Pole Barns - Living Quarters
- Thread starter gwm
- Start date
I just got back from spending 4 days there with 7 family members and it was great. We have a full bathroom and kitchen in it, so it's really not roughing it at all. With two bedrooms, a couch and a blowup mattress on the floor there's plenty of sleeping room. We rarely have that many people up there though and usually it's just 2-4 people there for a long weekend or a week. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. Prior to building this cabin, I slept in the back of my truck or stayed at a cheap run down hotel 5 miles away, so I didn't need a ton of room to meet my goals. I did have the garage area fully insulated and covered in drywall so years down the road I could take out the garage portion and just turn it all into living quarters if I needed more room.
The overhang is great and 6' works well - we have a swing on the porch and use it as a place to hang hunting clothes and set coolers and gear. I think a wider overhang would be really nice too, but it might increase the height of the building depending on how you wanted the overhang designed.
The overhang is great and 6' works well - we have a swing on the porch and use it as a place to hang hunting clothes and set coolers and gear. I think a wider overhang would be really nice too, but it might increase the height of the building depending on how you wanted the overhang designed.
gwm
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the feedback.
I'm close to signing papers to have a 30x50 building built with a 9' overhang running the length of the building. We're planning on having half as a shed and finishing off the other half. We would also have two small bedrooms, one bathroom, and a bigger open area for the kitchen / living room. What you have built sounds very similar to what we're planning.
We would also have between 2-4 people using it most of the time with a few times of having more spending the night.
I'm close to signing papers to have a 30x50 building built with a 9' overhang running the length of the building. We're planning on having half as a shed and finishing off the other half. We would also have two small bedrooms, one bathroom, and a bigger open area for the kitchen / living room. What you have built sounds very similar to what we're planning.
We would also have between 2-4 people using it most of the time with a few times of having more spending the night.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
So, how do you insulate the pole sheds for living quarters, and also how do you finish them off? How does it compare money wise compared to a stick built? What are the benefits of a pole shed design compared to stick built? Why did you decide to go with the pole shed design?
Sorry for all the questions, but I am planning on building a garage/shed/living quarters next summer, and I was going to go with an actual stick built, but I am all ears and open to a pole shed design.
Sorry for all the questions, but I am planning on building a garage/shed/living quarters next summer, and I was going to go with an actual stick built, but I am all ears and open to a pole shed design.
I should have clarified my cabin/shed is stick built and not a pole shed. I had it built and inspected as a dwelling, which was a pain but definitely worth it in the long run since there is a picky inspector looking over everything. The one thing I would recommend is increasing the window size in living room or kitchen areas. There is actually a window size requirement for dwellings, but bigger is definitely better. We made ours much larger than the standard and we probably could have made them larger.
gwm
5 year old buck +
I talked to two different builders and explained what I wanted. They both said pole barn as it would be cheaper but still give me what I want. I'm having the building wrapped in Tyvek and I'm still debating what to use for insulation. I hear good things about the spray foam but it can get pretty expensive.
gwm
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the info on the windows. Did you do anything with your windows to help prevent break-ins?
We have been lucky and our cabin hasn't been broken into, but I'm sure eventually that will change. I think having big windows might help since it's easy to see everything that's in the cabin. I leave all the curtains open so anyone could relatively easily see everything in my cabin. We don't store anything there that people would likely want to steal - no liquor, guns, tools, etc. I have a bunch of cameras out around my cabin too, so if a squirrel farts near my cabin I'll get 3 pictures of it. The cameras won't prevent someone from breaking in, but they make me feel a little better.
My property had a well already, but I had to bring in power. The water table was too high for me to legally to put in a septic system, so I had to go with a buried holding tank that needs to be pumped periodically. A septic system would have been cheaper than my holding tank, but my building site wouldn't pass the test. The stupid part is that there are nearby houses at the exact same elevation that have septic systems that were built and work fine, but they were installed prior to the latest testing requirements. We only have to pump the holding tank every other year or so, which only costs about $75 so it isn't too bad. I went with a regular forced air furnace and an LP tank. I thought about going with a wood fireplace, but that would increase my insurance costs so much that it was cheaper in the long run to go with a LP furnace.
Since we winterize the water lines every winter we had the plumber put an air connector in line so we could open up all the outlets and flush the water out of the plumbing lines quickly with an air compressor. I would definitely recommend that since it saves a lot of time. We keep our furnace set at 50 degrees all winter anyway, but if that went out a frozen water line would be a huge problem if you didn't notice it for a month.
Since we winterize the water lines every winter we had the plumber put an air connector in line so we could open up all the outlets and flush the water out of the plumbing lines quickly with an air compressor. I would definitely recommend that since it saves a lot of time. We keep our furnace set at 50 degrees all winter anyway, but if that went out a frozen water line would be a huge problem if you didn't notice it for a month.
gwm
5 year old buck +
Right now, it will cost us way to much to have electrical brought in so we are going to have a generator and all propane appliances.
A guy I know went with a holding tank for their gray water but a compost toilet instead of a septic. Says it works well.
What did you do for flooring? We're planning on just a stained concrete floor right now.
A guy I know went with a holding tank for their gray water but a compost toilet instead of a septic. Says it works well.
What did you do for flooring? We're planning on just a stained concrete floor right now.
For flooring I went with a low cost vinyl flooring for the finished off half of the building. the garage portion is just plain concrete. The vinyl is really easy to clean, it was cheap and it looks good to me. We found a couple of large rugs on sale that we put in the living room and the bedrooms as well.
We had just plain concrete everywhere the first year and it worked fine, but it was a little cold in the fall and winter. The vinyl helps insulate it a bit too.
We had just plain concrete everywhere the first year and it worked fine, but it was a little cold in the fall and winter. The vinyl helps insulate it a bit too.
MRBB
5 year old buck +
I don't have, but a good friend of mine , did heated concrete on his living section of a 40x60 pole barn he did for a vacation property he has
did spray foam insulation , and he says it just awesome how well it works, costly yes, but he thinks it will balance out on the lower heating costs of it in the long run?
did spray foam insulation , and he says it just awesome how well it works, costly yes, but he thinks it will balance out on the lower heating costs of it in the long run?
