holdenwaca
Member
Hello, everyone. My name is Will. I am out in the Louisville, KY, area. My wife has three horses. I have a donkey. I need to build a barn. Thanks to reading about all of the nice builds on this site as well as a few others, I built a 15 x 18 pole shed last year to store my small tractor and some other implements. It's a simple design; 4/12 pitch pre-made trusses, 6 x 6 posts, sliding doors on the gable ends, metal roof, and LP Smartside panel siding. Turned out nice and it turned into a family project. While not the building type, my nearly 70 year old father with a bum hip provided the extra hands and muscle needed. I owe him big time.
This new project is a couple orders of magnitude larger. I will probably need to hire a crew to frame and sub out some of the work, mainly the roof and foundation work.
To give some back story to why I've arrived at the design I am at now, it's driven by my land and clown of a neighbor. I have 10 acres. I have road access on both ends. I have a 1.3 acre pond that feeds a watering trough that was installed to provide water to cattle that had been on the land 30 years ago. My previously mentioned shed is located on the end of my property near a cul-de-sac which is near a neighbor. My wife also had a riding arena built. She is a therapeutic riding instructor for special needs children and adults. The neighbor really doesn't like it and I had to fight him and his lawyer in a zoning board hearing. I'm not the bragging type, but he lost. Soundly; however, I don't like being the one to keep jabbing at people and ultimately would like to be friends with the guy (my wife feels otherwise) so I am trying to locate the barn as farm from him as possible.
This presents a lot of problems and will add significantly to the cost. I am OK with that. The location I would like to use is on a hill. I like that aspect in that it is the highest point on the property. You can see everything. There's no danger of flooding if the dam gives way or the overflow drain fails and there is a spill over. All that said, I will have to do some hill shaving and inset a portion of the barn into the hill.
I've read everything I could find on the stick frame vs pole frame debate. Each has their pros and cons. I was initially thinking pole is the way to go, but since I want wood or engineered wood siding as opposed to metal, I thought I would look at a stick frame with a foundation. I don't want a concrete floor for the stalls or aisle. Only the tack room and wash bay will have concrete. I want a full length loft, 12-foot inside height for ventilation and horse safety, and 12 x 12 stalls.
I started with a 36 x 36 building. If I go with a pole structure, I can still get pretty close to having a true 12 x 12 stall. As I began drawing a stick frame sitting on 8" x 8"x 16" blocks, I realized I had to bump the building up to a 40 x 40 to get the area I wanted. I've drawn it up with attic trusses on 16" OC. If I go with a pole structure, I think I will go with 24" OC trusses. I am calling some truss guys tomorrow to get prices on trusses so I can decide whether I go with those or with rafters and floor joists.
Other specs are an 8/12 pitch roof for lots of loft headroom and ventilation as well as some finishing to have a place to stay when the weather is bad. We live 15 minutes away from the land and I don't like my wife having to drive in the snow and ice. If a pole structure, I'm thinking 8" x 8" posts. I was planning 12' pole spacing, but I don't know if that's going to cut it. I was going to use triple 2 x 12's on top of the center posts and two 2 x 12's with the post sandwiched in between for the truss/joist carriers. What do you guys think? If I go stick, it will 2 x 6 throughout. I will still use posts and beams on the interior for truss/floor joists supports as well as a structure to mount the stall panels.
I have these models drawn in SketchUp if anyone wants to have a look or wants to use them to improve upon. Any and all opinions are welcomed. Thanks in advance.
Will
This new project is a couple orders of magnitude larger. I will probably need to hire a crew to frame and sub out some of the work, mainly the roof and foundation work.
To give some back story to why I've arrived at the design I am at now, it's driven by my land and clown of a neighbor. I have 10 acres. I have road access on both ends. I have a 1.3 acre pond that feeds a watering trough that was installed to provide water to cattle that had been on the land 30 years ago. My previously mentioned shed is located on the end of my property near a cul-de-sac which is near a neighbor. My wife also had a riding arena built. She is a therapeutic riding instructor for special needs children and adults. The neighbor really doesn't like it and I had to fight him and his lawyer in a zoning board hearing. I'm not the bragging type, but he lost. Soundly; however, I don't like being the one to keep jabbing at people and ultimately would like to be friends with the guy (my wife feels otherwise) so I am trying to locate the barn as farm from him as possible.
This presents a lot of problems and will add significantly to the cost. I am OK with that. The location I would like to use is on a hill. I like that aspect in that it is the highest point on the property. You can see everything. There's no danger of flooding if the dam gives way or the overflow drain fails and there is a spill over. All that said, I will have to do some hill shaving and inset a portion of the barn into the hill.
I've read everything I could find on the stick frame vs pole frame debate. Each has their pros and cons. I was initially thinking pole is the way to go, but since I want wood or engineered wood siding as opposed to metal, I thought I would look at a stick frame with a foundation. I don't want a concrete floor for the stalls or aisle. Only the tack room and wash bay will have concrete. I want a full length loft, 12-foot inside height for ventilation and horse safety, and 12 x 12 stalls.
I started with a 36 x 36 building. If I go with a pole structure, I can still get pretty close to having a true 12 x 12 stall. As I began drawing a stick frame sitting on 8" x 8"x 16" blocks, I realized I had to bump the building up to a 40 x 40 to get the area I wanted. I've drawn it up with attic trusses on 16" OC. If I go with a pole structure, I think I will go with 24" OC trusses. I am calling some truss guys tomorrow to get prices on trusses so I can decide whether I go with those or with rafters and floor joists.
Other specs are an 8/12 pitch roof for lots of loft headroom and ventilation as well as some finishing to have a place to stay when the weather is bad. We live 15 minutes away from the land and I don't like my wife having to drive in the snow and ice. If a pole structure, I'm thinking 8" x 8" posts. I was planning 12' pole spacing, but I don't know if that's going to cut it. I was going to use triple 2 x 12's on top of the center posts and two 2 x 12's with the post sandwiched in between for the truss/joist carriers. What do you guys think? If I go stick, it will 2 x 6 throughout. I will still use posts and beams on the interior for truss/floor joists supports as well as a structure to mount the stall panels.
I have these models drawn in SketchUp if anyone wants to have a look or wants to use them to improve upon. Any and all opinions are welcomed. Thanks in advance.
Will
