Carports Turned Into Low Cost Barn

Carports Turned Into Low Cost Barn BUILDINGS Livestock Stewart Kunkel used carport parts to roof and frame up a low-cost 12 by 42-ft barn With 2 by 6-in stringers on the inside of the posts and a plywood exterior he made a weathertight stable for his wife’s horses tack and feed Best of all he did it for only $3 000     “We want to build a proper barn in the future but we don’t have the budget for it right now ” explains Kunkel “I had one carport and found others with the same style on eBay Some rafters are arched and they wouldn’t have worked ”     The somewhat temporary barn has already withstood a 12-in snowfall When Kunkel designed it he made it extra sturdy by adding extra rafters between the recommended rafters on 5-ft spacings     In order to accommodate 12 by 12-ft horse stalls on either end Kunkel rotated the carport tubing Pipes that normally ran the length of 12-ft long carports now became roof rafters Former cross rafters now run the length of the building     “I had to cut the rafters down a bit to get the desired 12-ft width but it also allowed me to use full plywood sheets for the exterior ” says Kunkel     Once he had the uprights and roof mounted on the concrete piers he built a 12 by 18-ft floating floor center section It also sits on concrete piers and was built from a quarter mile of cedar fence     Kunkel built interior cross walls with 2 by 4 construction screwed into the floor Wall ends attach to the carport uprights adding rigidity to the entire structure He also installed a heated 6 by 6-ft tack room in the center section leaving the rest for storage     To reinforce the remainder of the structure and provide a base for the exterior plywood skin Kunkel attached 2 by 6-in stringers at 2-ft intervals on the inside of the carport posts On the long sides of the barn he attached 2 by 2-in spacers perpendicular to the stringers for attaching the plywood At the ends he used 2 by 4’s for additional rigidity     To compensate for the eave line of the carport he attached 1/2-in CDX plywood between the metal roofing and the metal rafters where they first meet Plywood was then attached over all of the sides     In his wet western Washington climate Kunkel knew he needed to direct rain away from the building with gutters When he priced them out he found the brackets and stainless steel screws for a 10-ft length of gutter cost twice as much as the gutter     “I decided to mount the gutters using spacers made with 3/8-in PEX cut with a tubing cutter ” says Kunkel “I predrilled both the gutter and gutter board inserted the spacer and used a HeadLok heavy-duty fastener in a 6-in length ”     Kunkel plans to board and batten the barn walls to make them look like a regular “stick-built” structure With the carport structure and concrete pier mounting it’s classified as a temporary building which didn’t require permitting That helped keep the cost down too     “I got the maximum square footage I needed and kept within my budget ” says Kunkel     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Stewart Kunkel 15728 153rd Ave S E Yelm Wash 98597 ph 360 701-1177 kskunkel@fairpoint net