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Replies to Msg. #1084928
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 Msg. #  Subject Posted by    Board    Date   
31226 Re: Our new home site?
   ...a couple of local boys was busy workin on their barn. Trying to Jac... 		ribit   POPE 5   01 May 2019
 12:54 PM
31201 Re: Our new home site?
   Well that really sucks...............NO WAY I would allow anything to... 		capt_nemo   POPE 5   01 May 2019
 6:14 AM

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Re: Our new home site?

By: Decomposed in POPE 5
Wed, 01 May 19 5:42 AM
Msg. 31200 of 62138
(This msg. is a reply to 31198 by capt_nemo)
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Nemo:

Re: "whats all those little bays in the concrete pour? not big enough for cars??"The short answer? It's a mistake. It happened like this:

We sketched out a two story barn that included animal stalls along one side, and a center "stall" with a door that animals could use to exit the barn into a fenced-in pasture. Our builder took our sketch to convert it into a formal plan, then said that because of the steep hill into which the barn was being built, the exit would be impossible. It would be underground, nested into the hillside. The two garage doors on the barn's ends couldn't be used by animals either since they're for vehicles and would inevitably lead to animals escaping.

We weren't too pleased, so the builder suggested we put the animals on the second floor. We said no... we didn't want animals pi$$ing onto a wood floor. He then said that the first floor could be smaller than the second... that the barn could be built like two steps of a staircase, with the second floor extending out onto the hill... and THAT is where the animals would be. We okayed that.

When we next came up to NH to see what had been poured, it was NOT as discussed. The concrete cells on the first floor are our wooden animal stalls, I think. The builder may have thought that supports animals couldn't destroy were needed... I don't know. In any case, we now have a barn that won't house animals, with stalls of concrete that won't be used... except as awesome supports for the second floor! (Our new builder thought we intended to park cars up there! We told him "No"... that nothing heavier than a lawnmower will ever be stored upstairs.)

It was a mistake. However, all is not lost. Our plan is to add stables to one side of the barn, coming off of it like an enclosed lean-to, and we'll keep animals there. That's assuming we ever have animals that need stables, of course. I might build the stables in three or four years. I might never build them.

This wasn't the only mistake, either. The barn is also a garage, with vehicles able to drive in one end and out the other. Because animals were going to live in the same space as vehicles, we opted to not use concrete on the barn floor. We figured concrete is probably bad for hooves, and pi$$ is probably bad for concrete. We went with gravel. But now that animals AREN'T there, we'd have much preferred a garage with a concrete floor. My current builder is scratching his head over that one, believe me. I suppose it's possible we can pour a concrete floor later if we ever feel the need. It probably won't happen, though.

The lesson? Don't build from out of state. You need to see what's happening and be able to discuss issues face-to-face with the people who are doing the work. You might think it's common sense that if a floor is built a certain way because of animals, but the animals go away, then maybe the floor should be built a different way... but contractors and builders don't think that way. They just build what they're told to build, and whoever is supervising them is probably not going to have the same vision as the owners. Oh well. As I've said many times, it's only a barn. It will be very useful even if it isn't exactly what we had in mind.


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