I am looking for checklist for building a barn. Lets say we are starting with correctly zoned property. What would be an organized checklist from the first step to moving in? Thank you.
Make sure you have thought of EVERYTHING you want in your barn. It is expensive to redo stuff later:)
I spent about 5 months on just the design.
Determine your budget and interview potential builders to get starting quotes.
Check their portfolios and references.
Make sure they have the proper licensing.
Then decide what you want, must haves, & what you are willing to wait to complete later.
-Metal pole barn or wood?
-Number of stalls?
-Dimensions of the building’s foot print?
-Proper drainage?
-Distance to run electric & water?
-Easily accessible to drive to, to load/unload hay, feed, bedding,
etc. ?
-Fencing and gates?
-Future additional buildings?
When I built my barn, we just had raw land and I knew where the house was going to be build.
That left the rest for pastures and barn.
After checking with county as to placement of buildings and fences with regard to property lines, setbacks, etc.
I went ahead and put in my pasture bc it would have a good year to become established.
Then I decided the size, type building I could afford, and that served my purposes for my horses.
I also decided how close/far I wanted it from the house.
I wanted it accessible for loading and unloading, and any big
machinery that might need to get out to it.
I put up the fencing first and then built the building.
I added on to my barn after about 1 -1/2 years bc my budget wasn’t that big at the beginning.
Therefore, I built it/designed it, with the idea of adding to it later.
We built house, fence & barn at essentially the same time
and paid for several big items out of pocket.
I had to hire out for my fencing and my barn, so my budget
was a bit tight.
I am totally happy with the end result :yes:
Its paid for, I don’t owe anything on it, and its almost perfect 
If I did it again, I would do a few things differently,
and probably just borrow the money to build exactly what I want,
from the beginning, instead of having to budget over a few years.
Remember zoning and permitting may be two entirely different things. My permit took over a year to get and I am zone in farm/agriculture. This county is the pits.
If I had not been on top of the permit process, I would have over paid by $17,000!!!
Assuming the property is zoned for horses is a start. You need all the local ordinances that will need to be met (e.g. setbacks from yards, roads, etc.) to site the barn. Consult a surveyor/engineer to get a draft plan. It will be some $$ but will be worthwhile - you need to consider drainage from rain on the roof, etc, turning radius for trailers, the whole nine yards of ‘how’ you are going to use your barn.
It would be helpful if you had a general sketch and dimensions of the barn (# stalls, overall length, width, height) to work with for the engineer to work with. Do not forget equipment storage.
do you already have a driveway?
I would talk to the permitting authority (e.g. your town, whoever issues the building permit) about what is required.
is it a barn only or will you have a bathroom (e.g. need septic) or living quarters (kitchen/bath) - that would be a whole other dimension for permits.
If you can get a builder to give you a sketch to scale (I just did them on graph paper) that really helps explain to others what you are planning. Some permits will change depending on the size of the structure. (i.e. bigger ones may take more planning).
That’s a start
one more thing - forgot to mention manure disposal. You need it not too far from the stalls and not too close to the barn or the house and accessible by whatever vehicle will be taking it.
- Go to your permitting office on a walk in day and have an informal chat about the permitting process. During this we learned that we (a) have very little wetland issues and shouldn’t be burdened with them and that (b) building a structure with under 2000 new impervious surface would considerably lessen our headaches and © the size and location of all our setbacks and easements.
1(a). If your county has a Conservation District, appeal for their help in the process. Ours helps us create a farm plan which basically says we are not intending to create a disaster for the ecosystems nearby.
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Identify an architect you like.
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Hire the architect and have his firm work with a structural engineer to ensure the building meets snow and wind codes.
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Meanwhile, start creating a site plan for your property (you can do this yourself or hire it out).
4(a). If you have wetlands, you might need to hire a company to do a Critical Areas Study and include this in your site plan.
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Contact the Department of Public Health (if on a septic) and request approval of your site plan.
