FINAL meeting before the barn is built..any thoughts?

Welcome to the frustrating deal of new construction from a long distance away. You will find more bumps in the road, but someday you will be able to look back & say the journey was worth it.

I would try to stick with what I wanted as much as possible, & I would try to figure out a way to srimp together more money to pay for what I wanted, rather than cutting corners & 15 years from now feel a bit let down. Money comes & goes, if you can somehow make it work one usually does not regret getting a major building done right the first time.

Good luck with it all.

--->Paul

On the trip back we started thinking a redrawing the barn plan and came up with this:

We raise the wall height to 18', giving us a full 8' in the loft.

At the same time we reduce the width of the barn to 30'.

This actually increases the useable square footage of the loft but doesn't increase the size(and therefore the cost) of the barn.

We would also then not need the dormers and everything associated with them which will save us some $$$.

We also found a sawmill in a trader nerwspaper in NC that is selling white pine boards,1'' rough cut and air dried.Lengths vary from 8-12' and from 4''-12'' widths.
$.45 board feet with a 1000 board feet minimum.
We would need around 3000 feet.

We talked to the barn builder and he liked the idea of raising the wall height and we are going to fax the new plan to him as well as a list of questions/requests....

Would appreciate y'alls advice.

Should the entire barn be sheathed with OSB or similar?

If it isn't sheathed how is siding attached/barn made weathertight?

A complete and thorough breakdown of costs of siding,roofing,poles,etc.

Also is it possible for two complete amateurs(me and Mrs oz ) to side the barn ourselves with lapboard style siding?

Thanks.

Having a house with wood siding,If I could have metal or vinyl I would.Wood is a constant maintanance nightmare,I HATE it.

IMHO Oz,but do consider that if you havent dealt with wood siding before.If youre doing wood because you like the look as your primary consideration,rethink that and think ease of maintanance,in retirement age that will waaaaaayyyyyy.....outweigh looks,believe me.Muscles and backs get old,whats easy enough now may get to be a real challenge later.

Sorry for the frustrations,you and the Mrs take care,you are still making good progress,at least something is happening.

I think things often happen for a reason,maybe God is telling you to reconsider the wood?

Actually,we have 2 with wood,one is lap,the other is like a quarter round log style,the lap is the worst,and air infiltration(therefore heating) is a problem with both,get tyvek wrap for sure,our old houses have nothing but frame and wood,very inadequate,duh.I guess all houses are wrapped nowadays but a barn,maybe not ????

BooBoo

To us,metal is just plain ugly....even when it is 'prettified'

Wood IS more maintenance but it would also be easy to repair/replace I would think.

We think it better to pay the extra and have full sheathing of OSB covering the entire barn as it would provide another barrier,it would also make it easier to insulate-attach straight to OSB.

I sympathise with you on uninsulated houses,ours here was owner built and it seems that nothing was done in a commonsense way.

This is difficult to say. You call it a barn, but you plan to live in it. So it is actually a house, or cabin at least.....

To me a house is to live in by humans, and there are so many restricitions & codes 'here' for a dwelling that I wouldn't need to ask - just have to follow the code. I'd want it to look nice outside.

A barn is something livestock live in, and so the interior walls need to be livestock proof. OSB sheathing would be worthless in such a humid environment. Wood often lasts longer than metal or vinyl on the outside of a livestock building.

A shed is something tools & machinery is kept in. This I would make sturdy, but as cheaply as possible. Metal exterior is about the only thing I would ever consider for a shed.

So, my advise for your 'barn' would be different than advise for a 'shed' vs the rules you need to follow to make a 'house'.

Since I live in Minnesota, my thoughts for insulation & air infiltration of a 'house' probably would be a bit of overkill for you anyhow.

--->Paul

The 'rules' do not apply at present....this is a barn.

It WILL be a living space in the future.

So the code requirements do not apply at present.

The sheathing WOULD it seems help out in the future when it will need ot be insulated wouldn't it?

And yes Minnesota probably has a few more requirements than NC....snow is something that happens a few times a year...

Hi,

You might give some thought to how you are going to heat it (or if you are).

If you have a good south exposure, you might think about a simple solar heater like this one that I use:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...rn_project.htm
As an add on, it cost about $350 in materials, but if you integrated it with a wall you are constructing anyway, the cost would be less. The SunTuf polycarbonate glazing material (gauranteed for "life") is cheaper than most siding at $1 per sqft.

