anickode
Active member
I just got a 20 yard roll off dumpster delivered about an hour ago so I can start cleaning out the loft of my big barn and do some demolition work in the front room. Not going to be a fun project. The loft has about a foot of decade-old moldy hay on the floor, and the front room has 3 layers of rotten plywood and linoleum floors on top of... who the **** knows. Could be concrete, dirt, an old cistern, Jimmy Hoffa? Won't know till I start ripping it up.
Once I get the demo done, I will likely be converting the front room into a home (shop) office space.
The loft is more of a long term project that will go along with putting a new roof on... I still don't know for sure what direction I'm going with that, as the roof is a semicircular arch, 18 feet high at the middle. The ribs are rolled steel channel. No beams or posts anywhere in the loft. Just 36'x60' feet of wide open space. The barn is concrete block construction, and the second floor is a poured slab over steel decking and girders. It's a very cool space, but it is virtually useless as-is. Drafty, leaky, and no insulation. I could imagine a lot of REALLY cool uses for it, but nothing that wouldn't cost tens of thousands of dollars to achieve. At bare minimum, it would need a whole new roof of pre-curved steel panels ($$$$) and closed cell spray foam insulation ($$$$$$$$), then skin the inside with ~3,400 square feet of FRP board ($$$$$).
I will probably end up tearing off the entire arched roof structure (sell the good curved roof panels, scrap the rest), adding a second story of block (cheap) to the walls, and putting a traditional trussed roof on it (relatively cheap) with steel barn roofing (flat panels = much cheaper), then furring the outside of the walls and put 2" polyiso insulation with steel siding. All of that would cost significantly less than trying to make usable the space that's there, unfortunately. Once that's done, I want to cut the middle span out of the floor to give me a 16' ceiling height in the middle with loft space for storage down both sides. That's all down the road though.
Right now, I just need to get it cleaned out and continue with the repairs on my OTHER barn, which is going to be my fabrication shop. That one is the same 35x60 foot print, single story. Again arched construction, but with laminated wood ribs made from red oak. It needs new sill plates all the way around, as the original ones are untreated and rotting. Also needs a new steel roof. I cannot simply tear it down and build a traditional pole barn in its place however, because it's grandfathered in under the zoning rules, and I would have to incorporate a certain percentage of the existing structure into the new building for it to qualify as a "repair" and not new construction, and the 2 types of structures are totally incompatible. It's either a fix it or lose it scenario. It's a REALLY cool barn though... 8" thick concrete slab meant for farm equipment, and the style looks like an old aircraft hangar. I'm planning to ditch the sliding doors and build a vertical bifold hangar door for it, so I don't lose overhead clearance from putting a commercial roll up door in it.
Once I get the demo done, I will likely be converting the front room into a home (shop) office space.
The loft is more of a long term project that will go along with putting a new roof on... I still don't know for sure what direction I'm going with that, as the roof is a semicircular arch, 18 feet high at the middle. The ribs are rolled steel channel. No beams or posts anywhere in the loft. Just 36'x60' feet of wide open space. The barn is concrete block construction, and the second floor is a poured slab over steel decking and girders. It's a very cool space, but it is virtually useless as-is. Drafty, leaky, and no insulation. I could imagine a lot of REALLY cool uses for it, but nothing that wouldn't cost tens of thousands of dollars to achieve. At bare minimum, it would need a whole new roof of pre-curved steel panels ($$$$) and closed cell spray foam insulation ($$$$$$$$), then skin the inside with ~3,400 square feet of FRP board ($$$$$).
I will probably end up tearing off the entire arched roof structure (sell the good curved roof panels, scrap the rest), adding a second story of block (cheap) to the walls, and putting a traditional trussed roof on it (relatively cheap) with steel barn roofing (flat panels = much cheaper), then furring the outside of the walls and put 2" polyiso insulation with steel siding. All of that would cost significantly less than trying to make usable the space that's there, unfortunately. Once that's done, I want to cut the middle span out of the floor to give me a 16' ceiling height in the middle with loft space for storage down both sides. That's all down the road though.
Right now, I just need to get it cleaned out and continue with the repairs on my OTHER barn, which is going to be my fabrication shop. That one is the same 35x60 foot print, single story. Again arched construction, but with laminated wood ribs made from red oak. It needs new sill plates all the way around, as the original ones are untreated and rotting. Also needs a new steel roof. I cannot simply tear it down and build a traditional pole barn in its place however, because it's grandfathered in under the zoning rules, and I would have to incorporate a certain percentage of the existing structure into the new building for it to qualify as a "repair" and not new construction, and the 2 types of structures are totally incompatible. It's either a fix it or lose it scenario. It's a REALLY cool barn though... 8" thick concrete slab meant for farm equipment, and the style looks like an old aircraft hangar. I'm planning to ditch the sliding doors and build a vertical bifold hangar door for it, so I don't lose overhead clearance from putting a commercial roll up door in it.
