Tractor barn specs - any advice

RobA · May 1, 2006

I'm thinking of putting up a tractor barn this year. It will be to store a Kubota L5030, backhoe attachment, Bush Hog, post hole digger, ATV, small utility trailer, ATV cart/trailer and other assorted stuff. I'm undecided if I will buy a kit and put it up myself (unlikely) or hire some local Amish barn builders to put one up for me.

I was thinking of 24'x36'. Big enough?

How about sliding doors? Is 1 enough or should I put 2 in - one at each end?

Any idea about approximate cost per square foot I should expect? It will be a wood barn and have a cement slab.

Thanks for any ideas or advice.

npaden · May 1, 2006

I am getting a 30'x40'x12' steel framed building on a 4" slab put up for $13,360 with a 16'x10' garage door and a 3' people door and a 4'x3' window. Comes out to $11.13 per sq. ft.

I would go at least 30'x40'. You will get all kinds of suggestions on doors and people will even say to go bigger.

Here is a thread that I started when I was going through the same decision process that you are: Link to Thread

I took a little long deciding and ended up paying a little more but think I'm going to be happy with the end result.

There was a lot of good advice in that thread.

FWIW, Nathan

BB_TX · May 1, 2006

I also put up a 30'x40' steel building from a bolt up kit. The basic building would have been about $5500 plus slab. But I added a lot of extras from the building supplier and the final building kit cost about $9500.
I put in a bathroom in one corner and lost about 15% of my floor space. Built a good size work bench in another corner and lost some more space.
I have a 10'x10' door in each end. Makes it easy to get stuff in and out.
I would not go smaller. My implements are stored outside and I am still a little cramped for space when my tractor and 16' trailer are in the building.

EddieWalker · May 1, 2006

My shop is 24x30 with 12 foot walls. I don't park my tractor in it, or any other vehicle and it's a good size for doing projects. It would hold a tractor fine, but I'd have to take it out everytime I wanted to do a decent sized project.

It will work fine, but if you can go bigger, I sure would.

Eddie

3RRL · May 1, 2006

RobA,
Just to give you an idea, I have 4 enclosed canopy structures that are 10 x 20 each. I keep the tractor and backhoe in one, brushhog and PHd and ATV in another, one is for my tool room and the last one for the boxblade and some work tables. If it was all under one roof it would be 800 sq ft. and is still very crowded.
I'd go bigger if you can for a bathroom and storage etc.

texasjohn · May 1, 2006

RobA, I'm in the middle of putting up a 40' X 60' metal building for my stuff. Am planning on equipment/tractor storage plus work shop area. I worried about size, then decided the max I could spend and selected the max size I could get for that. 16' roll up door on one end, 14' rollup on the other.

dooleysm · May 1, 2006

I built my 32x40 pole barn last summer. It's got a 9x8 overhead door and a 10x10 overhead door. I've got a standard walkthrough door and 3 windows.

So far I have in it, my work truck, my L3000 w/ FEL, bushog, finish mower, grader blade, PHD, 16' work bench along one wall, 4 2x4 doghouses (doors pass through to outside kennels), and a 3x5 work bench on rollers. All this leaves me an area about 8x15 in the middle.

Note that I don't have any shelves up yet, which will help free things up. Also note that I've had the barn for less than a year, meaning I've got to make this space last a looooooooong time before teh wife will let me build another outbuilding. Get the biggest barn you can afford. You will never regret a bigger building. You will immediately regret a smaller building.

I can't comment on price, as I salvaged alot of materials. Just know that the cost building materials are going up at an alarming rate. A month can literally cost you hundreds of dollars right now.

accordionman · May 4, 2006

HELLO TO ALL,
i am sure some of you have seen this one before.
decided what size building you want, double it, and
add 30 %, and this should be the correct size.
good luck to all.
accordionman
wlbrown
wright city, mo.