Pole barn/ house ideas

[smz]

Hi to all,
I am contemplating building a shop with part of it being used as living area. The shop/storage part would be approx. 45 x 80. At the front of it I would like to add on between 40-50 x 36 for possible future living area. I would like the living part to have at least 8/12 pitch partially for looks to split it from the shop and also to be able to do a second story and partial vaulted ceiling. Picture a log cabin with steep roof, angled endwall and covered with windows. Shop would be standard 4/12 pitch with vaulted ceiling.
Not sure if it is possible to do this with pole barn style framing. Companies that sell steel trusses that work with poles wont do anything more than a 6/12 pitch and limited in width.
I am having a tough time getting any real answers from local lumberyards, menards, etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
P.S. Probably using 12' sidewall

 

[premierplayer]

just googled this up from the vault

some ideas, maybe

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63033

https://sites.google.com/site/longmeadowfarmairport/

 

[cyamaha2007]

You can use regular style house trusses on a pole barn. Generally polebarn trusses are set on 10ft 8ft or 4ft centers. My friends are on 2ft centers. They are a 8-12 pitch.

 

[green.bubbly]

My plans were identical to yours until I ran into my first issue. There were no local pole barn builders that could do anything over a 4/12 pitch. Only with specifically placed interior load bearing walls would they even consider custom truss design. Losing the completely open floor plan was a big no no so I instead went with red iron construction.

I then strayed away from the one building due to the high erection costs. That was running around $4.00/sqft. Of course my desire was to keep any outside labor down to a minimum so I decided to do a separate garage/shop allowing me and my son to erect that part ourselves.

I also wanted an open attic space which can not be done with trusses. In the end, the red iron was a little more but it left me with a wider design to work with. My build thread link is in my signature below.

 

[tomroblee]

You should be able to do about anything with post frame (polebarn) that you can do with any other type of construction. I would suggest that you talk with some of the larger pole barn contractors in your state, or look at the web sites for pole barn contractors in other areas just for ideas.

You can look at the National Frame Building Association website for some ideas and contacts for materials and builders. http://nfba.org

You could probably get some better information from this board if you mentioned the area where you are intending to build.