30' X 40' Pole Barn Shop Build

['84 Bronco II]

I am going to start by saying that this won't be a particularly interesting or unique build, but I figured I would post it up just to help jump start the content on Irate.

I have been needing a place to store and work on my junk for a while. My truck barely fits in my attached two car garage, and I have to pull a vehicle out to be able to access anything in my garage; which is annoying on a day-to-day basis. It also sucked for doing major projects because I would have to leave everything parked outside whenever I worked on anything and I hate leaving my junk sitting out in the weather. The wife also hates having her DD parked outside in the winter.


My father has a 30'x40' steel building with two 12' wide doors and a two post lift, which I quite like, so I am basically emulating his setup. I too am going 30'x40' with two 12' wide doors and plan on installing a two post lift along with 220V power for my welder.

I don't have the time or access to cheap/free labor or familiarity with the permit and inspection process, so I decided to pay to have the building erected. I got quotes from several builders and building manufacturers, and doing a pole barn-style construction was the cheapest by far. I would have preferred steel, but this is not my "forever" home, so I figured it would be fine to get me through the next 5 years or so when I decide to move on from this house.

Here are the plans that were submitted for the building permit that hopefully might help someone who wants to build a pole barn themselves:

Sorry for the shitty pictures of the plans, but the contractor never sent me the original files

 

['84 Bronco II]

My property has a bit of a slope, but nothing crazy considering many of the properties in the area are on pretty steep hillsides. The contractor I went with is based out of Albuquerque (pretty flat) and balked at the amount of dirt work needed for the shop since he only has a skid-steer for dirt work. I happen to have a few friends with heavy equipment, and one of them was willing to deliver his back hoe for me to use to do the dirt work for the contractor.

Here is the back hoe getting dropped off:

I had to build up about 4' of dirt on the southeast corner and cut a a couple feet and a drainage from the northwest side. Here is the start of the dirt work:

 

['84 Bronco II]

We had underground utilities located, and an internet line ran right where one of the posts needed to go. I figured I would dig up the line and move it over about 1' instead of moving the building or messing with the pole spacing. I started digging, and the more I dug, the more lines I kept finding

Here's the point I stopped and decided to just move the building over a couple of feet (I had wanted it as tight on the property line as I could get it since I am just on one acre):

After deciding where the building needed to be to avoid the lines (about 2-3' to the northwest), the contractor finally came out to auger the post holes:

 

['84 Bronco II]

After augering the post holes, the contractor had to wait for the holes to be inspected before proceeding.

The second day of work they got most of the poles set:

After the third day they got much of the bracing installed:

 

[Mr Stubs]

What is the estimated cost?

i know it’s apples and oranges but just wondering if the couple prices I’ve seen local to me are semi comparable.

 

['84 Bronco II]

What is the estimated cost?

i know it’s apples and oranges but just wondering if the couple prices I’ve seen local to me are semi comparable.

So I am locked in at a little shy of $24,000 for the building itself, but that includes taxes and permit fees.

I had to sub out the concrete, and the quote I am going with was $4,200 for a 3,000PSI 4" slab with wire mesh reinforcement.

I am planning to seal/epoxy the concrete myself as well as do most if not all the electrical installation. I am hoping to come out at or below $30,000 all said and done (not including the lift). I haven't decided yet whether I am going to install the lift right away or hold off a bit, but the lift I am eyeballing is about $2,000.

I think a pole barn like I am building would be quite feasible to do yourself on the cheap if you have some friends/family you could count on the give you a hand and you can hold yourself to a realistic schedule. I don't have a lot of friends and family nearby, and I didn't have a lot of confidence in myself completing it in a reasonable amount of time or dealing with the permit process and inspectors.

 

[Mr Stubs]

That price is very similar to what is available size wise in my location... thanks!

 

[shortbus4x4]

Hole inspection? WTF. Why did they have to look at the holes before you put the posts in?

