My poor old barn! It's at least a hundred years old, and I think this will be it's last winter (please God, let 'er last the winter!) Much as I'd love to save it, it's just too far gone. So, my project over the next few months will be to plan the NEW barn. I would like to hear from folks who have built barns, and I'd like to know what you would do differently next time or what you think worked out real well. Also would like reccomendations for books or sites to look at on this topic. This barn will house pigs & cows & birds. No need for milking or sanitizing area, no need to store hay or feed in it. It will just be shelter. I want it to look like a barn, too, with a traditional roof & doors, and I want wood, not metal. How do the two materials compare, cost-wise? My husband and I will be building it ourselves, and neither of us are professional builders, so we're looking for something fairly simple and straightforward. Thanks!

-- Shannon (Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary) (gratacres@aol.com), October 06, 2000

Answers

Hi Shannon -- have read your posts with interest. Where do you live? How much winter protection are your animals going to need? I have been involved with 4 barn buildings now, but only for horses. If you are in southern california, a run-in shed is usually fine, but it doesn't sound like your case. How many cows, pigs, etc? If it is small, there is an intersting book called 'Building a Multi-Use Barn' with a lot of different options. Another useful one is 'Complete Plans for Building Horse Barns Big and Small' that has sizing and different locals figured for, everything from a 2 horse size to one big enough to house a dairy herd, I should think.

We cruise other farms a lot...I have seen some really NICE new metal buildings lately that until I got up close, I didn't even know they WERE metal! They built them on the old fieldstone foundations, which were apparently good (or poured a new one inside?) and it looked GREAT. I was jealous. My first barn was/is wood. It has to be painted regularly, the metal ones do not. The woodpeckers occasionally whack on it (but I know you don't mind that), and I just had to have a section of the roof replaced that rotted. New shingles next spring...the metal ones don't need it...there are pros and cons on both.

One thing I don't have as yet is a straw-bale construction barn, but the ones that I have seen in articles look really interesting!! And they might just last you another hundred years. Someone posted under cost of straw on the board that he built his house out of straw bales and you might want to contact him. I favor it in terms of cost (which I hear is WAY cheaper than wood or metal), that the owner and some friends can do it, ecological reasons, as well as the idea of the super-insulation, rodent proofing, and fireproofing -- barn fires are one of my nightmare dreads. You can put a traditional gambrel roof onto a strawbale structure if you want it to look more conventional.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), October 06, 2000.

Shannon, I was wondering. Could you use any of the wood from the old barn? It seems that alot or those really old barns are made from hugh beams. Is all the siding bad or just some of it. Maybe you could build a smaller barn or several sheds from your poor old barn.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), October 07, 2000.

Shannon, first thanks for getting me the contacts for the chickens in Ohio. Second, why are you only making room for the animals and no feed? Not to be disrespectful, but seems to me you would save alot of time if the animals and their food are all in the same building. I'm not a handyman, so can't help you out on the building process. Just thought I would bring this up before you start. Thanks again!

-- Michael W. Smith (Kirklbb@penn.com), October 08, 2000.