For new construction, you might try something like this:

"For a more integrated approach, the wall stud cavities could be used for the collector itself. The collector/wall could use standard 2X6 studs at 24 inch spacing. The inlet and exit vents could be incorporated in the inside finished wall, and the absorber screen attached to battens mounted vertically about half way back in each stud cavity. The collector side of the inside finished wall could be lined with 1 or 2 inch Polyisocyanurate foam board insulation, which would provide both a high R value, and a high temperature capability at a modest cost. The total R value of the collector wall with the foam board insulation would be about R10 or R17 depending on whether 1 inch or 2 inch foam board is used – comparable to a standard wall. The glazing could be mounted on 2 by 2 members that extend along the top and bottom of the collector, and over each of the vertical studs in the collector area.
The incremental cost of materials to build such a collector compared to the cost of a conventional wall would be close to zero! This would be a really interesting concept to try."


You could also think about direct gain solar (south windows with thermal shutters or shades) for the living space.

Hope your project goes a bit more smoothly from here out.


Gary
www.BuildItSolar.com

I would agree with the siding option. I wanted wood in the worst way because I just knew the vinyl wouldn't look good. DH fought me on it and forced the vinyl option. He won and we used a top product made by Certain Teed. I love the siding, and even let him say " I told you so". The reality is, we put the siding on about two years ago in this adventure and we would be probably be looking at painting this summer before we even finish the inside. So I am glad.

On the construction issue, are you able to get other opinions or are you locked into a contract with this builder?

__________________
Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

No contract but he is the one suggested by the grading contractor who has helped us out a LOT.

Vinyl siding is also not high on our lists of products we love....

Do you have any pic's or a link to see how it looks?

We were planning to stain the wood a natural color.

There's also HardiPlank, which I believe is a colored concrete/sawdust saw-able, nail-able wood substitute with alot less/no maintenence...and pretty fire proof too!

$ Less than wood, more than vinyl. 50 year warrantee.

Pictures here:
http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner...hardiplank.php

Firefighters like it:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=513695

"Firefighters Weigh In On Fire Resistance Of Exterior Sidings

(NAPS)—Real-world fire situations reveal fiber-cement exterior siding
to be more resistant to flames than other siding products, with
firefighters reporting it has barely singed in the hottest of blazes.

In St. Paul, Minn., a townhouse under construction caught fire,
producing one of the hottest fires firefighters there can remember.
The fire reached such proportions that two firetrucks sitting about 60
feet from the building caught fire, and trees across the street were
burned.

Lying undamaged within 10 feet of the destroyed building was a stack
of fiber-cement siding. A building about 50 feet away, on which the
siding had already been placed, also remained intact, aside from some
broken windows.

"We feel that the cement siding is probably what saved the structure,"
says Jack Hoffman, A-Shift deputy chief for the St. Paul Fire
Department.

Lt. Eric Jackson, public information officer for the DeKalb County
(Ga.) Fire and Rescue Services, says radiant heat generated from one
fire will often damage or set ablaze combustible material nearby.

Such was the case at a recent fire he helped extinguish at the Eagles
Run apartment complex in Atlanta. As one townhouse building burned,
the vinyl siding on the building next door literally melted off in
hunks, something Jackson says is common."

__________________
You can't ride, til you get on....

The problem with wood is rot and termites,and the damage is often hidden,then you get into repairs and find LOTS of hidden damage.It warps,it shrinks and expands,dries out,just a nightmare.Cracks,open joints,I hate it.

Oz,Ive seen vinyl siding that looks NICE,believe me.Have no idea the costs.

Very bad in fires though.

Just a thought and my experiences I wanted to toss out.For me,beauty is found in function,the older I get,the more that applies,again,that is me.

My neighbors,retired, fall into 2 groups,those who can afford a lot of expensive paid for maintanance,and those who cant and have their houses rotting away.

Oh,and the metal roof neighbors,to a tee love their roofs,lot easier to maintain than shingles.Thats just a FWIW here in our moist climate.

BooBoo

Another thread today deals with a nasty tax surprise after improving a property, you might want to look at what impact this improvement will have on your tax bill before deciding on any luxury features.

I know, I love the wood as well. The maintenance was going to be the issue with us. I am not going to talk you out of it as I know that you really want the wood. I will try to post some pics...my son is the genius with that and I am at work. Ours is white with black shutters and black roofing ( I love that old farmhouse look) The product is a great one. If you want, look at CertainTeed website and you can see the new colors and textures. As for installation, we did it ourselves and it was the easiest thing we did in the project. Another advantage with vinyl was how light it was. We put it over 1/2 ext sheathing plywood covered with TVEK paper. we used r-19 insulation in the walls and drywall and horizontal wood on the inside ( I absolutely refused to budge on that wood)

__________________
Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

I paid roughly 68.00 a square ( 136.00 for a 2 sq box which was 24 12'.6" pieces of D4 coverage) Corner pieces were 15.00, J channel for windows and doors 4.99 each and soffit and fascia run about 14.00 each piece.

__________________
Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended