Barn Information:
Vermont Timber Works custom designs all kinds of architectural barns, including
classic salt boxes, gambrels, traditional
farm style barns, equipment barns and horse
stables.
Barn Design:
There are many things to consider when designing a 'post and beam' barn. Horse
barns and stables often work on a 10x12 0r 12x12 grid for stalls, tack rooms
and wash stalls. Storing hay in the
loft provides a challenge. Years ago, people would just put up summer beams and
timber joists and throw as much hay up as they could. Today, the bales of hay
are compacted tighter and are much heavier than in the past. Also, the building
codes are much more stringent. So now we have to design for 100#/sq.ft. live
loads when we are designing hay lofts. Intermediate posts are added next to the
stall doors and the timber joists are increased in size to accommodate the loads.
Party Barns:
Sometimes our clients just like to have a nice timberframe barn out back or by the swimming
pool for entertainment. It is fun to have barn dances and barbeques in the big
open spaces that timber frames offer. We often span 40 feet with heavy timber
trusses for commercial buildings, which can be over 100 feet long. The same techniques
can be used for barns – a dance floor of 40x100’ is more than possible!
In the Duker barn, the open area is
40x40 with a 20 foot post height. The owner put a basket ball hoop on one end
for half court games with his buddies.
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