Pole Barn House

Pole Barn Constructed House

If you were to drive out in rural areas in Iowa the chances are you will come across a pole barn constructed house. Lots of these are being built now for cottages, hunting cabins, and homes. They are built the same way as a pole barn, but with more windows and doors. Because you don’t have the cost of a foundation ( usually a slab is poured after the structure is built) and it takes less time in labor costs and less material to build them, it greatly brings down the cost of  these type of buildings. With an all metal roof and siding there is little maintance, and is guaranteed to last 50 years. Compare that to a  coventional built  house.

Another example of a pole constructed house.

If  the slab floors and  6 inch walls  are well insulated they can be very energy efficient and most of all… since it is pole constructed are taxed at a lower rate then a coventional built homes. Most counties in Iowa if the pole barn house is in a rural area don’t require a building permit. Lucas county where my farm is only requires a permit for the septic system. So you can see why a lot of people are building these for homes.

In this post I will show you the style of bole barn house I plan to build in 3 years and I will show you the inside of what my pole barn house will look like with pictures  I took while the guy down the road was building his. He did it all for under 75,000 dollars and you won’t believe how much house you can get for your money. Now to do this all for under 75,000 you have to be willing to do most of the inside work yourself.

The above picture is my neighbors 30 x 40ft with 12ft high walls pole barn house. The 75,000 included his septic system, rural water hookup, and power ran to his house from the electric company.

The house I plan to build will look a little different than my neighbors and similar to the two story house below. I got this from APB Pole Barns.

To get detailed building plans for this two story home and sealed plans signed by an engineer licensed in your state go to http://www.pole-barn.info/pole-barn-homes.html

 

I will build a passive solar designed pole barn house where I will have lots of windows facing the south with an 6ft porch overhang so when the sun is higher in the summer it will not heat up the house. I will also have radiant floor heating installed in the concrete slab.

Radiant floor heating layout

The roof will have scissor type trusses on 16 ft high walls with a great room like in the photos below of my neighbors place.

I also plan to have a big stone fireplace like he put in.

I will also have a loft that will have a 2nd bedroom and bath, similar to his.

Pole barn houses are easy to add on to. this is a picture of my friend Tom’s house where he is adding on a 24×30 ft garage 3 years after he built the house.

I think the place looks great and you can see these homes look like a coventional house on the inside. When I build my pole barn house I will do a post on each step so others can see how it is done. Until then enjoy more pictures of my neighbors house down below.