 

['84 Bronco II]

Hole inspection? WTF. Why did they have to look at the holes before you put the posts in?

I guess to make sure they are deep enough (they had to be 5' deep to support the wind loads with the height of my building) and somewhat straight. I am not sure since I wasn't home when the inspector came by. I joking said the same thing to the contractor, and he assured me not to worry, he has never had any holes fail.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Today's progress:

 

[carslut]

are the images loading for anyone else?

I'm in SD county and also need a shop built, how is the county/city to deal with?

 

['84 Bronco II]

are the images loading for anyone else?

I'm in SD county and also need a shop built, how is the county/city to deal with?

The pictures come up on my phone, my wife's phone, and on my laptop just fine, so I am assuming the problem is on your end

I can't tell you how the city and county are in, I am assuming, San Diego. I don't live in Commiefornia!

 

['84 Bronco II]

Anyways, here's the latest update. They finished getting the trusses up yesterday and framing the front in for the roll-up doors. The contractor had a pretty sweet home-built attachment for his skid-steer to raise the trusses in place and have a guy on each end attach them really quick.

And a few "tech" details to maybe help out someone who is trying to figure out how to put their own pole barn together:

Apparently I got the pad too compacted, and the contractor was having a hell of a time doing the finishing leveling on the pad for the concrete with his skid steer, so he asked me to scratch the pad with the backhoe which I did today:

 

['84 Bronco II]

Well, I guess I have been remiss keeping this thread updated, but I guess that is because I am a bit frustrated that progress has stalled out. They "finished" the building Wednesday 5/27 last week, but apparently they sub out the door installation and they didn't get those guys lined up and ready for when the rest of the building was completed They are supposed to install the doors on the 8th. On top of that, the concrete guy I had lined up finally answered one of my calls Tuesday 5/26, and told me that he is at least three weeks out and can't give me a date. I had called him about a month ago for a quote and told him when construction was supposed to begin and when it should be done, and he told me no problem and to call him when the building is up. I called him the Friday (and following Monday and Tuesday...) the week before the building was finished to let him know that I was about ready for him, but apparently I wasn't a priority in his schedule. so in the mean time I am stuck with a big carport. God I hate contractors and wish I had the resources to do everything on my own

Anyways, here are some picture updates of the progress:

The guys came on Memorial day for a few hours and started getting the siding up

Then Tuesday they got most of the siding and half of the roof installed.

And from Wednesday, the finished product minus the doors and concrete

 

[Fishbone333]

Very nice!

 

['84 Bronco II]

Alright, time for some updates. The concrete guy came out a week ago to look at the site, although he still doesn't know when he'll be able to pour, and said the contractor left the dirt floor too unlevel and wanted another $600 on top of what he quoted me to fix it. I told him I would take care of it. He also told me I needed to put down engineered fill because there was too much clay and it would suck the moisture out of the concrete and screw up the curing process. I knocked out leveling the floors over the weekend, and they finally came out and installed the doors today, so I guess there is some progress to show for the last week.

Ever feel like a bull in a China shop?

I used some mason's line across the width of the shop spaced ~2' apart down the depth to measure for high spots which I marked with orange marking paint. Then I took the backhoe and scratched all the high spots, and afterwards try to level everything out as best as I could with the bucket. Then I broke the mason's line out again and used a scrap piece of 2"x6" to get it all level within 1". I used the dirt I scraped out with the backhoe to fill in the low spots, but I had to make a screen box with some of the scrap 2"x4" pieces and some chicken wire I had laying around to get the big, hard chunks of clay out of the dirt I was using for fill.

Here it is as of today with the doors finally installed. For some reason I was thinking they were just going to be roll up doors, but they ended up being residential-style panel doors. Definitely nicer than what I was expecting, but I am a little concerned about clearance now when I go to install the lift since it will require all of the ceiling height my building has.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Very nice!

Thanks, I appreciate it!

