Pole barn

BigRis

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I am planning on building a polebarn soon. Everyone says to build the biggest barn i can affored but... We bought some property and our plan is to put a single wide trailer on it so we can get out there now and we will build later. We are opening a boarding /kennel business and want to get that up and running this fall so we are building two barns. One will house the boarding buisness and the other will be a shop/garage . We need both barn before winter so i need to make the budget work for both. So i do not want a barn bigger than i need as along with build cost than i have to heat it. I was thinking of a 24x36x12 and having three overhead doors on the 36' side. I want to install a two post lift and have room to work on one car, store/park two cars. Is 24' going to work? Is 12' going to be tall enought for a car in the lift or do i need 14'. Thanks
 

RocketcarX

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My shop has two bays, a super small office, a parts room and a small bathroom, it is 35x40 and I would call it a tight fit. I could loose the office but I need the parts room and restroom, the ceiling to the parts room also has been decked on it's top side for "upstairs" storage in order to maximize space.
My ceiling peaks over well over 12 foot, if it was a flat roof I would want 14.
I don't think you will be happy with much less if you want room to work and park.
 

tjm73

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My pole barn is 30x60 and just a smidge under 12' finished floor to bottom of trusses. It filled up really fast (we bought a camper). If I was building a new pole barn (mine came with the property) and planned on a lift I would build the 14' height. I can, and hope, to put a lift in mine but I wish I had another 12-18" to work with. Reason being if you have something on the hoist all the way up and you want to open your overhead door, will there be enough clearance for everything at the ceiling. Don't forget you will also have lights up there and maybe a ceiling fan or two.

In what you describe I would also do 36x36. It would leave you 15-20 feet directly in front of the car to do work or store more stuff. You pull a 16 foot long Mustang into a 24 foot hole and you will have 2 feet behind leaving just about 6 feet in front. Not a lot of space IMO.

Also I would recommend making one of the three doors over size in width and height. a 12x12 door is pretty handy sometimes. 10x12 at a minimum. One end or the other, not in the middle.

I have actually considered changing a few trusses to gain a foot or so of more room.
 
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pass1over

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I would try and go 36x36x14 if you can, or bigger if budget allows.

A Mustang is roughly 15 1/2 feet long, with your 24' deep, that gives you 8 1/2 feet total to work with front and back. My wife's fusion is 16 feet long, so depending on what kind of cars your working on, you might have much less space. It's not really enough room to move around the car imo, especially if doing engine removal, etc.

I believe all 2 posts lifts stand right at 12 feet tall, my Dannmarr 2 post is 145" tall, 12.08 feet. You'd want the ceiling at least 13 feet tall, but 14 would be better.

I overestimated the depth into my shop placement on my lift when installing mine. Now I want to move it towards my door opening about a foot. When there's a car on the lift now, there's not really enough room to move between it and the couch, but there's about 10 feet clearance to the door.
 

pass1over

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I have actually considered changing a few trusses to gain a foot or so of more room.


guy I know had his trusses notched in the middle to allow for a 2 post lift in his pole barn. So instead of the bottom part of the truss going straight across, there's a square opening about 10 feet wide and 3 or 4 feet tall.
 

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