Pole Barn / Outbuilding / Machine Shed / Man-Cave / Workshops

Attog · Jul 18, 2021

My next goal in life is to build one of these. Unfortunately I live in a suburban area that doesn't allow them by covenant so I am going to have to buy an empty lot north of town and build one there. I have several friends who own one, some use it as a workshop, one of them has it set up with poker tables and a lifetimes worth of hunting and fishing shit:

I know a bunch of guys on here own one, most of you probably have tractors and stuff parked in it. How big of a hassle is it to build, heat, pay for, etc? What did you do right or wrong in building it? Anything I should know about them before trying to get one?

BrutulTM · Jul 18, 2021

There's a wide range of answers to most of those questions. I put up a 50x100 pole barn in 2015 and it cost about $75k. Half of that was materials and half was labor. It's really bare bones though. No concrete floor, no electrical, no insulation, no heat (it's for parking machinery in). Wood frame with 20' and 24' roll up doors and a little 8 foot one to bring the 4-wheelers in. I did the dirt work myself and then later realized that I had done a shit job of it so I had a guy come in and do it correctly which cost about $5k. A metal frame building with concrete floors and whatnot like the above picture would be considerably more expensive by the square foot I'm sure but yours probably wouldn't need to be as big either.

If you want to DIY it the only really hard part is putting up the roof trusses but the guys that built it did it with a telehandler which can be easily rented unlike a crane. The guys that built it were very good. Once the materials were on site they showed up and had the whole building finished in 5 days.

Borzak · Jul 18, 2021

I always had a steel building like the one in the OP pics. It takes no time at all to build. I normally got the erector crew with a cherry picker to put up the steel and I did all the finishing. If you've never done it gonna guess it's cheaper to get the company you get the building from to put it up and then do all the finishing yourself. Will take them no time at all. Once you have the frame up. up to you if you want them to do the siding. First one was 24x36 30 years ago. Last one was 40x100. Great thing about them it's easy to just keep adding on length wise.

Haus · Jul 19, 2021

I'll start with a pic of my internal workshop workbench here at Chez Haus....

Currently I have the workshop left by the previous owner, an Electrical Engineer. It's around 20x25 and inside the house (part of the previous garage)
The detatched garage I rebuilt a while back and serves as my "working on bigger things" space (see the home improvement thread I think for pics of that endeavor)
Behind the detatched garage is a 15x25 space where I'm setting up to do metalwork (melting metal and casting)

I've quickly realized I want to tinker/build/play on a scale my house also won't allow for really.

But since

Mrs. Haus is hot and heavy to move out to the country (minimum 45 minutes from Dallas) we're just shopping for places which already have some sort of structure like this on them. So I can just retrofit it into my skunkworks. Something like this :

1528 Reynolds Ln, Sherman, TX 75092 | Zillow

Zestimate® Home Value: $0. 1528 Reynolds Ln, Sherman, TX is a mobile / manufactured home that contains 896 sq ft and was built in 1997. It contains 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Zestimate for this house is $315,600, which has increased by $8,913 in the last 30 days. The Rent Zestimate for...

www.zillow.com

Where we could use the existing single wide on the property while we build the house we want.

mkopec · Jul 19, 2021

I have 2 on my Northern MI property. One is like 20x30 and the other is way larger maybe 30x50 and much taller? But the larger one does not have electrical ran. It has a sunlight at the top. But it would be easy and pretty cheap to power it up though. They are mostly used for storage of our snowmobiles, boat, golf carts 4 wheelers, shit like that plus some tools in both. But tentative plans are to retire there because it such cheap living. Probabaly tear down the cabin there which is small and put a manufactured 1200 sq/ft home over a basement.

Goatface · Jul 20, 2021

Attog said:
My next goal in life is to build one of these. Unfortunately I live in a suburban area that doesn't allow them by covenant so I am going to have to buy an empty lot north of town and build one there. I have several friends who own one, some use it as a workshop, one of them has it set up with poker tables and a lifetimes worth of hunting and fishing shit:

like way out in the county? or just a more rural neighborhood? how far away? what are you going to use it for?

personally building "offsite" would be my last option, but also depends on what is going to be used for.

Attog · Jul 20, 2021

As close to my home as possible, will be used for storage and maybe turn some of it into a replica 80s arcade.

Hoss · Jul 20, 2021

Timely topic. I'm trying to get quotes right now to build a shop on the land next door. Ideally we will also have a guest house and a workout studio attached. We're looking at about 50x50 2 story. Once some more prices roll in we might start cutting down. We'll get power and AC immediately but might hold off on water and sewer until we actually need the apartment. It will all definitely be stubbed in though. I am hoping for pier and beam with a steel frame, but ultimately I will go with the foundation and frame that's least expensive.

