Adding on to existing barn - from the side. Got pictures?

[JB]

My barn is 36x36, a 4/12 roof slope, and I’m looking at adding a shed on one side, so attaching the new roof to the existing slope.

The problem is, with what I want, which is about 17-18’ out from the existing structure, and high enough to put my trailer an round bales under, the new roof has to go pretty high up the existing roof, and I’m still looking at a 3/12 pitch, which is borderline too shallow but can be mitigated with extra/different material under the shingles.

Does anyone have a picture of something similar they’ve done? Have you had to do a pretty shallow roof slope, and if so, did you have problem with water getting under them and leaking down? Is this just going to look stupid? I’ve gotten a drawing from the contractor, and on paper it doesn’t look all that bad, but changes like this sort of wig me out.

What I really need is hay storage - 1000lb round bales. I stress every year now hoping my hay guy can/will hold my bales until I can get them into my barn, and then for most of the Winter I have 8-10 5x5 rounds stuffed in my 12x36 aisle and 12x12 wash stall. Hate it!

[AKB]

We have added onto the barn. We were told that matching the barn at the roof angle would be difficult. It was better to make the addition lower or taller than the barn. Our addition is smaller than the barn so it was done with the same slope on the roof but a couple of feet shorter. It looks good.

[moving_to_dc]

I am thinking along the same lines as AKB. It would likely be easier to add on to the end of the barn, vs. the side given your roof height issues.

Or have you considered just building a free standing pole-barn type structure to put the trailer and hay in? We didn’t have the space to build off of our current barn due to landscaping, trees, fencelines, etc. Instead, we built another structure behind it - a 24x24x12 shed that houses the FEL tractor in one half, and my chicken run in the other. Since it isn’t housing horses, we were able to construct it simply with cut-to-length sheet metal on 2x4 framing. (The posts are 6x6’s and the roof structure is dimensional lumber that is thicker/stronger than 2x4’s).

[Bluey]

We did that, went high enough for what we needed, then flashed properly between roof lines and don’t have not one leak.

Ours was more complicated, as we were tying in to a Quonset, round type barn.

We adjusted for the weight of the new structure not being on the Quonset by putting supporting columns right by it to hold up the extension roof.

In some situations, you may just be better off building a whole separate structure.

Hope this shows you what we did and how we attached the roof and the side, at an angle, not straight vertical, you can see in the first picture, the second one the supporting columns by the old barn:

[JB]

I don’t really have room to extend on the end of the barn enough to put as many round bales as I want/need.

I don’t really have a good place to put another structure either

Regarding infiltrating rain - the guy said it’s not as much about where the new roof joins the old, as it is about a shallower slope allowing rain, particularly slower rain that isn’t running, to sort of wick up under the shingles above it. I haven’t heard of that before but then again I’ve never had to deal with the possibility - it’s all been new construction with proper slopes.

[jacksmom]

We ran a shed off the side of the barn. It goes out 16 feet and then runs the full 48 feet length of the barn. my barn has a gambrel roof, so the angles are steep and to get the height we needed for the lowest part of the shed overhang, we cut into the roof about 4 feet up (the ceilings in the main barn are 10 foot). the roofing is all metal so opening the structure for framing and flashing it were pretty easy. I think it looks good and I love the extra space.

Is there any reason that you don’t want to put a metal roof over your shed extension? you wouldn’t need as much of a pitch as you do for an asphalt shingled roof and the darned things last forever.

[horsepoor]

We added on to our barn two years ago in a similar fashion. We built the original barn in 2003 and it was 36’x40’ with a 10’ overhang off the back (stall) side. Intended it as a multi-use building with shop and storage, two stalls for retired or young horses, and tack/feed room. My frustration with boarding my riding horses, however, led us to add on another stall and wash rack area (along with building an outdoor arena) in 2012.

Here is the barn under construction in 2003. The part with the more steep roof line (right on the photo) is where we have a loft for hay, then we have a lower roof line on the south portion (left on the photo) – the different angles were designed to reflect a similar design on our house.

In 2012, we added a 12’ wide section on the south side, which gave us another stall, and a wash rack. I can’t remember the exact numbers on the pitch, but if we followed the original roof line angle, the building would end up too short on the south side for horses. So we had to raise the roof – change the angle on that part of the old barn to a less steep pitch and continue that angle on the new section. I want to say it went from 4/12 to 3/12 but I’m not sure – we do have some snow, lots of rain, and high winds to deal with here, and it is a composite roof.

This is how it looks after the addition was completed (but not yet painted - the primered stuff is the new part, original is brown). And here is a picture with a line showing how the old roof compares to the new one.

We only added a 12’ wide section, but it does sound similar to what the OP is doing, so maybe the photos will help. The original barn was stick framed and engineered to be open up top (no trusses – we wanted to have an open loft for hay), but we used trusses on the addition.

[JB]

[QUOTE=jacksmom;7882083]
We ran a shed off the side of the barn. It goes out 16 feet and then runs the full 48 feet length of the barn. my barn has a gambrel roof, so the angles are steep and to get the height we needed for the lowest part of the shed overhang, we cut into the roof about 4 feet up (the ceilings in the main barn are 10 foot). the roofing is all metal so opening the structure for framing and flashing it were pretty easy. I think it looks good and I love the extra space.

