Above 1200 Sq/FT 32x40 barn-style garage build

jbs · Sep 10, 2010

We broke ground a couple weeks ago on a 32x40 barn-style garage. Ceiling height will be a shade under 12'6" to accommodate a lift in the future.

barn_east

The second floor will be living space. We had planned to include a couple dormers on each side, but cost control prevented it.

barn_cross-section

The bathroom will be downstairs so minimal heating is required to prevent the pipes from freezing. We will most likely use the living space frequently, but I don't want to be forced to keep it heated.

barn_lower_floorplan

A couple pics of the site prep and foundation (full footer and frost wall since it will be 2-story living space)

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As much as I wanted to do the framing myself, I wouldn't have the time with travel for work and a new baby on the way. Being relatively inexperienced, I probably would have ended up exposing the framing to lots of inclement weather. Instead I am having a builder do the framing and roofing. I will then do all the finish siding, painting, plumbing, electrical, insulation, sheetrock, and misc flooring/trim. I'm sure it will take a long time, but it will be fun.

More updates to come, likely along with many questions and requests for suggestions along the way...

jbs

RbrtAWhyt · Sep 10, 2010

Very nice. Keep 'em coming...

jbs · Sep 14, 2010

Started framing yesterday.

jbs · Sep 17, 2010

Had some rain yesterday and today, but they have most of the roof framing done. Starting to take on a barn shape now.

jbs · Sep 17, 2010

I have been assembling some materials for when the framing is done and I take over the work. I have decided to go with a simple concrete densifier to keep the dust down. As nice as the epoxies look, I weld a lot and don't want to spread a welding blanket on the floor every time. I will use this:

I will have a new (separate from the house) 200A service installed next week. I'll be doing all the wiring, so I've started planning my circuits. I'll have 3 GFCI 20A circuits for receptacles in the garage. They will alternate, with a receptacle on roughly every other stud (every 32"). This will give me about 30 duplex receptacles, 10 on each circuit. I've read conflicting info on the max number of convenience outlets per circuit allowed by code, so I'll have to verify with my inspector. For this I picked up a dozen each of red-, black-, and gray-faced Leviton 5362's (different color for each circuit) from fruitridgetools.com. They were $3-5 each, so pretty decent deal.

On another 20A circuit, I'll have the fluorescent lights. They will likely be switched in 3 banks: 1/2 the lights on the left, 1/2 the lights on the right, and the rest (both left and right), for when I really want it bright. I'd like to have troffers, since they look a little more finished,

but have to find a decent price since I'd like about 50 32W T8 bulbs (25 2-bulb fixtures). May end up with the $20 commercial strips from the home center.

I will also have couple Home Depot industrial ceiling fans or similar

The second one is nice because it can use this

for variable speed control.

Since AC is not an option now, I'll also get a wall fan like this or this for the really hot days.

jbs · Sep 17, 2010

For additional circuits, I will have one 50A 240V circuit with 3 of these

on it in convenient locations for the welder.

The water heater (haven't picked one yet, so not sure if I'll end up with 240V, or the 120V models more common in the small sizes) will have it's own circuit, in the closet under the stairs where it will reside.

The compressor will also be located near the stairs/bathroom, maybe in its own enclosure. I want to keep the noise down, but don't want it to overheat in the summer. This needs some more thought...

I'll likely put the Liftmaster 3800 openers on their own circuit for convenience (not sure if this is required or not; I've read conflicting info, but I'll be safe if it is). They will be opening two 10x10 Holmes Settlers' Series SF21/SQ24 doors. I went back and forth between these and much cheaper plain doors, but they will compliment the look well.

jbs · Sep 19, 2010

A dedicated crew and slow times makes for fast progress. The framing crew is working 12 hour days... on the weekend.

aqr81 · Sep 19, 2010

Wow, they are really making quick progress. It's looking good, keep the updates and pics coming.

jbs · Sep 19, 2010

And one more for the day. It wears me out just watching these guys.

aqr81 · Sep 19, 2010

That crew is amazing. I really like how the shop sits on your property in relation to the house and all. It makes for quite a nice setting, I'm envious.

twerner · Sep 23, 2010

keep us updated with pics im going to be building a garage very close to what you are i may pic your brain if you dont mind

haugy · Sep 23, 2010

jbs said:
I have been assembling some materials for when the framing is done and I take over the work. I have decided to go with a simple concrete densifier to keep the dust down. As nice as the epoxies look, I weld a lot and don't want to spread a welding blanket on the floor every time. I will use this:

Please take lots of pictures of before and after you do this. I'm really interested in seeing how this works out for you.