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Schedule a meeting with the permitting department to present site plan, architectural drawings, and health approval. Get secondary approval from engineering (if water flow is an issue or impervious is greater than 2000 sq. ft), wetlands, and zoning.
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Wait.
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Get approval or revise your choices. Either way, pay lots of fees.
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Build.
First thing after you have a plan, location, permits in place is to put in a VERY GOOD driveway to the barn location FIRST. Then you can start hauling in dirt for a very good base to build on, raising barn floor above the surrounding land. This puts barn above any runoff or flooding from surrounding grounds.
You START with the prepared drive way that is able to handle large dump trucks, delivery of materials trucks, allowing turn around of large trucks for exiting, who will be bringing all the needed things to build your dream barn. You do not want to have trucks getting stuck or dropping materials at the roadside because they can’t get to the barn site to off load. Workers need to be able to drive up close to park work trucks. They can’t get tools back to work site to do their jobs without driving in.
Having good surface for vehicles to reach the future barn without problems, will greatly increase productivity in getting things done quickly. Not wasting time pulling vehicles out of the mud or soft pasture dirt constantly because they are on firm dirt surfaces.
agree with goodhors - what we call a construction entrance. So not only is it better for the workers but there is a lot of size 4 gravel at the end of the driveway to ‘scrub’ the tires so there is not a lane of mud coming out of the property. In some locations there are hefty fines for that kind of mud.
You may need to run electric to the construction area for their tools as well
Once costco_muffins list is done what is the building checklist?
Once you have the plans approved you mean? Then Goodhors advice is spot on, get the site prepared to be accessed, which means usually an electrical drop needs to get put in, a water meter or extension and pipes need to be laid, and the roadbed and basic foundation for the barn needs to go in. Grading and graveling.
Then if the barn has a perimeter foundation it gets poured and the barn is built in the regular manner, or if it’s a pole barn the poles are set. Pole barns are sometimes built just on the grade with no gravel or slab (gets put in later) and that is sort of iffy as there is nothing less fun than hauling a large lumber delivery truck out of muck in the middle of your future building. As the exterior walls go up, the ceiling joists go on, then the roofing material, then the exterior walls, then the subs come in to do any electrical and plumbing, and any interior work such as sheathing and installation of stall kits would be done almost last. Probably the electrical would be last as some of it would be affixed to the stall kits if you have them. Inspections will have to occur during phases of this process, especially the electrical and plumbing.
That’s very basic. Each barn built will be different, and each jurisdiction will have different rules.
Don’t forget the painters, if there is any paint or stain to it.
Painters are the divas of the construction trades.
Everyone waits on them and works around their schedule and rolls their eyes at them.
[QUOTE=goodhors;8608259]
First thing after you have a plan, location, permits in place is to put in a VERY GOOD driveway to the barn location FIRST. Then you can start hauling in dirt for a very good base to build on, raising barn floor above the surrounding land. This puts barn above any runoff or flooding from surrounding grounds.
You START with the prepared drive way that is able to handle large dump trucks, delivery of materials trucks, allowing turn around of large trucks for exiting, who will be bringing all the needed things to build your dream barn. You do not want to have trucks getting stuck or dropping materials at the roadside because they can’t get to the barn site to off load. Workers need to be able to drive up close to park work trucks. They can’t get tools back to work site to do their jobs without driving in.
Having good surface for vehicles to reach the future barn without problems, will greatly increase productivity in getting things done quickly. Not wasting time pulling vehicles out of the mud or soft pasture dirt constantly because they are on firm dirt surfaces.[/QUOTE]
I did not do this. I let hope & wishful thinking cloud my otherwise decent planning process. Our road blew out under the weight of the excavator & tree removal trucks/equipment, and the cost of fixing it before the delivery of the modular barn DOUBLED the price of my dirt work for the barn. The repair violated local conservation rules and is much uglier than it would’ve been had we done it in advance. It hurt – financially, regulations-wise, and visually. 
Oh, and the delivery of the barn had to be ‘helped’ with the use of a big excavator, and nearly required a crane to get past the last mud pit. Big bucks.
