Today's Pole Barns
Homestead Design
Modern pole barns come in
all shapes and sizes, but they are still practical and inexpensive
to build. |
If you're planning
on a new storage building or horse barn, post-frame construction
can save you money. Post-frame is the modern version of
"pole-barn" construction, using pressure treated posts as the
main structure and post hole or concrete pier footings.
Post-frame construction eliminates the need for continuous
foundation walls and can save you as much as 20% of the cost of
your building by reducing the amount of site work and concrete
you'll need.
It also eliminates
the need for a concrete slab. Although a slab is always an
option, many pole barns use gravel or tamped earth floors to
save even more money.
People still call
post-frame buildings "pole barns," but they've come a long way
from the boxy, low-roofed, metal clad, industrial structures
that you think of. Old pole barns were built with telephone
poles. Those were durable and cheap, but not very easy to work
with - for builders or for designers. Telephone poles vary in
diameter and taper from bottom to top, so connecting wall boards
and roof trusses from one pole to another took a lot of
notching, leveling, squaring and swearing. Windows and doors
were difficult to build, so as few as possible were used.
Designs had to be as simple as possible.
Today's wood
preservatives and plastic sleeve post protectors can give milled
lumber even more durability than the old telephone poles.
Today's 6x6 or other size structural posts are flat-edged to fit
square with other lumber and can be used with standard-size
prefabricated metal connectors. That gives designers and
builders the ability to have the same wall shapes, windows,
doors and roof styles as conventional stud-frame buildings.
The reality now is
that since all of the cost savings with pole barns really come
from the floor down, there is no reason that today's pole barns
can't be more attractive from the floor up.
These days, you can
find pole barn blueprints and building kits for barns with
gambrel and monitor roofs, for pretty horse stables, for elegant
carriage house style garages, and for traditional New England
style barns with big storage lofts. You can find tiny post-frame
shed designs and huge pole barns for farm tractors and
equipment. And, you can finish today's pole barns with just
about any exterior material or roofing that you can think of.
Homestead
Design
Craig Wallin has
been designing beautiful barn plans for
Homestead Design since the
1980s. He created some small and affordable post-frame horse
barns because his clients are clamoring for economical
buildings. Click on the link above to check out the Glenwood,
Durango and Prescott barns. You'll see how pretty a little pole
barn can be. Then, take a look at some of his larger plans to
see the variety of styles that are available. Make sure to visit
Craig's photo gallery to see finished versions.
BarnsBarnsBarns.com
I drew a series of
pole barn plans for
BarnsBarnsBarns.com. If you
take a look, I think that you'll agree that they look more like
traditional American farm barns and carriage houses than
industrial pole barns. But, they still have all of the
cost-saving features.
So, if you're
planning on a new barn, don't overlook pole barns. They no
longer have to be boxy and boring to be affordable.
Don Berg
The Backroad Home