I'm buying an adjacent property with an old barn that I hope to convert into a functional building. By functional I mean a mechanical workshop, a woodworking shop, and a storage shed, each with their own dedicated area. And I want this all to coexist on a 30x35 foot print. I may have my hopes set a bit high.
The layout is 30' deep, the main part of the building is 24' wide, with a 30x24 loft above it, then 30x10' of lean-to.
So the plan as of right now is mechanical shop downstairs, wood shop upstairs, and lean-to as storage and tractor parking.
Here is the view standing in the doorway looking in at the main floor. Did I mention the barn is full of the current owners crap? Because it is. Crap that is included. They were pretty adamant about that part. So step one will be a massive decrapping. That divider wall on the LH side will go, along with a couple of the posts to open the space. There is a row of posts on RH side about 4' in from where my divider wall will be. I think this 4' strip will be a good place for things like jack, parts washer, etc.
That is a awesome old building there. Hand hewn beams, mortise and tenon. It's worth a fortune in reclaimed lumber.
It's going to make for a really cool workshop.
Its my dream to have a massive old barn for storage of all my projects and all my crap.
Does it look like there's any good stuff in the piles, or did they run off with all the good stuff before they sold it?
The loft.
It's divided into six large compartments for grain storage. All that is coming out to provide a 30x24 woodworking area.
Nice floor.
Do your demo carefully. People will pay big money for old barn timbers and lumber.
What's with the yellow pipe running through both levels?
So here's the bad part. The roof came off of the rf corner of the lean-to, and was left that way long enough for the beams to rot out in that corner. So everything is going to have to get tore off this corner and rebuilt. I haven't decided if I want to do timber framing it to match the rest of the building, or just do conventional 2x framing to make things quick and easy. I think if I do quick and easy it will bother me every time I look at it.
Mr_Asa said:
Its my dream to have a massive old barn for storage of all my projects and all my crap.
Does it look like there's any good stuff in the piles, or did they run off with all the good stuff before they sold it?
There is a really nice old grinder stand or tool stand of some type that looks to weigh about 200 pounds is probably at least 80-100 years old. There is a bunch of roller conveyors I may use to make an in feed and out feed for my table saw. An old giant two man cross cut saw and some single trees that will look neat hanging on the wall. Some miscellaneous tractor parts that might be worth a few bucks. Otherwise mostly junk.
Toyman01 said:
Do your demo carefully. People will pay big money for old barn timbers and lumber.
That's my plan. I'm going to stack it somewhere until the project is done in case I need any of it, then try to sell what's left.
JThw8
UltimaDork
3/15/20 6:14 p.m.
This is relevant to my interests. We have a not so old barn on our property, I was going to leave it a barn since we may add some animals at some point but my garage budget is lighter than I'd hoped and would stretch a lot further converting the 30x40 barn (with 10 x 40 lean to) into something useable for my mechanical persuits. The biggest issues I face is getting a slab poured inside the barn and upgrading the electrical as it only has a 30a sub panel off the house main panel at the moment.
EvanB said:
What's with the yellow pipe running through both levels?
That's an auger to run the grain up to the loft. It runs to the peak of the roof and has a movable chute to direct the grain to the different storage compartments. I'm not looking forward to wrestling that out of there.
Very cool, wish mine had concrete floors!
Just some random pics I like
In reply to gearheadmb :
Don't try to make the building conform to some preconceived idea. Find out what the building wants to be. I know.that sounds wacko but it really works. There are some really beautiful things there and if you try to force them into a poorly conceived idea you'll ruin them.
The worst thing you can do is bang some plywood and or sheetrock onto it. Not only will it turn out ugly it will cost too much.
Don't follow this idea like a blue print but put your own stamp on this. Find the local sawmills. Check with Woodmizer they have a list of every woodmizer owner in your area. Start there, they will turn you onto other sawmills. Somebody will have a pile of ash or pecan. Maybe mixed variety. Something you can do something really extraordinary with for little money and a lot of sweat.
Man I'm jealous. That building is awesome.
Looks like you have a roll of overhead triplex incase you want to run overhead power to the barn.
In reply to frenchyd :
I love the charm of the building. I have no intention of hanging drywall or plywood to cover any of the timber. One of my goals is to have the shop setup work aesthetically with the rest of the building. I want it to be more than just a place to do work, but also just be a neat place to be.
Toyman01 said:
Man I'm jealous. That building is awesome.
Looks like you have a roll of overhead triplex incase you want to run overhead power to the barn.
Yeah but my current plan is to put a 100 amp breaker in my box in the basement and trench in power and internet cable.
gearheadmb said:
In reply to frenchyd :
I love the charm of the building. I have no intention of hanging drywall or plywood to cover any of the timber. One of my goals is to have the shop setup work aesthetically with the rest of the building. I want it to be more than just a place to do work, but also just be a neat place to be.
I think the hardest parts are going to be planning for the wood dust containment, and where/how you're going to locate a lift (2nd floor impacts). Maybe you already have that planned with where the auger currently lives. Sounds like you've got this in hand either way. Please keep sharing! As you can see, many of us would be happy to live vicariously through you finding the old fixer-upper barn we all dream of (seriously). 
I would like people's opinions on color. I'm going to paint the roof with silver barn roof paint, should I paint the walls white or red? The house (other side of the driveway) is white if that makes a difference.
In reply to bluej :
Unfortunately without removing the loft their is no way to make a lift happen. So I will have to continue living without one. C'est la vie.
SVreX
MegaDork
3/16/20 8:46 a.m.
I really want to say red is completely overdone, but...
red.
gearheadmb said:
In reply to bluej :
Unfortunately without removing the loft their is no way to make a lift happen. So I will have to continue living without one. C'est la vie.
Open up the second floor window to a reasonable size, add doors, and put in a barn hoist. Building one strong enough to lift a a couple of hundred pounds would be pretty easy.
And I will second red, with white trim.
