So, anyone here build through Cleary Barns? Would you share your experience, pics if you have them, $$, size of the barn, where your barn is located, etc. ?
We are using them, and have had mixed reviews…
Would like to hear others’ experiences.
Thanks!
There are a boatload of Cleary buildings here in Colorado, and I’ve often boarded at facilities that have them.
From what I understand, they’re find as long as your expectations are reasonable. They are not a fancy specialty builder. The people I’ve known who’ve been unhappy with them went into just expecting that they were.
The buildings I’ve seen are largely functional but not fancy.
We worked closely with them back in 2010, but ended up NOT putting the building up. We “shopped” every local sheet metal barn builder in Oklahoma, and Cleary offered the most product for the least price. IIRC, Cost was around ~$30K for a 40x60 with 16’ sidewalls, 6x garage doors, 2@14’ and 4@12’, 2 man doors, wired and insulated. No stalls. Dirt floor. This was to be the RV - tractor - horsetrailer shed.
While working with them, they were extremely open to any changes we made to the plans, and the fact that we wanted to do some of the work ourselves to save money.
The local completed barns they sent us to look at, some of which were 15 years old, seemed to be on par with Morton. Of course, I am sure there were some sub-par buildings out there that Cleary doesn’t send prospective clients to see…
I have a Cleary barn that came with our house, so we weren’t the ones who put it up. The horse ban is probably about 15 years old and the storage barn is around 10 years old. The horse barn is 36x40, 3 stalls on one side, tack room + wash stall + hay storage on the other side, concrete aisle/tack/wash. Storage barn was added later (onto the end of the horse barn) and is 30x40 with three big garage doors so I can drive the horse trailer straight through. It is awesome!! We love it. It was solidly built, good foundation, and the floor has not shifted or cracked at all, which is amazing really.
If I had one complaint, it would be that birds are starting to get into the roof insulation. But even so, not bad for 15 years.
Oh the only other compliant I can think of is that it was challenging to get replacement siding. My hay guy ripped a hole in the tack room wall trying to back in, and replacement siding cost an arm and a leg. So maybe ask them to leave you a few extra pieces for repairs down the road?
Great info, thanks all.
I just got quotes as a matter of fact.
30x36’ building with a 15’ deep lean-to off one of the long sides. Wood sheeting behind steel on the lean to (so no kick through the metal). 12’ sidewall, gutters, apron (skirt around building), 4’ human door and one large (double) garage door for about $22,000 (building insurance and tax included). Cement floor and adding a condensation barrier (upgrade to trusses required for the roof weight) added about $5500. I didn’t quote insulated or electric/water. Added an 18" overhang on the roof for looks.
The lean-to added quite a bit to the cost–around 4k–but it’s 36’x15’–pretty big.
Prices change next week I believe, but that gives you a ballpark.
I looked at Cleary, because my friend has a several-year-old 200’ x 80’ indoor riding arena with attached kitchen and 15’ lean-to down one side. She is very happy and would use them again. Local Lester builder a mile from my farm didn’t bother returning my email or my phone call.
Even though we decided to wait and possibly just do an arena with stalls in the future, I was really pleased with the 2 people I spoke to. Not pushy, knowledgeable, etc.
We have Cleary building and though the building itself is fine, I will be very, very weary about using them again. The construction of our little barn had issues from before the construction started.
It started from strange roofing materials showing up on our property, and ours were nowhere to be found; and after chasing the contractor manager down, we finally realized they had sent other folks’ roofing to our place, on the day we were expecting ours. By the way, they did not know a misshape had happened; we had to call to inform them the mistake. It was actually for a church remodeling. The church came to our place to load it up. Cleary did nothing. Our material was no show until two weeks after the building was supposed to be up.
The issue did not stop there, as they continued throughout the construction: they were supposed to set the braces in the concrete while it cured, but since no one from Cleary was on site to instruct where exactly to place the braces, they were inserted into the concrete willy-nilly. This was after I got confirmation from them that “someone” will be on site to supervise the process (I had lost faith in them at this point, so I wanted to be make sure that no more stupid mistake was made - like that made any difference). All of them had to be cut down, and a different kind of braces used.
