kwmainer

Hi all... kim of a thousand questions here...


Has anyone ever converted an old barn to living space (I understand that water/electric needs to 'happen' if not already in place). There's a property in Maine, I'm looking at. Has a HUGE barn, the post/beam kind. In great shape, solid as a rock. Been used for hay and animals at various points over 100 years.

It has a poured concrete looking foundation. Obviously, I'll need to check into that further to see how solid/extensive it really is.

Would it be unreasonable to perhaps create temporary living quarters in the loft area??? Bath on lower floor.

Thinking about using barn to 'live' in during the summer while building house. Several summers, maybe... lol.

???

yesitsconcrete

i would but i like post & beam,,, it would even be reasonable to create permanent living quarters - PERIOD !

kwmainer

lol!!! Yeah, since it's like a 3 story, gambrel barn, it would rock as a cool, open plan house. Would need to install septic and all plumbing though.

I'm really wondering about that foundation. I know that the barn is somewhere between 50 and 100 years old. Did they make concrete foundations then? If the seller says it's got a foundation, what it's made out of? Ledge? ???

This barn is pretty cool, has two lofts: one running down each side of the barn on the long axis. 3rd story has a ladder to it. Have no idea what's up there, or what they used that for. Beams are the big, solid, tank-like Ys like a pole/post & beam. Would totally have to be inspected, and such.

The two big questions I have are how to install plumbing without it freezing in the winter time. And what cautions we need to think about in regards to the 'foundation' that it may or may not have.

cibula11

Your building dept. would have the BEST answers for you. All we can do is make guess which could prove to be very inaccurate. I've seen barns that have concrete foundations. If the concrete looks good inside and there are no major cracks or shifts, you might be okay. As far as plumbing goes, you'd probably have to run pipe well below frost line or install some sort of a "well" setup. You might be looking at thousands and thousands of dollars to make this work.

kwmainer

Hum.... Then I'll consider it to be a major reno job for a temporary fix. Okay, so the barn will still get cleaned out/up and inspected (prolly inspected first). We can work on fixing any issues with the barn and securing it. Then we can store building materials or even a pop up trailer, etc. Then we can stay in the trailer, pump water from the hand pump well, and practice camping out. Sounds like the that will be the most probable way to deal with it.

Thanks!