 

[Clemson13]

What you need to do is change out one of the doors to be a jackshaft opener (Liftmaster 8500) and then reroute the tracks to be all the way up at the ceiling. Unfortuantely this may require changing out the springs. Doing that you will be able to get those doors to within inches of the ceiling.

Edit: Just noticed you dont have openers on the building yet. Sweet, that saves you having to redo them! Now you just have to move the tracks higher and get the right springs

 

['84 Bronco II]

What you need to do is change out one of the doors to be a jackshaft opener (Liftmaster 8500) and then reroute the tracks to be all the way up at the ceiling. Unfortuantely this may require changing out the springs. Doing that you will be able to get those doors to within inches of the ceiling.

Edit: Just noticed you dont have openers on the building yet. Sweet, that saves you having to redo them! Now you just have to move the tracks higher and get the right springs

I think they will probably be fine since they are only protruding in about 10' of the 30' depth and the lift will be positioned 15' in, but we'll see. These doors are already bought and paid for, so I am not going to change anything out unless I know there is a problem I just cant work around. Thanks for the suggestion though, I definitely look into that if there is an issue.

 

[Clemson13]

I think they will probably be fine since they are only protruding in about 10' of the 30' depth and the lift will be positioned 15' in, but we'll see. These doors are already bought and paid for, so I am not going to change anything out unless I know there is a problem I just cant work around. Thanks for the suggestion though, I definitely look into that if there is an issue.

I fully understand not changing a thing if it is not a problem. On the plus side, my recommendation wont actually require you to change the door at all, just the tracks and a potential opener. I recommend you use jackshaft openers regardless of the height, just so you dont have the stupid opener bock clogging taking up all that space right in the middle. Much nicer to have them wall mounted.

 

['84 Bronco II]

I fully understand not changing a thing if it is not a problem. On the plus side, my recommendation wont actually require you to change the door at all, just the tracks and a potential opener. I recommend you use jackshaft openers regardless of the height, just so you dont have the stupid opener bock clogging taking up all that space right in the middle. Much nicer to have them wall mounted.

Thanks, I'll definitely have to read up on jackshaft openers then

Since I thought I was getting roll up doors, I hadn't planned on openers, but now that I have panel door, I am sure I'll be installing openers at some point depending on how much they run. Having manual doors blows for your daily driver, but none of the vehicles I am putting in the shop are daily drivers, so we'll see how long I go before I cave and buy some openers.

 

[Clemson13]

Thanks, I'll definitely have to read up on jackshaft openers then

Since I thought I was getting roll up doors, I hadn't planned on openers, but now that I have panel door, I am sure I'll be installing openers at some point depending on how much they run. Having manual doors blows for your daily driver, but none of the vehicles I am putting in the shop are daily drivers, so we'll see how long I go before I cave and buy some openers.

Jackshaft jackshaft jackshaft

On my shop i have 2 front facing doors like yours and a side door. The side door does not have an opener on it. With my use, I only really care about the roll up door on the Vehicle projects/ temporary parking bay. The other doors being manual doesn't bother me one bit, I never try to drive through them in my cars/truck. You could keep your costs down by only putting an opener on the bay you will drive your truck into to unload your new toys in. Mighty nice to drive home with some new toys in the bed, press the button and just leave the truck in the shop till later to unload especially in cold rain.

Edit: My passionate hatred of regular openers is driven by the fact that I have 4 of the things at my place and in every case i would love nothing more that to get rid of the obtrusive pieces of crap. Unfortunately I have not had a project that would justify the cost of replacing something that does work.

Edit 2: Go ahead and run the power for the opener circuit when you are wiring the shop. I would put them on their own circuit so i could easily cut their power when i was travelling from the panel. During a big wiring project, the extra work is irrelevant. Doing it later is just a PITA.