The fiasco continued… They promised whatever used to replace the original would be safe for horses. Yeah… they made yet another mistake, and a wrong kind of braces were used, the kind with sharp edges that can actually slice a horse’ legs opened. The braces were to be placed at the bottom of the columns.
There were some other stupid errors but I’m not going to list them all, or I would be writing a novel. The building was supposed to be finished before Christmas. It did not until late spring of the following year. Mind you, this was a simple shed-row type barn that should have taken three days to complete.
I would NOT use Cleary AGAIN !
I have used :
a private builder
Morton
Cleary ````
** all recently
All groups required the ‘buyer’ to be “hands on” to catch & correct mistakes
I would not use the Private group again … lazy on finishing
I would use Morton again but again caught major errors but they were willing to fix immmediately :yes:
[B]Cleary NO ! never again !
bait/ switched product … I caught them … had written details in contract * crew manager was fired by the company for doing this and yelling at me " check your contract"
I did check the contract and the SOB was wrong ! and he was fired by his company !
unprofessional crews … rude , did not show up, left early and “smoking” which NO SMOKING was part of the contract `` it’s a barn …my property * like 8th graders hiding behind the trucks :lol::mad:
from the ‘pad’ building to the roof Cleary proved absolutely CRAP !
and it was close to impossible to get them to finish or come back to fix incomplete parts
[/B]perhaps just my area
perhaps just the crews ( more than 3) sent due to their out of town crews needing more workers
perhaps the ??? whatever
I would never ‘entertain’ a Cleary anything again!
Now go ahead and tell me we treated them rudely (cold gatorade and sodas and water supplied) daily … but the fact remains
Cleary was unacceptable in every way from pad to product to crew to finished building ~
and yes I’m the always negative person on coth ````:lol::winkgrin:
the only thing I don’t care for is snakes …
OH ! yea and Cleary !
I am very happy with my Cleary indoor arena. Built in 2012. Very well built. Photos on my web site (arena only). http://www.dressageandmore.com/#!venue/c1dw6
I think this thread is really driving home the need to due research on the local building crew, even when hiring a national or regional company.
Exactly TTP. I will definitely keep my ‘on guard’ much higher with them. Had a few minor issues with the contract manager, but nothing major.
Thanks all. Pictures of your barns are fantastic. 
Oh, question-anyone have issues with their buildings ‘sinking’? Did they use their ‘concrete biscuit’ in the post holes or not? Had a neighbor with that issue, but didn’t use the base concrete ‘biscuit’ thing…
YES and YES ! Every post hole needed to be redone !
first I would like to delineate that
I did research Cleary and specifically their staff / crews …
Visited on site building and finished buildings.
in addition I had a 'the building ’ I wanted on my property… All they had to do was reproduce the ‘example’ same everything
Secondly … Every yes every post hole had to be re-dug and reinforced with cement !
Yes ! We did have the ‘biscuit’ !
Repeating … Every post hole had to be re-dug / cement added to reinforce .an additional expense and we had pay their dirt man to do the work !!!
would like emphasize I have for decades contracted with companies to build horse buildings …all types of buildings for horses !
Cleary could not build a weather proof dog house !!!
the gates they brought did not fit the doorways !
there were three crews here … Rarely saw a builder more than twice …
COMPLETION TIME WAS A COMPLETE FARCE !
more than enough said !
[QUOTE=mountainhorse;7712676]
Oh, question-anyone have issues with their buildings ‘sinking’? Did they use their ‘concrete biscuit’ in the post holes or not? Had a neighbor with that issue, but didn’t use the base concrete ‘biscuit’ thing…[/QUOTE]
Sound like we had a lot fun with Cleary, you and I, Zuzu, lol. The strangest stupidest mistakes, mistakes that boggle your mind, mistakes you wouldn’t think anyone would make… At least our building seems fine - though it is a very simple building, a shedrow, essentially a glorified run-in shed. We did not let them do any interiors, such as stalls, or tack room, etc.
