Old 1880 Barn Shop Conundrum

[tacomanh]

Hello Fellow GJer's,

As most new posters start, I am a long time lurker, first time poster. The amount of knowledge here is incredible and my wife always wonders how I can look at tool and shop threads for hours (pretty easily I might add!). I come for some wisdom.

We bought our current 1880's farmhouse with an attached 40'x50' barn of similar year. The barn is in really good shape and had a lot of maintenance done prior to us buying it. It was originally a hay and cattle barn and still have the old grain feed box with feeding amounts for each cow as well as name plates above the stalls for the last cows that lived there. It has a wooden floor and a five foot "basement" under the whole barn that currently stores my equipment trailer.

Here is the conundrum. I am a car and equipment guy and love working on machinery. We live in beautiful NH with tons of snow and cold right now so all of the items are currently in the barn for winter so it is stocked full with a 40hp TLB, Corvette, 21' boat, Kubota tractor, john deere, and motors, parts, etc. My issue with the Barn is that it is freezing, dark (have lights but it ***** up the light), has a wood floor (which I don't want to ruin), and has a lip on the entry which means I need to use ramps for the Corvette. Obviously these are all "first world" problems as I am able to have a nice dry place for storage and to work on things, just not ideal for a mechanic type environment.

I would like the following:, heated, bright, concrete floor, lift. Here is where I need your help and expertise. Do I look into putting in a spanned concrete floor in the barn and build a "shop" within the barn with insulation heat, etc., build concrete walls and foundation up to the floor of the barn and cut out the middle section of wood and then build the "shop" within the barn, or do I build a new shop for that stuff? I have room to build a new shop but it may look awkward from the road given the size. In addition, I want to preserve the barn so as not to continue ruining the wood floor.

A lot of information I know but any other insights or thoughts would be great!! Here are some pics and thanks in advance!

 

[Kaizen]

Do you have the land to leave the barn alone and make a dedicated two car with a concrete pad? Probably about the same money and you wouldn’t have to worry about trying to fit your idea into that mold. Besides that’s a beautiful barn


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[rburke65]

It would be helpful if you updated your profile with a location. Back to the barn....I would build new and keep that great looking barn pretty much as us. The barn is beautiful.

 

[yeldogt]

I can tell you from experience it will be cheaper to build another building -- you will get what you want and have a great old barn to use for something else. You are looking at levels of expense higher repurposing the barn .... the floor alone is a major expense.

Find the correct architect and build a proper building that fits into the property -- the correct architect will understand typical grouped buildings and will get you what you need/ want.

I have done two barns -- an industrial loft and I'm doing a church currently. Barns are extremely expense (and churches ) -- it's easier to build a new timber frame vs fixing an old one.

 

[kaiser715]

I, too, would be inclined to put up a dedicated shop building. I think with that style barn, you could easily come up with something that would complement, not clash or compete with the barn.

I'd turn that space into a fair-weather man cave. Barn dance, anyone?

 

[rsanter]

If it was me I would decide my stuff and decide what needs to go into a concrete floor shop and what can be stored in the bars.

I would build a separate building near the old barn and try to make it look similar (at a distance anyway) and set up a working shop in the new building.
Then I would set up the old building as storage and parking.

In the old barn you can build dedicated rooms inside for keeping things cleaner and more secure if you wanted to. And it can be done in such a way so they can be removed later without damaging the barn

 

[My Old Tools]

That's a beautiful timber frame barn. Why would you want a hard cold concrete floor. I would kill for a wood floor. It has had livestock and equipment on it for 140 years. I don't think you'll hurt it. You can always cover it with plywood T&G if you want. Paint that with a good porch paint to lighten it up. You have a natural pit so you don't really need a lift. Hang some serious lights and go to work. For heat I would build a smaller room inside, well insulated and heat that. Maybe a bay and a half with the pit under it.

 

[kbs2244]

Attached barns are a unique New England thing and probably yours is grandfathered in as I would guess it will not meet current code.
You ,ay even have an “appearance code board” whose approval you need to alter the look of what you have.
(They were attached so the farmer did not have to go outdoors twice a day to milk the cows.)
To respect to the “look” of what you have, I would find an engineer and consider the idea of a “building inside a building.”
I.E. Use the existing barn as an appearance shell while putting a new building inside it.

 

[T_R]

I would build a new smaller 2 car garage for the vette and keep the barn for storage of the tractors, trailers, boats etc.

 

[Aberdale]

Nice barn. I have a small hobby farm here in Ohio, and went through the same decision making that you are currently going through. In my case, I had a 40x60 2-story barn. The doors were too narrow to get equipment in easily, and the ceiling height on the ground floor was 9 1/2 feet, so it limited the size of equipment I could fit inside.

In 2008 I decided to build a new 40x60 shop building with 14' ceilings and two 12'x12' doors. The shop was fully insulated and heated with a natural gas forced air furnace. It was far cheaper than renovating the barn. One downside with building new is that my property taxes bumped up with addition of another "improvement" on the property.

I don't regret the decision, as there's few days that go by that I'm not getting use out of the new building. I use the old barn for storage of restored antique tractors. The only improvements I've made to the old barn is an electrical upgrade and lighting, and I poured a full concrete floor (it used to be dirt). When I first moved here I put hay in the upstairs of the barn, but now it sits empty. It's not a bank barn, so there's no drive in access to the upstairs. It seems like a lot of good space that's not getting utilized. At this point, I'm considering making improvements to the barn before I would build another building, to keep my taxes from going up even more.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'd leave the barn as is for storage and build yourself a dedicated shop for working in. You could possibly attach it to the current barn and make it look "correct."

