New polebarn ideas

[Redintheshed]

We are in the design phase of a 40x48x14 fully insulated shop. Any suggestions of must haves or the wish you would of thought of it before you built would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[outdoors4evr]

Put in LED lights instead of fluorescent. (and put in more lighting than you need on separate switches)
Add a long beam or 4x4 across several rafters and drop a chain loop from it before the insulation is in. This gives a lifting point in the barn. Put an outlet near this chain in case someday you want to put in an electric hoist.

[Eugene]

I would start with a list of what I wanted to do in the building and how I'm going to heat space for mom's car and the winter work area. Partition off the building into heated and unheated areas.

Had a 30' X 40' unheated pole barn/shop several years ago. Should have had additional windows/translucent panels installed for more sun light into the shop. Should have considered space for a break area, lounge chairs, radio/tv, coffee pot. Toilet, place to pee.

Should have placed 220V electrical outlets for the welders next to the two large sliding doors.

Electrical service needs to be large enough to handle the start up/surge amperage load on equipment. Found that out the hard expensive way.

The one thing I did right when purchasing the pole barn/shop was to have larger exterior doors installed to allow machinery into the shop.

Edit. Installed low temperature fluorescent lighting with switches on the separate banks of lights. Installed a reel type drop cord over the major work bench.

Security lighting, alarms? Should have planned for a solar powered battery charging station.

Son and I placed corrugated sheet metal on the lower portion of the interior walls. Idea was in case of an accident to protect the buildings exterior wall from damage.

Been working on this post for close to two hours. Longer I think about the topic, the more stuff I didn't consider when I purchased the building.

Edit #2. Storage space. Going to be a lot of stuff to put up on shelving or hang up on racks, tool storage. Also heavy duty work benches. Machine tool locations.

Edit #3. Building location. Can I drive machinery around the site and into the building, maintain the building area, as in mow the grass, move off the snow. Exterior parking, machinery storage.

Exterior building electrical outlets. Something else that I didn't plan on.

[Don McCombs]

Agree with all the comments, so far.

Make sure you put a vapor barrier and insulation under the concrete floor. Floor drain in each bay. Can't have too many electrical outlets. Outlets for electric door openers. Several extra through-floor conduit sweeps running from inside to outside. Consider an additional lean-to area along one side for outdoor, but dry storage.

[Urbish]

I have a 36 x 48 heated & insulated shop with 12' ceilings. I keep the thermostat at 45º in the winter and crank it up when needed. I agree with all previous commenters.

Here are my recommendations:

Two garage doors, at least one with some extra height (10-11').

Plumb 1/2" or larger black pipe run for air line all the way around at 4-5' off the floor with quick disconnect air fittings every 8' or so and a 220V box located wherever you want to plumb in your compressor. You might want to add a run on the ceiling right down the middle. Add some tees so that you can plumb in a retracting hose reel if you like (either now or later) or in case you want to add a hoist at a later date.

I have a small, 8' high room in the back that has a utility sink and urinal and a mobile home water heater on top of it. The water heater is electric and I shut it off when I'm not going to be out there for a while. There is a hose bib through the wall of this room that I use for filling my parts washer and rinsing larger items out near the floor drain.

Wire a lone 'ghost light' right above the man door on the inside; operated from a switch at that location. That way you can leave a dim light on inside while working outside. If you return with a tractor or something after dark, you're not bumbling around in the dark in there after parking the tractor and don't have to leave your main lights on.

[iosco cub]

floor drains near the doors, non slip concrete sealer. At least one oversize door. My next one I build will also have a drive thru feature, instead of backing in equipment.

[outdoors4evr]

I put a solar powered motion detector light above the walk-in door inside and outside the barn. That way when I walk up to the barn, the door and area is illuminated. When I walk inside the barn, that area lights up as well. Also serves as a motion indicator inside the barn.

[Bob McCarty]

If you have a big air compressor, you may want to isolate it to cut down on noise while it's running.

[Jim Becker]

If you put in translucent panels, consider locating them high in the side walls rather than the roof. Before I moved, I had panels (high quality) in the roof and got some hail damage. Besides, ceiling insulation is more important than wall insulation and needs to be tight.

Forget fluorescent lighting and go with LEDs. LEDs are getting cheaper almost by the day. They use less power and will light up no matter how cold. They last longer too. When I moved here, there was an existing barn, 30x48 with 12 fluorescent fixtures. I added a 34x48 building extension and put in 12 LED units that were claimed to be equivalent. I think the larger space with LEDs is better lit than the original part. LEDs use so little energy, you would probably be ahead to skip the skylights and depend on turning on the lights. I have no skylights but do have several insulated windows.

