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Barn build journal!

19K views 210 replies 28 participants last post by  Kyleen Drake 
#1 · (Edited)
Day 1 - Today we broke ground! Ok, so it wasn't really dramatic. Just hubby out with his ancient tractor (he bought it from his dad who bought it used like a century ago) ripping up the soil to make the job easier for the first crew. But tomorrow, the big machines come out! Our contractor told us the excavator is coming. This means I temporarily lose my outdoor riding ring because they need the space to get the machinery in and out, and will have to ride at my neighbor's barn where Harley is boarded, but I suppose I can live with that.

The barn will be 32 x 48 and will be divided into two parts: one part will contain four horses stalls; one of which will be closed off as a tack room. The other side of the barn will be for our tractor.

At our contractor's recommendation, we are putting in a full concrete foundation with a frost wall. It's expensive, but we wanted to do this right. However, the inside of the stalls will be left open and filled with aggregate, then rubber mats. There will be a small loft over the stalls. Dutch doors will open out into a paddock and that side of the barn will have a 6-8' overhang (we still have to work out some details relating to trusses).

I hope to chronicle our progress on this thread.
 

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#10 ·
Congratulations on your beginning! Every journey begins with a single step.
We have two Ford tractors, one a 3000 and the other a 5000. Both are quite old, the 5000 is almost 40 yrs old and is still a working farm tractor. It will be the one used to plant the soy beans. We also have a big John Deere but the old tractors still earn their keep around here as sometimes we have all of them in use during harvest.
Very excited for you.
 
#11 ·
Yes, the old tractor is pretty tough. And while most of our neighbors have shiny new ones, our old beast is just fine for what we need. We don't actually do any farming (we both have office jobs, but love taking off our suits and getting dirty) so it will just be for pasture maintenance and moving manure around. We bought a scoop attachment - again, it's ancient, but solid steel and the mechanics are so simple that nothing can really break down on it. And my husband already had all the attachments for tilling, seeding, etc. He even has a box blade for leveling. For smaller jobs, we have two ATVs and a little trailer that will be handy for moving a few bales of hay or even manure. I never thought my husband's obsession for farm machinery would pay off, but now he's got an excuse to use it!

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of the excavator!!!

The contractor thinks the barn will be move-in ready by June... we'll see.
 
#12 ·
Oh my! This is more exciting than horse shopping:loveshower:

We have a cousin to your Ford tractor:pinkunicorn:

We have 1969 Ford 3000. We bought it an an estate auction, in 2003, and we are only the second owners.

I love "Old Bess" :love: She does all the pasture bush hogging and once had to pull my 4WD John Deere out of knee deep muck when DH got it stuck. He should have known better because the belly mower was on and my poor little compact tractor couldn't help herself, with the mower deck packed full of mud.

My brother still has the 1947 2N Ford dad bought in 1951. Dad was second owner on that.

You can't beat these old girls for putting in hard work ----- unless we hit the more-money-than-brains lottery and can spend 100+K on something with an A/C cab and batwings:D

Ask your contractor, if an overhead exhaust fan (like in cattle barns) is feasible. It would provide good air flow in the summer. I already said not putting one in my barn was my one HUGE regret but I'm saying it again, lol

We are all looking forward to progress pictures!!!!
 
#13 ·
walkinthewalk - those are some pretty awesome tractor stories!

Will ask my contractor about an exhaust fan. Not sure what it is exactly, but I'll do some research.

On the down side, the excavator did not show up today. Our barn build is not starting off very well. :( Oh well, it will get done when it gets done. I know better than to expect punctuality from these construction folks. Harley is happy at the neighbor's for now. I'll just arm myself with patience.
 
#14 ·
I hope they show up tomorrow. The excuse I always heard was they "---got behind on the current job" or they are "short on help this week".

Google "barn ventilation equipment". You will get a lot of hits, Farmtek is one of the bigger suppliers in the U.S.

https://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1a;ft_cooling_fans.html

You want to look at exhaust fans or circulation fans that are built right into the ceiling or the peaks of the barn walls.

Where barn walls are concerned, there should rightfully be one at each end.
 
#57 ·
#21 ·
I have always wanted my own barn!

I'm going to live vicariously through you Acadian :grin:
 
#27 ·
The crew is out working away this morning! We talked about door and window placement. Contractor wants to know if I can get pre-assembled dutch doors. Have looked online and the only one I can find that delivers to Canada is System Fence and theirs are over 2000$ (no, that is not a typo). Yikes! Will do it if I have to... but am going to check what some locals can suggest. The System Fence is nice though, covered in aluminum and has a plexiglass window with bars at the top. Or I can have my contract build me some plain wood ones. But these are for exterior so I don't know how well the wood would hold up. Would have to paint/stain it to protect it from the elements.

If anyone knows of barn door builders who deliver to Canada, let me know!!!

Should have more photos to post by the end of the day. Not sure what they're doing today - I think still working on the foundation.
 
#28 ·
Can it be that difficult to find a carpenter to do a door for less than that? There are actually how-tos for the DIYer on line. And they don't have to fit precisely like a door for a conditioned space.

I had two pairs of ~4'x8' swinging doors built for my 1880ish carriage house in the city - way more appropriate than the cheap(-looking) badly-fitted overhead garage doors that "flipper guy" had put on. I don't remember what it cost - actually, I'm not sure I could break out the cost, since they had to reframe the openings a bit because the building had changed shape (I stabilized it), and did some other work, too.

Anne
 
#29 ·
Oh yes, he can build me doors, no problem. When I showed him the one I'd found online and he saw the price he just about jumped out of his boots. The only thing I wonder about is how wood will hold up to the elements. Thinking we may take some pieces of leftover aluminum from the siding of the barn, cover up the door with it, and place a box and the X on top of the siding. That should give us some additional protection. I think he's decided to build me some barn doors too (double swinging doors) so he can match everything. It should look nice!
 
#30 ·
Re doors:

When we had both the old barn and the new barn built, we got the contractors to do a frame with headers, etc. in the wall. Then when they left we did the doors ourselves. It's not that bad of a job to make a door(s) if you can start with a well designed frame so you can build true. Doing it this way we got what we wanted by way of style and colour not to mention saving quite a few dollars.

The last set of doors we built (well it was mostly my husband who did the work), we stained and put on a protective coat of urethane (I think that's what it was called) on the externally exposed wood only. They are holding up very well against the elements which can be quite punishing where we are; I can see that they will eventually need to have another coat of protection put on in a few years but that's pretty easy to do.

One thing we purposedly did, btw, was to have swinging doors opening to the inside. We get snow here that packs and blocks the front of a door overnight so it's easier to get into the barn in a hurry. At one point, we did have a rolling door on the outside of the old barn. That lasted one winter as it was such a nuisance constantly digging out a trench by the wall so the door could be pushed open.
 
#31 ·
Hi Chevaux!

Wow, a lot of useful information in this reply - thanks! We won't be building our own, but our contractor can do it for us. It's good to know that a stain + urethane will hold up ok.

And thank you for the advice on the doors swinging in! I would never have thought of that. Our dutch doors will swing out into the paddock because I don't want them swinging into the stall, but I will make sure our double barn doors (they will be placed at the end of the barn) swing into the barn! I can totally see how swinging out would be an issue. Also, we are building a 6-8 foot overhang over the dutch doors so hopefully that will catch most of the snow. It should also help protect the front of those doors.

How does everyone feel about windows? I want them to open... the contractor was going to put in the ones with the crank. Thoughts? I will either go with plexiglass or a window with bars.
 
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