How One Man Built His Pole Barn House.

Blake’s 30x56x14ft high wall pole barn house.

One of my readers Blake who commented on the post I did about pole barn house told me he had just finished his pole barn house and  he had put in a lot of things that I was planning to do. I wanted to see his place and emailed him to see if he wouldn’t mind sharing some pictures of his build and answering some questions on the building process. He said he was happy to answer any questions I might have and would send me lots of pictures of his place. I knew others who are thinking about building their own pole barn house would be interested in these too, so I convinced him to let me do a post about his project. In this post we will go over the entire building process of Blake’s house and get some questions answered so all of us will get a better understanding of what this all entails.

Blake’s house is built near the town of Many Louisiana by the Texas border in the middle of the state, and was built as a vacation home on a lake that Blake and his family use on the weekends and vacations. It is about a three-hour drive from his current home. Like most people who decide to build these types of homes he had a contractor build the outside and then he did all the rest of the work in his spare time. Blake said “it took two years and it was only on the weekends. I also did it cash only, so that dictated the speed of the build as well.”

Front porch of Blake’s home.

When asked I asked him what he did for a living? He said “I am an MRI Technologist. I practiced full-time for 15 years then managed to weezle my way into the executive/ownership side of a multi site medical imaging company.” He said he had  “Zero construction background, but have always been handy.” When asked how long did you plan your home build? ” I went thru several different options and pricing before deciding on a pole barn. I read a lot of post in the Garage Journal forum as well as others. Intensely planned for about 4 months before being completely confident” Blake said.

“I think this is one of the easiest and quickest methods of construction.  The most difficult part is constructing the shell, it must be square and plumb (no secret here) Blake said.” “I think someone with modest skills must research and must have (rent) the proper equipment or at least a tractor with a front end loader, forks, and an auger.”

Convincing his wife might have been the hardest part of the project. “The kids love the loft and spiral staircase. The wife was skeptical of the concept, but now thinks it is nicer than our main home and loves the rear deck, tongue and groove walls, solid granite counter tops in the kitchen, and old barn cypress cabinets (that are not yet complete)” Blake said.

The garage is 30×16 and the living area is 30×40

First Things First

The first thing Blake did was get a permit for the building and do a perk test for the septic system. To prep the site He had to remove 8 trees and three old stumps before bringing in 20 loads of a sand/clay mix for the “house pad”.

The poles were spaced 8ft apart on center and the part in the ground had a Post Protector sleeve over them, that helps keep the post from rotting or getting eaten by termites. You can order your post sleeves here

“Poles are 4 feet into the ground. The soil is very compact clay and we did not use any concrete around the post.” Blake said. “Just a gravel base.”

Close up of the Post Protector sleeves and you can see where Blake used scissor trusses over the living area and regular trusses over the garage area. It still keeps the roof line the same on the outside. To get more information on Post Protector sleeves go here

He used a 2×6 treated base board and 2×6 girts two feet on center, then did the framing for the windows and doors. After the contractor finished the outside frame is when Blake took over. “I had done a rough plan of the plumbing before construction was started, but that changed a little when I started putting them in the dirt” Blake said.

Plan where your bathrooms and kitchen will go before construction starts.  You will need to know where your sinks, toilets, and washing machine will be so you know where to dig to put  your sewer line. Having your drain lines, toilet drain and vent stacks in place and sticking up and caped so no dirt or cement gets in them is a must before the concrete is poured.

I put a few 3/4″ electrical conduit 90’s in the exterior wall portion of the concrete pad for future electrical runs if I need them, had the dirt pad treated for termites before concrete, and used wire mesh in the fibercrete slab” Blake said. “I only used a plastic vapor barrier, no need to insulate under the slab this far down south.” Notice in the picture above the strings to show where Blake plans to put interior walls.

After the slab is poured

Framing interior walls

Spray foam insulation really stops all air infiltration and really makes the pole barn house more energy-efficient.

After finishing the concrete pad Blake started framing the interior walls. He framed it as you would a regular stick built house. Another option for framing the outside walls would be the bookshelf method that uses even less lumber. After running all his electrical wiring he then had a contractor spray the foam insulation. “We had open cell spray foam sprayed directly to the metal siding (3″) and metal roof (4″) which makes for a very efficient building. The foam also cuts the noise from rain to levels of a shingle roof” Blake said. From here on out the building process is no different then building a regular home.

Sleeping Loft

Finishing interior walls

In the kitchen area that will be mostly covered up with cabinets he used drywall.

Having a good lighting plan  that includes knowing were all your lights, receptacles, and switches go before construction is started makes the whole project go much faster.

He then used tongue and groove knotty pine siding on the rest of the walls.

He then used the same siding on the ceiling.

Box beam to hide where the seam comes together on the ceiling

Last but not least

For the flooring Blake chose to go with tile for the kitchen and bathrooms and Laminate flooring for the living room, and everywhere else.

He then put the spiral stair case for the sleeping loft in and trimmed the house out with knotty pine trim. Now all he has to do is finish up the kitchen cabinets, counter top and add appliances and he will be done.

“The cost of the whole thing will be right at 80K after I get the cabinet doors back from the cabinet maker. This came out less than my estimate of 90k when I first started” Blake said.

When I asked  him if there was a chance to do things over again what would you do different? he said “Of course I would have gone a little bigger! I also would have spent more time in the planning stage with the window and door placements. The poles dictated where a few of my windows and doors had to be placed, this never occurred to me during planning. I ended up having to cut one post for the kitchen window and using long 2×12’s above and below the cut connecting the adjacent poles to reduce any structural issues. I also had to move another post over by 1 foot in order to fit my large living room window (went from 8ft on center to 9ft between those two poles).   I had to actually leave one window out of the build in the living room area and had to choose sides of a pole that ended up right in the middle of my bedroom wall. These situations could have been accounted for if I had only realized it before hand and planned accordingly.”

What a great example of pole barn house that is maintenance free, and that I think will stand the test of time. I want to thank Blake for sharing this with us. I hope you all have learned something on how to build a pole barn house, and are a little more confident to take on your own project, I know I am.   If you have any questions about the building process feel free to ask them here.

Blake has sent more pictures below of his home that some of you have requested.