Barn Kits: Easy To Assemble And Low Cost
If you want to build a barn but don’t have the skills or time to learn how, consider purchasing a kit. Kits are designed to provide customers with professional results.
More room with more style
If you own a log cabin and need some space to store tools, house vehicles, and let kids play, a barn kit may be the answer. As your family grows, your need for storage grows with them. It could be a garage to work on cars, a painting studio, a gardener potting shed or a storage building.
The trick is to find a barn kit that matches the look and feel of your rustic log cabin. Most sheds, pole barns, and prefab barn kits are bland and cold. The materials tend to run toward metal. Fortunately, there are options to match the country feel of your home.
Slightly modern options
If you’re looking for cleaner lines and a slightly more modern look than that offered by the chunky logs of your cabin, you can opt for post and beam barn designs that use 8×8 mortise and tenon timber frame structures to create open, airy interior spaces. The pine shiplap siding protects the barn from the elements while maintaining a rustic look.
The loft designs prove useful if you need to store hay for livestock or if your youngsters need a hideaway.
If you go with the open-sided option, you’ll have a place to store tractors, cars, ladders, and large implements. The versatility of these kits allows for heights up to 14′.
The Simple Garage kit is your best bet if you’re looking to store your vehicles. Two large overhead doors and heights from 8’-10′ provide ample room for most cars and trucks.
With a few modifications, this design can be turned into a storage shed, workshop for artists and crafters, or even an office for the stay-at-home worker. Add hardwood flooring <link to article>, and the barn becomes a functional studio for painters, woodworkers, or ceramicists.
In fact, this company makes a smaller kit called the Hobby House, which is explicitly designed with these uses in mind. The covered porch completes the look and offers even more useable flex space.
Since all the lumber is precut and ready to assemble, you stand to save countless hours sketching plans, making lists, and running to the lumber yard. It all arrives on-site and is ready to build.
Pole barns, but better
If you’re after the ease of installation that you get with a pole barn coupled with the open, airy feeling they provide, these oak barn kits give you the best of both worlds. Their board and batten siding offer rustic charm with a slightly modern touch.
Options range from simple 20’x30′ horse barn designs to 68’x80′ kits with plenty of windows. These beauties can function as second homes. Choose sliding double doors for bringing in tractors and horses, single sliding doors for efficiency, or even glazed garage doors for larger vehicles like RV’s.
Building the barn
Process.
Step 1 is consulting with the barn kit company to ensure your site will work and to narrow down plan options.
Step 2 is finalizing the design and receiving construction plans.
Step 3 will be scheduling delivery and preparing the site for assembly.
Step 4 is receiving prefab parts by truck.
Step 5 is assembly
Tools needed for assembly.
Depending on the design, you will need some or all of the following tools:
- a Hammer
- Some digging equipment such as a clamshell hand digger, a tractor-powered auger, or post-hole digger
- an Electric drill attachment for roofing screws
- a Carpenter’s level, string level and line
- a Hand saw, a miter saw or circular saw, and a bevel square set
Time required.
A barn kit will typically take 6 to 12 weeks to build, but that depends on the size of the barn, intended use, and location. A 1,500-square-foot kit will be much faster to construct than an 8,000-square-foot kit. If the barn kit is modified to be used as a cabin or studio, then flooring and a sturdier foundation will be required. Finally, being located far from building supply stores can add time.
You must have finalized plans, and your foundation must be set before the kit arrives for construction in order to optimize your project timeline and budget.
Costs.
The cost for prefab kits can range from $20,000 to $200,000 with basic kits starting at around $20 per square foot.
Your barn kit will include all structural materials, siding, trim, exterior doors and windows, roof sheathing, and connection hardware. However, roofing, concrete, and nail are usually provided by subcontractors and are not included with your kit. The client or contractor will also need to source plumbing and electrical fixtures.
If you’re paying a contractor to assemble the kit costs can escalate. And, if you’re building in an area that requires permits, you’ll be paying engineers and inspectors to the tune of thousands. Check with the local zoning and planning office to see if these are required.
The utilitarian choice
Barn kits can be workhorse additions to your property. Their toughness, rugged looks, and functionality make them an attractive option for metal-sided pole barns.
If you live in the countryside, you always need more room for tools, vehicles, tractors, and implements. And you need a place to maintain your homestead. Beyond that, they can be used for hobbies and work.
If you can build or oversee the construction of a log home, then you are more than capable of assembling a rustic barn kit or even a log barn. You won’t regret it.
Learn more about cabin kits and log homes
Cost to build. Materials, labor, and transportation can add up. Know the factors that go into the cost of your log home and how to budget. Get a full breakdown of my log cabin build.
The best log cabin kits. With so many options on the market, it can be hard to know where to start. I’ve researched for you and narrowed down the options to some of the best.
Small log cabins. Big logs don’t have to mean a big house. Log cabins can be as small as you need. Read up on some examples.
Going off-grid. If you live on forested land, log cabins can be a cheap and functional building for those wishing to pull the plug on the grid altogether.
