Pole Barn Design Tool | FBi Buildings

Click on the planner button and design all you want. You can save it and come back years later....

 

IMO - the best low cost item is a floor drain, that's so I can wash a vehicle in the winter time and clean the floor.

 

I hope to move into my shop soon. I want to start the house. It will be the same type of construction as my shop with Stone & cyprus siding & a metal roof & gables. It will have full length porches front & rear. It faces west so it will help on the sun though I have the top of the line Simonton windows already. I have all my windows, exterior doors, plumbing fixtures,sheathing& cabinet material. I bought all of it on Craigslist for 25% of retail.
A floor drain is always a good idea in any shop that will have auto repairs done in it. You can just hose the floor clean after you do the repairs. I get lots of mud on my floor when I brung my truck inside. I have to sweep it out the door I'm on a big hill. I wish I had put a floor drain on the side with the garage door. It would have been easy to do.

 

Check with floor drain requirements for your area. I was going to build a garage for a guy in NY. What a bunch of DEC and EPA BS regs. that had to be conformed to. They were worried about anti-freeze, motor oil, gasoline, and of all things ...salt that might be washed down the drain.

 

Great idea about the floor drain, but unfortunately, that was not really a viable option, because of the location. I am going to keep a squeegee and wet/dry vac available though. Here in Eastern Tennessee, we only have a few weeks a year when you can't really wash a car outside, so washing the car inside really isn't needed.

And yes, GLR, I hear ya'. For my building permit, they just asked the size, where on the property I was going to put the building, and what I was going to use it for. I told them it was a 40' x 50' car barn. They responded, "Cool!" Had my permit in less than 20 minutes. No problems. I love living in Tennessee.

 

I'm in Louisiana. I didn't have to pull a permit for my shop. If I'd run the floor drain about 100 ft downhill & hid the opening I would have no problems