Building a Barn (or at least trying) Update

[dnormand25]

We accomplished a lot this weekend. To my surprise, I was able to install the upper section of metal roofing.



Thanks for all of the nice comments and encouragement. It was many of the amazing projects I have viewed on this site that gave me the the inspiration to attempt my own.

D.P.Normand

[Macybaby]

neat barn - sort of like the one DH and I built when we lived in WI.




From the house on a winter day.



It had a deck on the upper level at each end with a walkpath between then. Had to use a ladder to get up there. The white panels let light in. The other side was partially open for a lean too for the horses.





Sure wish we could have taken the barn with us when we moved to SD.

Will be looking forward to more pictures of your barn.

Cathy

[rambler]

Do this style of barns have an upper story in that narrow top part? What is the advantage to the tall center roof & 2 shorter roofs?

Because, you could make the barn taller all the way out, and not use any more siding or much of anything really. Don't you lose a lot of storage space with the 2 low sides, and not really save much in materials?

Not knocking them, both of you made really nice looking barns. Nice work.

Just not a familiar style around me, and curious.

--->Paul

[dnormand25]

In my case,I wanted the upper section for storage of items I do not use regularly as well as for square bails. I catered the floor plan to suit my needs. I wanted animal stalls and storage. This building will serve as a hub for all of my interest related equipment. Hive Bodies, brooders. incubators, cages and all other livestock related materials. I know myself well enough to recognize that if i don't have easily partition able space, all will become cluttered. This is why I have all of the Partition walls.
For a working farm, clear open spaces are a necessity, but my belief is that the basis of good design is to cater the function with the vernacular and meet the individual's needs. That's been my attempt and I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

D.P.Normand

[MushCreek]

I've seen those referred to as a monitor barn. Usually the lower part is open on the ends, and the lean-to areas are stalls for animals. The upper part is a hay loft. Some of the advantages are that you can build it in stages, as time and money allow, and the various pieces of wood are smaller and lighter for folks building a barn with manual labor.

[ronbre]

MC your explaination made total sense..espthe buid in stages and smaller lighter building pieces..

[Macybaby]

Our upper loft was not big enough for serious hay storage - it was only 10' wide (could store 400 bales in one side though). The center was big enough to drive the tractor through. Had a tack room on one end and a stall across from it (next to the run-in area). We had movable gate panels and could set up extra stalls if needed.

Ours started out as a lean to for the horses, then we built a cooresponding one on the other side and made the first one longer. Then we built the upper section in the middle. The upper deck was great for watching what was going on in the arena. When we built, it was going to be our "forever" home but that didn't happen.

DH always wanted a barn of that style, he loved the way it looked. It stayed very cool in the summer, we could open the big doors on both ends and the wind just blowed through. In the winter we closed it up and put haybales along the bottom of the doors and it kept it very snug.

Like MC says - very easy design to do with manual labor. DH and I built ours with some help from our son (young adult at the time). We joked about hauling our entire barn in our 16' stock trailer.

[Tinkman]

This is great. I love seeing this type of setting. The horses under shelter, snow on the ground. Great job on the building. I was curious about the upper section of the building also. Did that add a great amount of cost to the building by doing it that way? I'm the same as you..I built my storage garage with a second floor. All of the small stuff gets put up there so it is out of my way.
http://www.portablegarageshelter.com