 

[engineer2]

I would avoid doing any welding, grinding, painting in an old barn like that unless fire safety has been addressed.

 

[1Garageman]

You could sell that barn to lumber places that sell barn wood. People make a lot of money off of selling barn wood. Take that money and build yourself a newer building!

 

[yeldogt]

You could sell that barn to lumber places that sell barn wood. People make a lot of money off of selling barn wood. Take that money and build yourself a newer building!

The "barn gods" do not approve !

 

[Bronson]

You could sell that barn to lumber places that sell barn wood. People make a lot of money off of selling barn wood. Take that money and build yourself a newer building!

Blasphemer!

 

[Ed Devinney]

I spent 20 years wrenching in a shed off a similar vintage corn crib, so I feel for you. But that's a beautiful barn. Count me in the leave it be & build camp.

It's also way, way too nice to take down.

 

[1Garageman]

Blasphemer!

I'll admit, I had to look that one up!

 

[1Garageman]

I do A LOT of wood working projects. So my mind sees that wood in my garage!

 

[kbs2244]

Depending on local historical committee power, he may be fined for taking it down.

They can be worse than a HOA in their power to “preserve” the area.

 

[Nor'Easter]

Not many people around to appreciate all the original barns and homesteads in New England. I say leave it for cold/"stuff" storage and build a smaller building as a "working" garage.

 

[Bronson]

I'll admit, I had to look that one up!

I don't want to brag, but I have a 12th grade education.

 

[tin medic]

Keep that barn as is, too many of them are already falling down or being torn down for who knows why. I agree with building a separate facility for a garage.

 

[yhprum]

Keep the barn! The wood floors are excellent for storing vehicles. Just disconnect the battery on anything in there to prevent a fire.

 

[TomC750]

I went the shop in barn route, albeit on a smaller scale. Kind of a combination of using one bay of the barn and adding a second bay. A lot of physical work but cheaper than a new building. The ground floor is radiant heated concrete with a geothermal heat source. Most folks seem to be quite impressed and ask a lot of questions.

Anybody can build a new building, the challenge of the repurposing is what its all about!

 

[gahrajmahal]

Check the build journal from BuickFarmer here on the GJ. He has a nice auto themed spread with multiple buildings along with a special built lean to for welding and grinding. My question to you is, you were attracted to the beauty and history/charm of the cow barn. Why woulde'nt you want to be in that space as much as it was when you aquired it?

On tours of stately homes turned into public touring destinations, the barns or stables are most often turned into the restaurant or gift shop with great success. Before starting down the path of changing your original structure, live with it for a year and tour neighboring barns repurposed and some estate tours to see how these spaces are reused. Get someone to take arial drone photos of your place to see about sighting other buildings for your auto specific pursuits. Junking up your beautiful barn as a storage space, while practical, is turning it into something you would have been turned off by when originally looking for a place.

Good luck, and photos of your journey.

 

[zendriver]

I'd leave the barn as is for storage and build yourself a dedicated shop for working in. You could possibly attach it to the current barn and make it look "correct."

+1 on this idea.

That barn is fixed up nice enough that a modern building could be incorporated into it with a similar exterior look.

Otherw wise you have an old barn and a new pole building.

Yuck.


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[zendriver]

You could sell that barn to lumber places that sell barn wood. People make a lot of money off of selling barn wood. Take that money and build yourself a newer building!

That barn is in way too nice of shape to dismantle




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[gahrajmahal]

Another thought to check into would be to excavate the floor in the under the barn area and make that into your work shop/storage area. If you wanted to install a lift you could cut out the floor above and hinge it so the car could poke up through the opening. Buy one of those harbor freight 10 x 20 garages and set it up in the main barn area to keep the heat in the basement work shop. Or, build an elevated stage above the lift for those barn dances to be held in the main picturesque part of the barn. Insulated and dust proof the barn floor/workshop ceiling and also shore up any questionable foundation issues with the barn.

 

[aGuynamedGuy]

Tacomanh, we also just bought an antique house and barn in southern NH (c. 1782 and 1840), and I'll be converting part of it to a shop. My thoughts are to lay felt paper and house wrap (Tyvek) down on the floors in the center area, then cover with T&G plywood with a thin (cheap) sheet vinyl over that, just for drips. I'll be adding radiant heaters, and will drop curtains to partition off an area for working in the winter. The PO added a stand-alone 200 amp service for the barn itself, so I'll have plenty of power for lights and such. It's a work in process, but I hope it turns out as amazing as it looks in my head

Our basement under the garage is a bit taller (6ish feet to the beams), and being a bank barn, one side is exposed, so we installed a sliding door, drain tile, and about 6" of crushed stone, so we can keep implements like our tractor, mower, plow, and other toys under there. That frees up quite a bit of the upstairs. We also added shelving in the loft area to keep extra lumber, parts, etc. Much like your local NAPA We did convert the old tack room to a "clean room" with a small workbench and table so we can do small projects that need to be kept more dust-free (rebuilding carbs, etc.).

I also have a 12' x 24' shed off the drive to which I'll be adding a concrete floor (with radiant heat using the existing geothermal system), and will use that for welding, heavy grinding, painting, etc. My wife will keep her MGB in there otherwise. I (fortunately) have no historical restrictions, even though my house is federally listed, it's not listed with the state, and we're outside of the town's historical district. We do, however, want to keep the look as historically accurate from the outside as possible.

Anyway, sorry to hijack! I would definitely use the barn for lighter projects, but if you're doing heavy fab work, I'd build a small stick frame garage that you can heat, light, etc.