Great looking barn by the way. I'm loving the links you keep adding to the stuff you're getting. I've already saved 2 of them for future use.

Motown 454 · Sep 23, 2010

Very Nice. I agree withb aqr81 its in a nice spot on the property.

jbs · Sep 23, 2010

aqr81 said:
That crew is amazing. I really like how the shop sits on your property in relation to the house and all. It makes for quite a nice setting, I'm envious.

Yes, they really were quite impressive. And very professional/unobtrusive. Thanks, we are really happy with it too. It is about 50-60ft from the end of the garage, but up about 10ft in elevation. Hopefully it won't dominate too much, but it should fit in well with the 100-year-old farmhouse.

twerner said:
keep us updated with pics im going to be building a garage very close to what you are i may pic your brain if you dont mind

Absolutely. I am happy to share what little I know (much of it gathered from the great information here).

haugy said:
Please take lots of pictures of before and after you do this. I'm really interested in seeing how this works out for you.

Great looking barn by the way. I'm loving the links you keep adding to the stuff you're getting. I've already saved 2 of them for future use.

Will do. I am really just hoping it will keep the dust down. I am not expecting much change in the look, but if it results in a deeper color and smoother feel, I will be pleasantly surprised. I may look into renting a polisher, but I am guessing that is more work/time than I am willing to commit right now. Besides, if it looks too good I'll end up doing all my oil changes in the drive way to avoid getting it dirty, which kind of defeats the purpose

Motown 454 said:
Very Nice. I agree withb aqr81 its in a nice spot on the property.

Thanks!

jbs · Sep 23, 2010

They are just about done with the roof.

We are using the GPL M08 roof windows from Velux. We have had them before and really like them.

I also ordered lightning rods for the roof. The house that was on the 18th century foundation upon which ours now sits burned down because of a lightning strike. Given that our neighbors' house was hit and caught fire and their barn was hit and burned down

, it seemed prudent. The house already has them.

We also ordered one of these weathervanes

which come highly recommended according to my wife's research. Should look great on top of the cupola. I'm still looking for the right light to hang inside the cupola. I was thinking something like this

jbs · Sep 23, 2010

Here are a couple pictures of the inside upstairs. It is 40' x 19' inside the "knee-wall" (which is 8 feet high). behind the knee-wall, the ceiling is 16-in-12, so it goes from 8' to the floor in just over 6' of depth. I will leave it mostly open (with some walls and built-in bookcases). Should make a nice place for the kids. The rafter ties are just over 8' high. They are 16" on center to the east of the cupola

and doubled 64" on center to the west of the cupola.

I did this so I could divide the room into 2 smaller rooms (bedroom/office/etc) on the west side (8' ceiling) and a larger room with cathedral ceiling in the rest. This room will be open to the cupola.

I'll build a full wall of built-in bookcases on the wall dividing the main room from the office and bedroom. I hope to do something like this for the door to the office.

It should test my (lack of) woodworking skills to the max, but I'm patient.
In front of the shelves will be either a classic rolling library ladder, or something like this

which will lead to a small platform for reading and looking out the cupola.

I'm thinking a pellet stove like this for the main heat.

We can supplement/even out the heat with some electric hydronic baseboard heaters like these:

I am also leaning toward a sub-panel for all the upstairs circuits. This would cut down on a lot of long runs. I'm guessing 60A would probably be OK, but 75A for sure.

Sorry for the not-really-garage-related post. Back to the downstairs soon...

Call me the Breeze · Sep 23, 2010

jbs... That is a beautiful place you have, and the new barn/garage compliments it very well. I am looking forward to seeing it finished.

aqr81 · Sep 24, 2010

"Hidden Doors" are cool. Something everyone has dreamed about, probably the kid in all of us.

The weathervane will look nice atop the cupola. The last pic above the weathervane example is really nice. The setting from a distance is beautiful. Your property is going to look nice when this is all done. Please keep us current on your progress.

jbs · Oct 4, 2010

It's been a slow week. Lots of rain and waiting on windows. I started wiring some of the circuits downstairs. Once I looked at my plans a little more closely, I realized the runs for the outlets would be really long.

I posted a separate question in the appropriate section.

jbs · Oct 14, 2010

Got a new addition to the family last week, so little progress, but the siding is going up now. A couple pics

petemarkey · Oct 14, 2010

I love this. Any cost estimates. Seem like a very efficient good looking layout.