My walls and ceiling are lined on the inside with white sheet metal. It protects the structure and insulation. Additionally, the white color brightens the whole space, making the lights much more effective. One drawback, you will probably need to run all your wiring surface mount inside of metal conduit. I wired my addition and found working with conduit is easier than I expected.

I am using the original barn as shop and storage with the addition just storage. One original exterior wall is now an insulated divider. I put a 220 outlet for my compressor in the addition to keep the noise out of the shop.

Insulation is cheap. Use a lot of it. My original barn had a propane fired furnace. I did not extend the ducts into the addition. I leave the thermostat set at 40 with the overhead door (preexisting exterior door) between the sections open about 1 panel. This keeps the storage are about at 32 most of the time. When I am going to work in the shop, I bump the thermostat to 60 and close the door between the sections. The shop warms up quickly. My total propane usage last year was about 120 gallons.

Side door heights are restricted by headers needed to support the trusses. You can usually install taller (clear to the ceiling) doors in the end of the building. My original barn just had overhead doors, one is now between the old and new sections. I had a door on a track added to the end just so I could get something taller in. I haven't needed it but still glad it is there.

A personnel door with an overhang is a good feature. It is nice to be able to unlock the door without standing in the rain.

Edit: Forgot to mention all the communications stuff. I ran a conduit with 2 cat 5e cables from the house to the shop. One is for land-line phone. The other is a network line. Cell phones don't work well inside a metal building. A wireless router won't reach through the walls either. The previous owner had run coax for the TV. I probably wouldn't have bothered with it but the radio receiver does need it.

[Eugene]

If you put in translucent panels, consider locating them high in the side walls rather than the roof. Before I moved, I had panels (high quality) in the roof and got some hail damage.

I ordered my pole barn with 4 translucent panels, an extra cost feature. The panels are about two feet tall and the width of the sheet metal siding. Installed high in the side walls.

The panels really helped illuminate the shop in the day time. Went to local hardware store and purchased a full sized panel that matched the sheet metal configuration. Cut panel down to make two more "windows". Installed one "window" in each of the large sliding doors.

The side wall translucent panels are an easy do it yourself project. Had I known, I probably could have saved myself a couple $100's by not ordering the panels in the purchase order.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

You have been given some very good advice. One addition is that anyplace you want to back in a trailer I strongly suggest 12 ft. doors. Mine are 10 ft. and by the time you take out the room for the sides, there is only about 4 to 5 inches of clearance between the trailer wheels and the opening on each side. It makes backing in a little touchy. My building is 32x40 with doors in each end and a lean-to on each side. I wish I had put the Solar Wrap insulation that is under the metal in the rest of the building under the roof on the lean-to also to prevent condensation and dripping under the lean-to.

[Eugene]

Consideration, build the structure yourself or have a contractor do it. Son and I chose to have the contractor build the basic structure. Reason, it would have taken all summer for son and I to do the basic structure work even though we have all the equipment, tools, and skills. Son has a full time job, limiting the amount of time he could spend on the project.

We did the interior work ourselves, usually in one to two hour work periods. We hauled in gravel from the acreage gravel pit to level the concrete floor base, form up and then pour and float the concrete floor. We did the electrical, built shelving, covered the interior walls.

Other than the concrete from the local plant for the floor, we had almost all the needed supplies left over from other projects to finish the building's interior on hand.

[Lt.Mike]

Put in LED lights instead of fluorescent. (and put in more lighting than you need on separate switches)

Agreed but you can limit the need for separate wall switches if you buy the LED lamps that have pull chains built in. (Only $10 more per lamp) The first plug in and plug into each other to run in series. Hard wiring is simplified that way. I just replaced all the lights in my barn with LED lamps. If you don’t want them all lit pull the chains on the ones you don’t want on and killing one light doesn’t affect to ones down the line from it.
LEDs don’t burn out and provide a lot of light.
In cold weather flip the switch and you get full brightness instantly unlike a Fluorescent bulb that stays dim or doesn’t light at all.

This is one I have four of and highly recommend.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial- ... /205331022
I have the 4’ers over my floor space and 2’ers over my work bench.
The 4’ model is $40 each and 2’ ones at $30.
You might think that’s pricey and I did but once they go up you’ll never have to mess with them again!
Mike

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

My shed was built several years ago before LED lighting was available for work areas, and I used the T32 Florescent with electronic ballasts, which seem to work quite well until temperatures get down into the 20s, then it takes them a while to brighten, but I seldom go out in the shed in that kind of weather. My shed is 32x40, and I have my ights on 3 strings with a separate switch for each string, plus each light in each string has a pull chain so I can control how many are on at anytime. I also have a motion detector mounted over the walk in door that turns on 2 lights towards each end of the shed, which makes it handy that I don't need to turn on a light to open the doors or if driving in late it turns on a couple lights. There is another one over the door on the outside to light the entry way. Both of those lights have their own switches also.