Attog · Jul 20, 2021

Hoss said:
Timely topic. I'm trying to get quotes right now to build a shop on the land next door. Ideally we will also have a guest house and a workout studio attached. We're looking at about 50x50 2 story. Once some more prices roll in we might start cutting down. We'll get power and AC immediately but might hold off on water and sewer until we actually need the apartment. It will all definitely be stubbed in though. I am hoping for pier and beam with a steel frame, but ultimately I will go with the foundation and frame that's least expensive.

Awesone, looking forward to hearing more.

Hoss · Jul 20, 2021

So far all I can tell you is that the price of wood is fucking ridiculous. Everyone is telling us we we picked the worst time to do this. But I'm like, fuck it, I'll grow old without my workshop if I try to wait for the best time.

Prices have come down recently though. The first estimate was double what we were willing to pay. So we will likely be cutting back.

Attog · Jul 20, 2021

Lumber prices have fallen 60% since their May high, but that is underlying commodity so who knows if it has trickled down to retail sellers just yet. They might still have $$$ inventory and be fucking people on pricing.

Goatface · Jul 21, 2021

certainly not seen lower prices here, 3/4 advantech is like $90 and 3/4 birch plywood is over $100. the local lumber store was saying it will probably go up more over fuel prices

Haus · Jul 21, 2021

Goatface said:
certainly not seen lower prices here, 3/4 advantech is like $90 and 3/4 birch plywood is over $100. the local lumber store was saying it will probably go up more over fuel prices

Also we're about to see inflation overall.. Before it was just commodity lumber price inflation.

Hoss · Jul 21, 2021

Buying from lowes is different than what a general contractor does. Lowes might have a huge high priced stock, but a GC isn't buying from Lowes and also isn't buying that shit to store.

Just heard about these guys. Sounds interesting but so far all they have is a 20x20 building. They say they'll have bigger buildings soon and will be able to stick them together. The website is aids, but it's kinda cool how it arrives and goes up. I heard about it because elon musk got one.

BOXABL

BOXABL - Accessory Dwelling Unit

www.boxabl.com

Kiroy · Jul 21, 2021

Hoss said:
Just heard about these guys. Sounds interesting but so far all they have is a 20x20 building. They say they'll have bigger buildings soon and will be able to stick them together. The website is aids, but it's kinda cool how it arrives and goes up. I heard about it because elon musk got one.

BOXABL

BOXABL - Accessory Dwelling Unit

www.boxabl.com

was about to rip into the sqft cost, but it's actually not bad if you live in a slightly above average cost area

Hoss · Jul 21, 2021

Kiroy said:
was about to rip into the sqft cost, but it's actually not bad if you live in a slightly above average cost area

I'm not sure if the $50k includes delivery. If it does then surely there will be some savings as you scale up. I like that you don't need to pour a slab.

Intrinsic · Jul 21, 2021

Goatface said:
certainly not seen lower prices here, 3/4 advantech is like $90 and 3/4 birch plywood is over $100. the local lumber store was saying it will probably go up more over fuel prices

Thankfully back down to $66 here at Lowe's, although I don't really like their 3/4" Birch ply. It was up to over $80 shortly b/c right after I moved out of my house had a small flood in the garage and had to have insurance replace 3 sheets. Been without a shop or house though now for almost 3 months. Haven't even been to my local premium hardwood shop to see their prices. Hoping I'll wander back in there in the next two months and it'll be like it never changed!

Kiroy · Jul 21, 2021

Hoss said:
I'm not sure if the $50k includes delivery. If it does then surely there will be some savings as you scale up. I like that you don't need to pour a slab.

it doesn't - $1-$10 a mile they quote for delivery, which I guess could add up to be completely rediculious

i'm like 500 mile from vegas though so assuming getting close to the 1 dollar amount is even possible that's not bad.

Hoss · Jul 28, 2021

One thing I learned. Apparently making the building 2 story doubles the cost. I know on the surface it makes sense, but I would have thought there'd be some economy of scale at work and things that didn't have to be repeated that would make it less than double. In our case, the 2nd story was only over half the building. But knocking it off literally cut the price in half on the first quote.

Attog · Jul 29, 2021

Hoss said:
One thing I learned. Apparently making the building 2 story doubles the cost. I know on the surface it makes sense, but I would have thought there'd be some economy of scale at work and things that didn't have to be repeated that would make it less than double. In our case, the 2nd story was only over half the building. But knocking it off literally cut the price in half on the first quote.

By two story do you mean taller, or do you mean an interior stick frame structure with stairs?

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