Well after 10yrs of waiting and wanting, I've finally got the building up. Amish down the road from me built it in 4 days. If I'd just gotten the price from them earlier, I wouldn't have waited so long. It's 30x40 and I've still got some back-filling to do. then I'm going to put about 4" of gravel in it and let it settle for a while before getting the pad poured

 

That's looking pretty sweet! Make sure you put a good drain system around it, a flooded garage really sucks (experience factor there).

 

Aint it nice finally getting your building up. I have been in mine for less than a month. Congrats and looks good.

 

Wow! That looks great! That's about what mine is going to look like some day. As soon as my refinance goes through I'm going to start building a 36x48 barn style garage with a loft. Do you have trusses with loft space built in? I saw the door up top. Also what size doors are those? I was going to go with 10x10. It really looks good. I can't wait to get started on mine....

 

The loft is open across with a stringer at 8', so I've got 30x40 usable space up top. (wood shop) the peak is at 10' and the hip is at 6'6.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the concrete will be at the top of the pressure treated sill that's visible thru the door. Door openings are to be 12'x9'. I have just head space for roll up doors.

Last year I put in a french drain that runs diagonally across the front, and to the left just outside the frame is a ditch. I've basically got a canyon in the woods behind, it drops off quick, but the building is on a spot about 15' before the drop off.

I live in an old farm house that was built in 1886, there used to be a barn in that approximate location, the slab was still visible, but I had the dozer operator, remove it, it would have been too difficult to re-surface.

Here's an "in-progress" photo. the main floor should have 10' clear after the concrete

 

Not bad at all- but I did just spend several days digging up a french drain here. They work great as long as silt doesn't get into them. Once it does, though, all that rock has to come out. It does work for groundwater control, though. For runoff, a curbing, or grated drainage ditch is the best bet. My situation is much more severe than yours, for sure, since I'm at the bottom of about 150yds of 30º slope here, but just hate to see someone go through the crap I have been lately.

 

That's great to have all that space upstairs too. I'm going to span the whole 36' without any poles so I won't have full use of the upstairs. I don't have the details on the trusses yet, but I'm hoping for about 14 to 16 feet across with an 8 foot ceiling upstairs. The main level will have a 12 foot ceiling so I can have an overhead lift. When I saw the picture of yours, it reminded me so much of what I have planned. I like the vertical siding too. I was planning on horizontal lap boards, but now I don't know. Definitely going with the steel roof though. That's the only way to go if you don't want to be up top 15 years from now... Keep us posted on the progress. It really looks good so far. I'm sure you can't wait until it's done now that it's all closed in.

 

It was all built using undimensioned lumber, the roof joists are 2x8 which means 2x8 not 1 1/2 x 7 1/2. I'll try to remember to get a picture of the loft

 

That is a mighty fine looking shop! I'm envious!

 

That's a mighty fine looking garage/workshop.

Sounds (and looks) like the Amish still have those admirable barn-raising qualities in their blood.

 

Out of curiosity. Did the Amish carpenters use any electric power tools or air nailers or did they use the old hand saw and hammer?

 

We have alot of Amish carpenters around my area too? Do they work relatively cheap? I'd love to have a set up like yours.

 

I think they used every tool I had. Most of the cuts were done with a chainsaw, they would have even used it for rip cuts if I wouldn't have brought out my table saw. I was very suprized how well the did with the chainsaw.

The guy that I hired was my neighbor, lives about a 1/4 of a mile down the road from me. His dad owned the Lumber Mill so that where all the lumber came from, I gave him material costs up front so he could order the tin and buy logs. I used my truck to haul a Hay wagon filled with lumber several times.

I'm really reluctant to tell you the costs as everyone will probably get pissed, but.

Labor $2550, like I said took them 4 days with a crew of 4-5.
Materials $6000, and 2200 of that was the tin. He really wanted the job since I live so close, they loose a lot of work time driving a horse and buggy any distance to get work.

I've still got about $500 planned for Elec and about $3000 in concrete, which is going to include Pex radiant tubing. About $1200 for the two roll up doors, then another 5-600 in insulation, and plumbing for air.

Total by the end of the year should be $14000 which I'm really happy about considering I was going to drop that much into a Metal Pole building that was a little smaller and no loft area.

Right now I'm on hold with the barn while I finish Siding the house. Bosses orders

 

thats really dang cheap.

 

You must not be planning much in the way of electrical or are planning to do a bunch yourself. I had my 20x30 wire with a meter base, a breaker box, 7 110 plug ins and 3 8 ft. flourescent lights and switches for them also a 220 hook up for my air compressor. which my electrician put in to code and was inspected. It cost me 2000 dollars and he cut me a deal because he is a freind. Every other price I got was 2500-3000.