing all the *stuff* & one for actually working. At 60ft deep they could all be aligned front to back of the space (& 12ft wide). For 50x60 ft this gives you space for 4 projects.. altho for more than 2 projects the *3 spaces* rule slides a bit as the storage area would be smaller than one space per car (especially with a mezzanine) . The *working* area would also be shared.

 

[jack stand]

It's truly as personal as selecting your vehicle, dinner, clothes, music or wife. I only try to suggest general thoughts, he already mentioned wall space, something that I didn't really think about on my 2nd shop and is easy to overlook.
Excess space easily becomes a dumping ground for the seemingly endless **** that is a "one of" and without a dedicated category. It's also entirely possible that I just **** at organization.

 

[Roothawg]

My current shop is 40x50 and 38' of the south wall opens. This is great for pulling cars out, but that means I lose half of the shop for storage.

 

[Zeke]

If I were to be faced with the task of building a multi purpose building from a clean sheet, I would be building my own diorama. Like a model train set up but a barn instead of tracks and trains. I have to thing that in the case of model trains that many have redone their design as time and money became available to make it better. Well, it might be a lot easier to redo a train layout than a big *** building.

Make as many mistakes as you can before digging and putting in concrete. There's a limited amount of 'going back' once the slab is done.

I've seen people stay on vacant land just to see where the sun comes up and sets before designing the home. I really don't want my kitchen facing west. I had a CMU shop within a mile of the beach once that had a west facing big door. That was the coldest place I've ever worked in AFA SoCal goes. East would have been perfect.

 

[ZRX61]

You could have a mezzanine above the 60x20 garage part, that should take care of just about ALL the storage issues.. Plus you'll have almost the entire 60ft of wall between the shop & the garage for tooling, with the exception of whatever door you put between the two.

 

[HUSTLESTUFF]

I built that exact home. I put home in middle and 50x60 on one side and 1200sq ft "atrium" (for county purposes) which will be my showroom about 30 x 40. I have 1735 sq ft living on bottom floor and engineered it to put second story if I want (lots of storage for now). I did 20 foot eaves. I used 6inch insulation on roof and 4 inches on sidewalls. I don't use minisplits until its 95 outside. Here's a panoramic when I was building. and installation of new age floor in showroom. I had to tell county that the 2 doors in the showroom are fixed so I wouldn't need a fire break between the two areas Like between the house and garage in pic 3.

 

[Roothawg]

I built that exact home. I put home in middle and 50x60 on one side and 1200sq ft "atrium" (for county purposes) which will be my showroom about 30 x 40. I have 1735 sq ft living on bottom floor and engineered it to put second story if I want (lots of storage for now). I did 20 foot eaves. I used 6inch insulation on roof and 4 inches on sidewalls. I don't use minisplits until its 95 outside. Here's a panoramic when I was building. and installation of new age floor in showroom. I had to tell county that the 2 doors in the showroom are fixed so I wouldn't need a fire break between the two areas Like between the house and garage in pic 3.

Interesting. How long ago did you build this?

 

[HUSTLESTUFF]

Started Feb 2020. Dates are on Pics. Took me and GF building for 11 months to get final.

 

[My Old Tools]

You could have a mezzanine above the 60x20 garage part, that should take care of just about ALL the storage issues.. Plus you'll have almost the entire 60ft of wall between the shop & the garage for tooling, with the exception of whatever door you put between the two.

 

[rayra]

Put the doors and the workshop and fire sources on the far end from the living area. Follow the national fire code for burn time separation walls between living quarters and workshop.
I'd intended living space in a loft, before I got old and broken down. Don't want to be climbing stairs all the time, so this design is gonna change.

 

[Ihasmiata!]

I built that exact home. I put home in middle and 50x60 on one side and 1200sq ft "atrium" (for county purposes) which will be my showroom about 30 x 40. I have 1735 sq ft living on bottom floor and engineered it to put second story if I want (lots of storage for now). I did 20 foot eaves. I used 6inch insulation on roof and 4 inches on sidewalls. I don't use minisplits until its 95 outside. Here's a panoramic when I was building. and installation of new age floor in showroom. I had to tell county that the 2 doors in the showroom are fixed so I wouldn't need a fire break between the two areas Like between the house and garage in pic 3.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did that run you?
My fiancé, and I, are starting to considering doing a converted steeling building/barndominium so we can have exactly what we want. Compared to buying something prebuilt.
I've priced out the land, slab, building, but not really sure how to estimate everything for the living area.

 

[HUSTLESTUFF]

My slab and ground work was 50K, Building 66K with insulation and garage doors, Local company charged 25K to put up. So 141K for building. I installed garage doors. My lumber package was 17K 2x6x9 walls osb all the way around. TJI joist for second floor. We did a the work. Had a plumber friend help with that and hvac friend hook up mini splits but I installed the cassettes and ran lines. 15K for sprinkler system. All in all, I spent 215K. So $30/sqft for garage and atrium and $60/sqft living. I've added enough solar to heat and cool 50x60 garage with a couple mini split systems. That will be another 6K. Solar loan $340/month but cheaper than California energy and when I retire no mortgage and no energy bills. I went with high end appliances and built my own cabinets and island and top.

 

[Roothawg]

The pad work is under way for the barn. I think the plan has changed, though. I am still building a big barn, but it has been reduced to a 40'x100'. I am gonna end up with a house as well though.....I tried, she won.

 

[rayra]

Reduced, to 40'x100' you say. Nice problem to have. Congratulations.