Yes ! Lots of Fun ! TG they are not brain surgeons !
yes ! Lots of fun !
My building was a simple indoor nothing fancy …
TG … They aren’t brain surgeons or working with :eek: explosives !!!
my my what complete idiots ~ IMHO
[QUOTE=Gloria;7713353]
Sound like we had a lot fun with Cleary, you and I, Zuzu, lol. The strangest stupidest mistakes, mistakes that boggle your mind, mistakes you wouldn’t think anyone would make… At least our building seems fine - though it is a very simple building, a shedrow, essentially a glorified run-in shed. We did not let them do any interiors, such as stalls, or tack room, etc.[/QUOTE]
Haha, oh dear.
:eek:
They will be building our ‘shell’ of the barn, we will be doing the interior.
I will be on site the whole time to make sure things go accordingly, and will talk to our contract manager to ensure he stays on site during the building to oversee everything.
I will be relieved when this is OVER!
We were BOTH ON SITE THE ENTIRE TIME !!! For safety !!
honestly !
There was nothing even slightly humorous about :mad:[B] Cleary’s
unprofessionalism
swapping product
inferior product
incompetent dirt man
inability to construct an indoor / to match a prototype within sight
inability to finish their job for a year
** btw
we were on sight the ENTIRE TIME !
we live here !
Did not want the smokers to burn the place down !
Or
hurt an animal
run through a fence
Back a semi into a building !!
just wanted them to do the job they had been contracted for and PAID FOR !
Again nothing was ’ funny’ here during the
year
YES YEAR IT TOOK CLEARY TO COMPLETE THIS BUILDING !
good luck [/B]:lol::lol::lol::lol:
Ok…I admit I did NOT read the whole thing…but I have to grin because: ANYTHING ZuZu would warn against I would listen to! SO positive and supportive in all posts…so this is the first (!) I’ve ever seen warning someone. Good enough for ME.
Thank you ZuZu-I was being factious with the laugh. 
We are already in a contract with them, and they are building a pretty basic shell of a barn, so no lighting, stalls, details, etc.
I will keep this post updated with how it goes…we were very limited in companies to build barns out here within reasonable $$.
Cleary is really the only game in town other than ‘private’ builders, which we have been warned against in this area…very slowwwww and no regulations, etc.
The one guy that we did find would have charged us 10x as much, so that was a no go.
So far, our contract manager was able to get us a building for our needs in our price, and when the price he quoted us was shot down by engineers (who wanted to add jack up the price out of our budget by about 8K), he took a huge cut in his commission to keep the price low enough for us to afford,…
can look at that as
Having grown up in the construction business (my parents were contractors, build houses, barns, etc.) , I do get ‘things come up’ and of course knew there would be setbacks, but also know how bulls* can get brought up to cut corners and just ‘get the job done’ so will keep a close eye on that-thanks for the warnings ZuZu.
Negatives so far,…
dragging the feet on contractor’s end when it came to finding an excavator that would also fit our budget, (independent of Cleary’s contract, so ultimately up to us, but he took it on himself since we don’t know anyone here,…)
…after 3 weeks (past the time the barn was supposed to be done) and several over the top quotes-according to our contractor-, we hired someone to get it done, and had a very ‘straightforward’ (we chewed him out pretty much) talk with our contractor, for leading us on with several people who ‘dropped’ us at the very last second.
Ended up being 2x more than we wanted to pay, but the guy we hired is also doing our water lines and electrical lines (he works for the electric company also!), and while he was out here, we began to have issues (unrelated to barn work) with our septic, and lo and behold, he does that too! So, getting him was a blessing, but it certainly wasn’t the original timeline.
I plan to have our contractor here and have laid it out with him that I will be there for the building, NO drinking or smoking, etc…
We’ll see.
One set of neighbors LOVED their Cleary team and had nothing but + for it, another have some negatives-not as bad as ZuZu’s though!!-
Thank you for the warnings-we will be sure to keep eagle eyes on everything,…we cannot afford to have any more setbacks…
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