Timo · Oct 14, 2010

JBS

Congrats on the addition to the family!!! Life will never be the same - only better!

Cheers :beer:

Tim

tkbowman · Oct 15, 2010

Congratulations on the family addition and the garage. Yours is much like mine which is 24 x 40.

aqr81 · Oct 15, 2010

Congratulation JBS, for the new addition to the family. You'll have plenty of room for all the toys and stuff you'll be getting over the years.

Agree with Timo, it's going to be a lot better.

bobadame · Oct 15, 2010

Really nice building and nicely sited on the lot.
In one of the pictures I saw lightning protection on the roof of the house. Do you plan to do similar on the barn? The reason I ask is that copper weather vane would seem to be a lightning rod without a path to ground. I've thought about building a cupola and a weather vane for mine but worried about having it go up in flames from a lightning strike.

hpw · Oct 15, 2010

jbs, great build........all your pictures are from afar, can you post some that are closer up?

jbs · Oct 15, 2010

petemarkey said:
I love this. Any cost estimates. Seem like a very efficient good looking layout.

Thanks. I was hoping to keep it under $75k all said and done. Not sure if we'll make that. That's a lot for a garage (for us at least), However, we are getting about 1200 sq. ft. of finished living space. We decided on this instead of an addition to the house (1800 sq ft). Did I mention we just had our 5th?

tkbowman said:
Congratulations on the family addition and the garage. Yours is much like mine which is 24 x 40.
Nice. I like it. What do you use the 2nd floor space for? Is it living space? shop? storage?

aqr81 said:
Congratulation JBS, for the new addition to the family. You'll have plenty of room for all the toys and stuff you'll be getting over the years. Agree with Timo, it's going to be a lot better.

Thanks! Better for sure.

bobadame said:
Really nice building and nicely sited on the lot.
In one of the pictures I saw lightning protection on the roof of the house. Do you plan to do similar on the barn? The reason I ask is that copper weather vane would seem to be a lightning rod without a path to ground. I've thought about building a cupola and a weather vane for mine but worried about having it go up in flames from a lightning strike.

Thanks, I do have the lightning rods up on the barn. They will be connected to the weather vane when I run the grounding cable (after the siding is done and electric is in).

hpw said:
jbs, great build........all your pictures are from afar, can you post some that are closer up?

Sure. Anything in particular you want to see? It isn't that interesting yet b/c none of the details are done. No power= no lights which means inside pics don't turn out that well.

hpw · Oct 15, 2010

Just some close-ups in the concrete/framing stages.

abstamaria · Oct 15, 2010

JBS, that looks very nice and well thought out. The building goes with the rest of the property and looks like it belongs. I hope you can carry the look inside, sometimes difficult to do because of all our equipment, etc. That will make your garage really stand out. I apologize for the unsolicited advice, but you seem to have taken more time planning than usual, and it shows. From your pictures with the shelves and ladder, you seem headed in that direction anyway. I am excited to see how the build progresses. Congratulations on the success so far.

And congratulations on the new addition to the family!

Andres

jbs · Oct 16, 2010

abstamaria said:
JBS, that looks very nice and well thought out. The building goes with the rest of the property and looks like it belongs. I hope you can carry the look inside, sometimes difficult to do because of all our equipment, etc. That will make your garage really stand out. I apologize for the unsolicited advice, but you seem to have taken more time planning than usual, and it shows. From your pictures with the shelves and ladder, you seem headed in that direction anyway. I am excited to see how the build progresses. Congratulations on the success so far.

And congratulations on the new addition to the family!

Andres

Thanks. It was important to us for it to go with the farmhouse (built in 1936; used to have 100+ acre farm with it, but previous owners subdivided it). I am definitely going to try to keep the barn/farm/rustic theme going through the finished space (hopefully in a non-cheesy/contrived way). However, in the shop that will be hard to do. I'd love to have a real old barn feel, but if I thought I could have pulled it off, I would have gone with post-and-beam construction. Given the fact that there will be living space above, code requires insulation and drywall (fireblock). This means I couldn't really create a barn feel. It would be somewhat impractical anyway given the amount of welding I do. So I'll end up with a more modern-looking garage space (drywall/paint/etc), which will also be nice, but in a different way.

Happy to hear advice. That's half the reason I created the thread!

jbs · Oct 21, 2010

Here are a couple more pics. The siding is going up slowly with little cooperation from the weather. I am trying to stay 24 hours ahead on staining so I can just touch up spots rather than do everything once it's hung. Doesn't always work out, so there are some unstained pieces I'll have to do on the ladder.