Is there any reason that you don’t want to put a metal roof over your shed extension? you wouldn’t need as much of a pitch as you do for an asphalt shingled roof and the darned things last forever.[/QUOTE]
I think I’m not opposed to metal, though I know that requires a whole 'nother level of doing so as to not allow condensation to form under it. Does your existing structure have shingles? Do you have a picture? I just wonder how shingles will look with metal. Are there any other considerations with metal?

[JB]

horsepoor, thanks! That does help a bit. What’s the pitch on the whole left side? Obviously it’s shallower than the original.

I sure wish I’d done this when we had the barn originally built, but you know how costs get.

I’m looking at a 17-18’ section that goes the whole 36’ length of the barn, in order to fit the trailer (a nice to have, it’s been out in the open its whole life so…), but more importantly the 5x5 round bales, so the height has to stay pretty high out at the end.

[horsepoor]

@JB;7882520

horsepoor, thanks! That does help a bit. What’s the pitch on the whole left side? Obviously it’s shallower than the original.

We just looked at the pictures again (since it is dark and I can’t see the actual barn right now!) and SO is still thinking it was 4/12 before the addition and is 3/12 now. I think that is as “flat” as they were able to go, given the roofing material and our conditions. So far, it has done well, even in the blizzard last winter (an actual blizzard with heavy snow and high winds, which is a new one for me!), 75+ mph winds this year, and lots of PNW rain.

[JB]

Thank you! That really does give me perspective.

I don’t have a picture of the whole barn but this is what I do have, to give an idea. I’d be adding on to the left side

[Blume_Farm]

What you may want to do is an L shaped barn as that will not limit you with height. Similar to:

http://connecticutbarns.org/images/made/_PHOTOS/egranby_millerrd_17_dm_1a_320_191.jpg

http://www.pole-barn.info/images/L-series-1904840.jpg

http://www.woodtex.com/images/l-shaped-barn01sm.jpg

[horsepoor]

I like Blume Farm’s suggestion too, if you have the room. Adding as much width as you intend to, it seems like that might be a better plan? Something to consider, anyway. You could go L or T shaped with the addition, depending on the layout of the existing barn. Pretty barn, by the way!

[PeteyPie]

It is really common for a shed roof to have a lower pitch than the main barn.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the ceiling being too low on one side. You could take advantage of that space by putting storage all along that outside, lower-ceilinged wall. Another solution is to lower the floor if your site will allow for that.

Here is a barn with the two roofs attached but showing a change in pitch:
http://superbbarns.com/DSCN1891.JPG

Super low pitch on this shed roof:
http://extremehowto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/art_60455_1AttachedTTLead.jpg

Here is an interesting idea. The shed roof attaches to the barn roof, not the barn wall, and meets a little higher up along the roof:
http://www.pjwco.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Stable-w-Attached-Apt.-and-Shed-Row-300x225.jpg

This is awkward looking. I think the main problem isn’t the change in roof pitches but the unbalanced look of the sizes of the two buildings. The barn and the shed are almost the same width which looks bad to me:
http://socalsheds.com/wp-content/uploads/027-764x569.jpg

This barn’s shed has an imperceptibly small pitch – it looks flat, but probably isn’t. Also, the ground slopes down away from the barn which provides plenty of height in the shed.
http://images-54.har.com/e1/mediadisplay/54/hr3192454-31.jpg

This pretty barn has an attachment with a low-pitch, but instead of a shed roof, the roof is hipped as it wraps around the front of the barn. Nice look, don’t you think?
http://www.besthorsestalls.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/CEE-presentation-barn-shed-row.jpg

[JB]

[QUOTE=PeteyPie;7883544]

Here is an interesting idea. The shed roof attaches to the barn roof, not the barn wall, and meets a little higher up along the roof:
http://www.pjwco.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Stable-w-Attached-Apt.-and-Shed-Row-300x225.jpg[/QUOTE]
Yes, thank you! That’s exactly what I’m going to have to do if this is the option I choose (and options are pretty limited). That’s what’s going to have to happen to get the height under the addition I need - attach the addition’s roof up the existing roof, and in my case, pretty high up in order to have the height at the outer line of the addition. That really, really helps me see what this is going to look like

I don’t have room for an L. I mean, technically there is, but realistically there isn’t. There’s only about 20’ in the direction I’m going now before we hit tree trunks (so tree limbs are going to have to be managed already), and on the back side there is only about 50-60’ before the fence, and there’s a shed back there as well - movable, but still. 50-60’ on the right side of the barn (looking at the picture) is my ring, and on the front of the barn, the slope is up pretty good.

There are so many better places the barn could have gone on the property, but siting the house first was the most important thing, and after that, the barn had to be behind it, which dictated the one spot it’s in, for the most part.

[horsepoor]

That is actually pretty similar to how mine tied in - you just don’t see it on mine since it all was enclosed. That area between old roof and new roof looks a little too inviting for critters to nest in, so that would be a concern for me, if left open like that. Even if I wasn’t closing in the whole new part of the building, I might want to close that area up somehow, both for the aesthetics and the critter prevention.

ETA: now that I look at the picture again, I guess it is maybe closed in up there, and they just left the old roof line sticking out a bit, which is kind of odd. When I blow it up to look more closely, it gets too pixelated, so I’m not sure!

[JB]

Yes, that’s one thing the contractor - who’s a horse person, he/his wife have their own farm, she’s a trainer, etc - said, was that enclosing the overlapping section is something to strongly consider - at the very least the ends, since the gutter of the existing roof will be gone, but also very possibly the whole thing, because of critters