Do you need more stall or storage space?

When you live on a farm, you can NEVER have too many barns, run-in sheds or storage areas.  We are at the place where we needed another small barn or run-in shed.  We've added another paddock this year near the main barn, where we turned out a mare and foal for exercise.  We thought it would have been very nice to have a shelter in that paddock for them, so if a sudden rain storm came up, they could get in without us worrying about them and running like crazy to the barn to get them inside!

So....we started out with the idea to just build a small 12 x 12 run-in shelter.  On reflecting about the use of that, we decided to make it a bit larger and go with a 12 x 30 small barn instead.  There will be room for 2 stalls of 12 x 12 size OR 4 stalls of 6 x 12 (mini horse) size OR 1 large run-in area of 12 x 24 size, OR a combination of those sizes, with a solid walled 6 x 12 feed room.  The stall area will be divided off by gates and/or round pen panels, so the entire stall area can be rearranged to meet whatever current need we have for it!  It will be perfect for weaning the mini foals in.  Perfect for 2 full sized horses to spend the nights in.  Perfect for storing shavings/sawdust in, etc.  The uses are numerous!

We also decided to tackle this build ourselves.  Since it was a small shelter, we figured it was within our abilities.  The blogs for the next few entries will reflect this building journey and I'll share the path that we chose to go down on putting up this addition!  Perhaps it may give you a few ideas for your own run-in shed or small barn!

The first thing you need to do, is check with your county and see if a building permit is needed.  In our county, if it is a barn/farm building, then no building permit is needed.  Then we drew out our planned building on paper, with lengths noted, post heights noted, etc.  This allowed us to make a shopping list for our supplies.

We began with marking and digging the holes for our support posts.  Since the internal stall structure will change with need, we opted for more posts than just the basic support posts.  We wanted extra posts to secure divider panels to, etc.  Before you dig, make sure there are no underground utilities in the area!  Often times people forget about where their electric or water lines to the barn are located!!  Make sure you are well clear of those areas before you dig your post holes!!  We put in the posts, made sure they were straight, tamped some dirt around the bottoms and then put in a bag of quickcrete in each hole.  We put the quickcrete in dry and added water to the mixture after it was in the hole.  We then let those posts stand quietly and the concrete dry for several days.

Posts set and concrete added.  Just waiting a few days for it all to set up and harden well.

After the concrete was dry, we put up our brace boards between all the posts.  This was a bit of a challenge!  We wanted the front posts to be 6 inches higher than our very back posts, to give us a 6 inch drop for water to run off the roof.  (That small of a drop is fine for our area....we get very, very little snow each year!  In snowy areas, you'll need to check with your local builders to see what they recommend for a roof slant.)  You would think that by leveling each brace board that goes between the posts, that you would have a square and even design.  Unfortunately, that did not happen for us!  I have a suspicion that it has to do with the fact that our ground is not perfectly level to begin with! 

So my best advice, would be to put your brace boards across the front posts at the height that you would like them to be at and then level each of those boards.  Then place a temporary board between the front post and the next post back.  Level it and mark the top of that brace board (for us, this was our middle post).  Measure down the correct distance and mark where the top of the board should be placed.  Then repeat that procedure for the next line of posts back, etc.  For instance, in our case, we had 3 lines of posts.  Front, middle and back.  Our front posts were 9 feet 6 inches high.  Our middle posts should have been 9 feet 3 inches high.  Our back posts should have been 9 feet even.  This would give us our 6 inch slope for our roof line.  You would think just measuring each post the correct height and then placing the brace boards at the top of each post, SHOULD have been the easiest way to achieve our slope!  It was NOT!!!  Again, I think the fact that the ground was not perfectly level, was the reason it didn't work the way we thought it would.  So....this alternate method worked and our roof slopes fine. 

Then we needed to cut off the posts to the correct heights.  You can do this before or after you place the brace boards up....it's up to you and how comfortable you are with your cutting device!  We opted to mark the posts with the brace boards held temporarily in place.  We placed them at the desired location and ran a marker across the post, along the top of the board.  This marked our post with the proper slope we needed to cut it at.  Then we used a chain saw to cut the tops off the posts.  It was pretty accurate and was a MUCH faster way than using a circular saw for this task! 

After the tops of the posts were cut off and the brace posts attached, it was time for the rafters.  We used 2 x 4 treated lumber.  We opted to lay them flat, with the 4 inch width against the brace posts, instead of having them on end.  We did this for 2 reasons:  we didn't want as much air/vent space at the top of the rafters and we wanted more of a surface to nail our OSB boards to.  We left a 3 foot overhang at the front of the barn and a 1 foot overhang at the back.  This will hopefully keep rain from blowing into the front of the stall and keep it from dripping directly down on the back of the barn.

Posts up, brace boards in place and rafters going up.

With all of the rafters in place, it was time for the OSB (like plywood) to go up.  We opted to put this up along with the metal roofing, in order to insulate the barn a little bit.  Having the wood underneath the metal roof will help to keep the barn a bit cooler and will also help to greatly reduce the noise when it rains!  Since there will be young horses kept in this barn often, we wanted it as quiet as we could get it during storms. 

We used 2 sheets of the OSB board to make up one row.  We placed it long way from front to back.  This gave us 16 feet of roof to cover.  (12 feet of stall area, plus 3 foot overhang in front and 1 foot overhang at the back.)  We did have to cut some off of the side, as it didn't come out to be a perfect fit that way.

Back row of the OSB boards going up on the roof.  About 3/4 of that row is finished here.  To get them on the roof, we backed the truck as close to the side of the building as we could.  Then we lifted up the 8 foot board and pushed it up onto the roof.  We used ladders to climb up to get it properly placed on the first few boards.  After that, one person sat on the roof to work and the other stood on a ladder to assist from the ground.

Once the OSB boards were all in place, we put on the black roof paper, to seal the roof against moisture.  We rolled it out across the roof going left to right (so going longways on the roof).  We overlapped each row by about 3 inches.  Each row was also stapled in place.  We opted for the stronger paper....so when we walked across it, it held up and wouldn't tear. 

On each end, we left about 2 or 3 inches hanging over and stapled that down also.



Roof covered in black roofing paper.  The wrinkles are because the roof sat overnight and the dew made it slightly bubbled like that.  As the sun came up, it went back down flat.

Black roof paper hanging over edges of roof a bit.  We stapled this down also.

 

 

 

Next step was to add the drip edges.  We used 10 feet long drip strips, letting them overlap slightly in the middle and used roofing nails to attach them to the topside of the roof.  On the ends, we bent the edges around the corners, to protect the corner boards as shown.

Drip edge (silver colored metal strip) going up.

Drip edge going in place.



The drip edge wrapping around the corner. 

Now it was time for the metal roofing to go up!  For easier handling, we chose to use an 8 foot piece of metal and a 10 foot piece of metal, to make up one row (front to back).  These smaller pieces were easier for us to transport and handle, rather than going with a 16 foot long solid piece!!

We did overlap the 2 pieces in each row by a couple of feet.  We also allowed the metal to slightly hang over the edges of the OSB board in the front and back by a couple of inches.  The screws we used to attach the metal sheets have a washer on them, to help seal the screw holes against water.

Metal roofing in place.

That completes phase 1!  Yeah!!  It's nice to have the barn under roof.  Next phase is putting up the metal sides.  That will be covered in the next blog, coming out on September 26th.  A word of caution....when you are working on a roof.....never do that alone!  Always have someone with you, even if they are on the ground, for safety!  Take care!!  Until next time.....