More pics, including some previously requested interior shots are here.

The overhead doors should be here next week.

Steve from Socal · Oct 21, 2010

JBS,

Looking very good; the barn complements the house and adds dimension to the property. I look forward to seeing more progress.

Steve

The Tinkerer · Oct 25, 2010

Very nice work so far, Very thought out. Good luck. Cant wait to see your wiring scheme.

jbs · Oct 30, 2010

Got some more staining and trim painting done. Hopefully we'll get the last of it up/painted this week. Need to add the decorative crossbucks under the windows on the west side, but as the weather is turning, I'm spending every non-rainy minute staining/painting. That might have to wait until spring.

Also got the stairs installed. It turns out it was cheaper to have them made (Southern Yellow Pine treads) than it would have been to build them from scratch. I wish I had known that before I laid out and cut two stringers, but oh well.

Gotta get a temporary railing on there. That's a long way down!

When I wasn't able to be outside caulking or painting, I've gotten some of the upstairs framing done. The knee wall

I have plenty of helpers. They make every job easier and more fun. Here is my oldest helping me frame the partition walls.

And one more from down the road to the east. One of the garage doors is in. Still waiting on the other...

jbs · Nov 1, 2010

Finished most of the framing upstairs yesterday. Will start laying out the electrical and drilling holes for wires this week.

JC White · Nov 1, 2010

Looks Great :thumbup:

jbs · Nov 14, 2010

It's been a while since the last update. By the time I finish working it's usually dark, so I've had a tough time getting pics. Here are a few. The outside is pretty much done. I just need to add the decorative crossbucks on the west side.

Framing is done upstairs and most of the circuits are run. Still have to make up my pigtails for rough-in inspection. I installed a 100A 20-circuit Square D QO load center as a sub-panel upstairs (you can just barely see it there behind the shorter ladder).

Downstairs the panel is in (200A 30-circuit Square D QO). Inspection is signed off, just waiting for them to come hook me up (hopefully this week)!

If I had a power washer, I would have done the floor this weekend. The weather has been beautiful. Instead I took the opportunity top touch up some trim and side and do lots of caulking. I figure I'll have time for the inside stuff after the weather turns lousy.

I am looking for some ideas for upstairs lighting. As you can see in the pic above, the rafter ties are doubled 64-inches on center. I will box these in (for a beam-like look) and have a couple ceiling fan/lights between them. However, I'd also like some indirect lighting along the top of them. I'm not sure if rope lights would be quite bright enough. Maybe some halogen puck lights or track lighting (although I'd like something flatter so as to be inconspicuous). Any thoughts?

Sirducky9 · Nov 14, 2010

Nice barn/garage. I'm looking to build something close to that in the next couple of years, a little smaller though. I would steer you towards LED strip lighting. Very small (roughly 1-1/4" wide including the mounting tabs), quite a bit of light, a little pricey however. I've actually instaled them as undercabinet lights, and in cabinet lights for a numerous number of customers (I'm a remodeler in central New York). They come in strips and you can spread them apart from one another, or have them in a long strip. Dimming may be a factor though, i don't remember if the technology has caught up yet for that.

Again, nice place.

sheslostcontrol · Nov 14, 2010

Enjoying your build -- my 24 x 32 was built earlier this year.. same style.

Thread here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56892&page=2

jbs · Dec 9, 2010

I finally got the garage doors delivered after they messed up the order and made only 1. It wasn't actually very hard to install them. The directions were quite good and the spring winding, while a bit tense wasn't as terrifying as I had been led to expect.

I will be painting the inside of the crossbucks to match the siding, but that will have to wait for warmer weather.

They also finally came and turned on the power (3 weeks after the inspection was done)! I wasn't too mad though because it gave me time to get all my homeruns done, so no need to be poking around in a live panel. Not as pretty as I've seen, but it will be covered by drywall...

I have a couple runs to finish before I can get my rough in inspection done. Then I can get started on insulation. It has been COLD the last few days (single digits this morning). Its hard to work when your fingers are numb, so I ordered one of these:

At 5.6kW it has a bit more output than some of the others I looked at and was on the cheaper side. So far I am pretty impressed with the quality (reasonably heavy gauge steel, etc). Eventually I would like to add an infrared heater as well, but this will do for now.

Above 1200 Sq/FT 32x40 barn-style garage build

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