Well, the boat is sold, and the barn can go up now!! Only, we never built a barn before, so if I may throw some questions out.....This is a barn for goats, only we want to build it for horses. Our thinking is that when/if we sell, it will sell better if it was for horses. So, on that note, what height and width should the front barn doors be? When it comes to roof pitch, which is better, a 3:12 or a 4:12 or something all together different? What about a raised breezeway? Pros and cons, and dimensions. Not knowing what else to ask, can you give us some opinions and learning experiences? Thanks, Sissy and Steve

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (jerreleene@hotmail.com), July 16, 2001

Answers

Get a book or two on barn building. They'll have plans and different options, as well as construction techniques. "Practical Pole Building Construction" is about the best book on the subject that I own, wish I'd bought it before I started my own building. It would have answered a lot of questions that didn't come up until partway through the project. Monte Burche writes several books on the subject which are of varying usefulnes.

Roof pitch depends on where you are and what snow load you expect to have to deal with. Pitch increases with expected snow load. 3:12 pitch is more than sufficient in my area (south central MO) but 4:12 wouldn't be enough in a high snow load area, say North Dakota.

You could consider building a gambrel roof. The easy way to do a gambrel roof (according to Gene Logsdon) is to take two pre-built roof trusses, stand them on end, and have them meet in the middle. It would be easier than framing a gambrel roof yourself, but not so easy as laying up pre-built trusses from the factory. It would give you a lot of space on a second floor though.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 16, 2001.

Hi Sissy. We are in the same boat so to speak. Hubby got his semiannual bonus from work and we started getting prices on garage packages and foundations. Holey smokes! Now we have a building plan from a Monte Burch book and its going to sit on Sona tubes with a wooden floor because thats what we can afford. We know very little about construction so I have no idea about roof pitch etc. I am blessed to have a girlfriend in the construction industry who is going to idiot proof our plan (lotsa diagrams and instructions) and make us a complete materials list so we know what to buy, including trusses. I am tired of going into "man" stores and asking for something and then being posed with a question to which I can only give them a blank look and say "Umm.I dunno". I think I have to do it all the time so my husband won't lose face in front of all the guys since that would be HIS answer to the question too!LOL Thank goodness for Lynn and her list and her career choice! I will think of you Sissy when I am building ...can you pray for me? I think we will need all the intervention we can get on our place come building time!

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), July 16, 2001.

Sissy, depending on where you live look into the Amish community. When we decided to build our barn we checked into many different barns and opted to go with a convential 30 x 40 wood barn. We had all the wood cut to order[hemlock] from an amish sawmill and hires 2 amish men to put it up. It took them 5 1/2 days and the barn was done.This was about 3 years ago but with all materials and labor it was under $7,000. We did have to buy pressure treated wood for the foundation. My husband did the inside himself.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), July 16, 2001.

Sissy, Go to your local library and looks for barn or out building books look through them and then compose a drawing of what you want once you decided. We rebuilt the inside of a small 40X40 cattle barn 5 years ago. We tried to keep in mind that the inside stall were portable so we or whoever could take them out. T post and skids or pallets workd good for this when removed only the 4 main stalls remained. Hope this helps some. Linda in Indy

-- Linda in Indy (peacefulvalley3@yahoo.com), July 16, 2001.

Allison NS "and its going to sit on Sona tubes with a wooden floor because thats what we can afford." If you can get a rready mix truck into your building sight I think that would be cheaper then a wood floor. You could pitch the concrete in way that could make for easy clean up with garden hose and keep your wood dry.

-- ed (edfrhes@aol.com), July 16, 2001.

Another option would be "pre-fabricated" or owner built kits. www.shelter-kit.com is one that comes to mind... there are probably dozens of other manufacturers. Many of these kits come precut with everything you need for assembly, although I'd assume the foundation is up to you.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), July 16, 2001.

www.horsekeeping.com/horse_facilities/horse_barn.htm

-- ed (edfrhes@aol.com), July 16, 2001.

Errr, no, ed, a concrete floor is not going to be cheaper than a suspended wood floor. By the time you pay someone to grade, compact, lay in the gravel, pour a foundation (floating slabs are called that for a reason, not a good idea anywhere there's a real winter), and then pay the crew to pour the slab itself that's a heck of an investment. I don't know if you've ever floated concrete but it is hard physical labor and you can't take a break. Darn near killed me just doing less than a dozen (I think it was actually 8) 2x30 pads last year. Novices should not try to pour a cement floor without an experienced crew to float it, and a cement pad without proper preparation of the ground is just flat a waste of money. IMHO.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 16, 2001.

Though I would pour a footing, I am not a fan of cement in the barn areas the goats live in. I would have cement in your milking/feed area, which can also be a horse tack area later on. But a wooden floor or cement for goats? Lots of bedding. You ought to go and visit goat farms doing exactly what you are wanting to do, either meat or dairy or pet. Also any barn can later have stalls added for horses. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 16, 2001.

Oh, whoa! Should've read the original post more thoroughly. Why put any sort of floor in this thing at all since its for animals anyway? (Except maybe a milking area like Vicki said). Sorry, have house building on the brain (my house is built from pole-frame barn plans, with a suspended wood floor).

Concrete is hard on their legs/feet, especially horses should not be kept on a concrete floor. They make these special rubber mats to cushion dairy cattle in concrete floored barns because its so hard on the animals to stand on concrete for any appreciable amount of time.

My barn (going up this spring/summer, knock wood) will have a dirt floor. Much easier to deal with when keeping animals, and cheaper to boot.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 16, 2001.

My sister has had horses and tells me the standard size for a box stall for a horse is 12' x 12'. The ceiling needs to be rather high so a rearing horse does not hit his head. Ten feet? Pole barns are fairly easy to build since you don't need to mess with forms and concrete footings. The poles are set in concrete in 18" diameter holes augered four feet deep from finish grade. Use 6" x 6" treated timbers. The poles are spaced at 12' on center. I designed and built my own pole barn with hay loft several years ago. The roof is supported on trusses the run the width of the building and purlins that run the lengnth. The walls are framed with girts that run horizontal on the posts. The siding (metal or wood) is nailed to the girts. It is easy to cut in doors and windows anywhere you want. For doors you just drop 4" x 4" posts in concrete on each side of the door and on the inside of the girts. When set, cut the girts from the door frame. Similar for windows: frame the hole on the inside face of the girts and then cut out the unwanted material. Most barns I've seen in my area have dirt floors. The stalls should have dirt floors, but work areas can have slabs. I've seen raised wood floors with insulated walls in portions of the barn for storing tack and supplies that you don't want to get moldy or too cold. The pole barn gives you lots of flexibility. I like the monitor style with a hay loft down the center. I pictures of the barn I built on my website: www.sundaycreek.com

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), July 16, 2001.