What recommendations for barn building would you provide?

Asked by Anatelostaxus (1428

) May 13th, 2012

I need to build a barn (mainly) for my goats, (possibly) also including a compartment for my rabbits, chickens, (ducks) and some little extra space. But the priority lays with the goats, the others already have, will soon have their respective shelters.
Matter is, I’d like to keep as many together as possible because of the following:
– Must economise land space dedicated to the shelter(s);
– Winters here may peak below -22 celsius, so more animal groups providing warmth to each other is an option I am fond of.

Since the land available is not in a building area, the barn can be only entirely out of wood, or (but this needs a bit of clarification) only with three stone/concrete walls, one wooden. (curious, ey..)
By the way, for those who may not know, I’m not in the U.S.

Since the objective of the farm is to employ as vast a variety of materials as possible, mainly by re-purposing the ones already present, or easily available. This, of course, the lowest portion of budget as possible. This has been the policy up to now and has been more than satisfyingly efficient. So.. I will anticipate that I won’t consider greatly options that require great expenses, expect for proper insulation, of course.
(But, just for that I thought of a combo of styrofoam and tetrapacks.)
What say?

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3 Answers

Straw would be a good insulator for a barn if you have both inside and outside walls on your barn, and you can grow it yourself. As far as wood or wood/stone, what do you have available on your farm to use as building material? Can you dig the barn into the ground any? Then you could make the walls using less material and it will stay warmer.

WestRiverrat (20117

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I built a barn for calves once. I had two, and so I build a very small barn. There was a hay loft and a cement floor. I recovered some oak beams from a school that was being torn down. I had pine boards milled at the mill next door. The barn, oddly enough, is still standing up just fine thirty years later, despite never being repaired or painted or anything.

Your situation is too specific for me to be able to say anything. I don’t know what materials you have. I don’t understand what you mean when you say you are not in a building area. Are you in the woods? Fields? What?

I don’t know what your budget is, and I don’t know what materials cost. I don’t know how many goats you have, or rabbits or anything else. You need to plan for the number of animals you want to keep. You need a space big enough for all the animals. Most barns I know are not insulated. They figure the animals can keep themselves warm. They were designed for such an environment. But if you want to to insulate, then the cost of the structure will be higher.

If this is about recycling materials, then that really is an issue of researching materials on the internet. Or maybe traveling around to local barns to see how other farmers do it.

wundayatta (58722

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