 

['84 Bronco II]

So I am finally getting my concrete poured tomorrow, so I got my 1 1/2" schedule 40 conduit in place that will go from the ground to the breaker box so that I wont have to make a penetration in the side of the building. I am using 2-2-2-4 aluminum USE cable with is rated for direct burial, so the conduit is just for where the cable comes out of the ground. Anyways, here are the latest progress pictures:

Also, here is the concrete plan for anyone that's interested:

 

[aczlan]

Do yourself a huge favor and run that conduit all the way to the house. Otherwise in a few years there is a good chance that you will have to dig it up again and run a new wire.

Aaron Z

 

['84 Bronco II]

Do yourself a huge favor and run that conduit all the way to the house. Otherwise in a few years there is a good chance that you will have to dig it up again and run a new wire.

Aaron Z

Why do you say that? I haven't had issues with direct burial cable in the past, and as a matter of fact, the power feed to the house is direct burial wire as well with no conduit and has survived over 25 years so far. Running the wire in a conduit lowers the amp rating as well; not that it would really be an issue in my case. Conduit is cheap enough, but I would rather not have to try and pull the thick ass cable through a bunch of conduit unless someone can convince me why it isn't a good idea to bury direct burial cable.

 

[aczlan]

Replaced a shed with a pole barn and there was a 4-4-2URD direct buried and another one in conduit next to it.
NM may not have as much of an issue with rocks moving around, but its a pain around here. The frost brings them up and they nick the wire on their way by.
I pulled in ~200 feet of 4-4-4-2URD into a 2" conduit, took about an hour and a half including setup and cleanup (pulled a rope through with a fish tape, hooked the wire to the rope, ran the rope over a large pulley, hooked the rope to the RTV and the wife slowly drove the RTV away from the pulley as I fed the wire into the conduit).


Aaron Z

 

[AK_F250]

Throw some pex in there too in case you want water out there later on.

 

[FleshEater]

Man, if possible running water is a must.

 

[AK_F250]

Man, if possible running water is a must.

I can't imagine not having a sink and a way to wash floors in a shop, even if it is just cold water. Make a quick dry well or French drain for the sink and call it a day. Hell, with the slope out the back just let it run out on the ground.

The utility sink in my shop doubles as a urinal too

 

['84 Bronco II]

Replaced a shed with a pole barn and there was a 4-4-2URD direct buried and another one in conduit next to it.
NM may not have as much of an issue with rocks moving around, but its a pain around here. The frost brings them up and they nick the wire on their way by.
I pulled in ~200 feet of 4-4-4-2URD into a 2" conduit, took about an hour and a half including setup and cleanup (pulled a rope through with a fish tape, hooked the wire to the rope, ran the rope over a large pulley, hooked the rope to the RTV and the wife slowly drove the RTV away from the pulley as I fed the wire into the conduit).


Aaron Z

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that before. Regardless, the soil on my property is pretty sandy and I only found a handful of baseball-size rocks doing the dirt work for the pad. If the service line to the house has managed to make it 26 years with no conduit, I imagine this will be fine, at least for the 5-10 more years I am planning on living here.

Throw some pex in there too in case you want water out there later on.

Man, if possible running water is a must.

I can't imagine not having a sink and a way to wash floors in a shop, even if it is just cold water. Make a quick dry well or French drain for the sink and call it a day. Hell, with the slope out the back just let it run out on the ground.

The utility sink in my shop doubles as a urinal too

I hear you all, but I don't feel like running water out to the shop is worth the hassle and expense. Also, I don't know how I would keep it from freezing in the winter since this hill not be a heated living space, but honestly, it didn't cross my mind to stub some water line in the concrete My father's shop doesn't have water either, and I have never felt like it was that big of an issue while working in it. We both have utility sinks in our attached garages.


I forgot to post finished pictures of the concrete from the other day:

I got a load of gravel coming for the driveway today which I'll also use in the drainage areas of the building since that is a code requirement, then this thing should be ready for the inspection for the structure.