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Pole barn home vs stick built

seths1985

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Im in the planning stages of a new home debating stick built vs pole barn. I am gonna have a basement or atleast crawl. 36x48 is what we're looking at size wise now with one side open vaulted ceilings and a loft with a bedroom on the other. Thoughts? Anyone else done it? All info welcome!
 
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Busted_Knuckles

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A pole barn is not a house, from a technical stand point, like, trying to seal it up to make it livable, its doable, but from scratch, I stick build my living quarters, and then if you want a pole barn for a shop, build that. Ive built both styles of shops, I prefer the stick built from a long term ownership standpoint.

You can build a house in a pole barn... kinda redundant from a time and materials standpoint.

With the fires Ive attended ( garage shop ), Id avoid my sleeping/living quarters from my hobby hole, if the option where available.
 

kd3pc

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OP, you will spend a fortune trying to heat, cool, and de-pest a pole style building unless it is clad like a home would be, or you carve out a living space on the slab. Pole barn with a basement becomes ....prestressed concrete floors, and so on.

A lot more to it, and if you plan to finance it, it will have to conform.

Timber frame yes, pole barn...???
 

barks

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Never understood the economics of building a building (house) inside a pole barn. What's the upside?
 

n20junkie

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If it's going to look like a house, build it like a house.


If its going to look like a tin buiding, build a pole barn. Why go through such large measures to make a pole barn something its not.
 

bmxdad

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The guy who built my pole garage, built a pole building home. He has a two story, five bedroom affair, with an attached garage. I think he said it was a modified riding barn. Steel roof and wood siding. Reason he did it was for the open floor plan, and he has the option to modify it anytime he wants. He mentioned the cost being about half the cost for the frame.

If I build a house, it'll be a pole building.

https://www.pinterest.com/anditotl/pole-barn-homes/
 
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DCarr2

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the term your looking for is barndominium and they are a lot more common than people realise.

I was seriously researching this before i found the house i bought as i wasnt finding what i needed for the amount of money i had to invest, so i was going to do a barndominium on one side and the shop on the other.

its still a pretty cutting edge subsection of the housing market so in some instances you can sneak by some of the more stringent codes.
 
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NC357

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Pole built will be substantially cheaper than stick built for the same thing. If you build a standard "pole barn", then build a raised wood floor for your crawlspace, it would be no harder to seal up and weatherproof than any other house. The difference is you need no foundation, the poles are your foundation. If you prepare your poles to last, they will last 100 or more years.

Permits should not be a problem as long as you have engineer's drawings and build in all the required code items for a living space.

Yes, it is actually quite common, especially in more rural areas.
 

lakeroadster

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In some jurisdictions there is a clear advantage to build a pole barn style house, due tax advantages.

If you plan to sell the home in the future, keep in mind that many folks would never consider buying such a house.
 

TractorJeff

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GOOGLE the name brand pole building builders!
There are lots of photo's of pole buildings being built as homes along with State locations!
 

cojeeper

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Seths - I built a pole frame house back in 2002 and still in it. saved a thousands with not having a foundation poured. it is 36 x 72, two story over half with a big *** great room.
heating is a combo of radiant floor and a wood stove. the wood stove will pretty much heat the hole house. the one thing I would do the next time is to spray foam the frame and then hang traditional bat insulation. this will cut down on the air leaks. Also, add some type of air filtering. we have no air conditioner and the fine dust seems to get everywhere, granted we are out in the country and on dirt roads.

I would agree with previous posts in keeping a shop separate from the house. To big of a safety risk in my opinion.

We are getting ready to do some remolding and have been able to cut costs there two as there is only two load bearing walls in the hole house. ( 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath)
 

zendriver

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PIA to sell, unless the buyer can pay cash, which is few and far between.

Saw an awesome pole barn house 11 acre property basically given away, at auction.

For lenders, it's all about the "comparables", which for these, are few, to non-existent.
 
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73RR

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Good point on market 'comps'. If your area has some then that is helpful if you are needing to finance the building either before or after construction.
If you have any questions about this, find a mortgage underwriter to talk with. Do not believe anything a mortgage loan officer tells you unless the underwriter is sitting next to them. LO will do just about anything to sell a mortgage; the underwriter is the gal that will decide if the property has enough value to gamble the company's money on.
 

Catadj78

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The wife and I have a traditional stick home and a pole barn for the shop but we are looking for 40-50 acres of additional land preferably further out in the country than we are now but plan on doing a pole house on that property. Another local couple is building one right now. Looks great so far
 

jack stand

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Im in the planning stages of a new home debating stick built vs pole barn. I am gonna have a basement or atleast crawl. 36x48 is what we're looking at size wise now with one side open vaulted ceilings and a loft with a bedroom on the other. Thoughts? Anyone else done it? All info welcome!

The primary advantage of a "pole building" is you don't have the added expense of a foundation. It is my opinion that unless you have ground water issues, a crawl space is just a few bucks short of real usable space.
 

Voi

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Im in the planning stages of a new home debating stick built vs pole barn. I am gonna have a basement or atleast crawl.

Pole built homes pop up on our listing service once in a while. Anything from expensive horse properties to seasonal cabins.

With the seasonal cabins there are often elevated crawl spaces with skirting. Is that what you mean by a crawl space? I'm thrown off by the mention of a basement and feel like you mean something different.

I have never see one with an elevated crawl anywhere near the size you're considering, however.

I've been in both older pole barn homes and older "double wides" and the pole barn homes always seem to be in better condition, for what it is worth. I know this thread isn't comparing those two but thought I'd mention it.

Also, when researching my own cabin project I found a couple of pole barn companies that make home kits that are sort of entry level post and beam style. I've seen samples of laminated columns and glulam type timber trusses from one of them and they are nice.
 
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seths1985

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Apr 9, 2014
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Sorry im just now getting back to everyone, i have decided to do the shop (pole barn) seperate from the house. I think it will end up being stick built with rafters for a second story loft. But the outside of the house is going to be all metal��
 
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