Anyone have an apartment in a steel building?

Dick2 · Sep 18, 2014

Just curious if anyone is actually living in an apartment in a steel building. In really cold/snowy climate it would be handy to have an apartment, shop and some machine storage in the same building.

Would a firewall between the residence and the rest of the building be required?

ertl collector · Sep 18, 2014

I don't know about saftey requirements but a guy around here has a nice shop with a house in the top he finally built a house and rented the shop / house out

Geo-TH,In · Sep 18, 2014

I wouldn't want gasoline, oil, welding fumes, paint fumes, the smell of moldy grass on mower, and the smell of horse poo stuck to tractor tires getting in to my house above the barn. Of course, in bibical times people lived in barns above the stinky cattle. NO THANK YOU. I'm glad my pole barn is 150 ft from house.

RayP(MI) · Sep 18, 2014

Always figured that the steel silos and grain bins could be finished out inside to make a comfy residence. They aren't being used much more anymore. Seems like they could be had real cheap.

Ken Macfarlane · Sep 18, 2014

I do. It has a 1.5 hour or so fire separation between the sides that is soon going to get another layer of 5/8 type X drywall due to noise transmission.

Its a poor comprimise. We ran out of money before the house was built. Despite sealing well fumes migrate into apartment. Air compressor and impact noise is bad so no late nights in shop. Even comes through the slab so I end up working on the apron in front of the shop outside.

If done again I would lay out so the tool room / parts storage formed a break between shop and house.

BillOHIO · Sep 18, 2014

Dick, I have seen some of the major steel building manufactures have some nice looking machinery buildings that include living quarters. I would check to see how they address keeping noise, fumes, etc. separate from the living quarters. A few of them around here. They look very nice from the road but don't know anyone that lives in one well enough to ask them how they are working out.

We moved into a Condo a few years ago and when asked how I like it, I tell them that wife still gets upset when I paint a tractor in the attached garage !......Of course I am kidding.

Bill

Dick2 · Sep 18, 2014

I heard about people living above the livestock quarters centuries ago. Someone asked about the smell. The comment was made that the livestock got used to it after awhile.

BillOHIO · Sep 18, 2014

Good one !

Another I have heard, livestock smell is good when they are making money. When you are losing money on livestock.....they stink !

BigMarv1085 · Sep 18, 2014

Since I'm recently divorced I thought about building me a apartment in the top of a pole barn. Don't need much space and I'm only in the house at night.

Stew Holliday · Sep 18, 2014

Hey Guys,
Here is a farm that we bought 2 years ago, It has a apartment in the barn.
has not had cattle in it for 25 years.
I would live in it!!!!

fixerupper · Sep 18, 2014

A single neighbor of mine built an apartment onto the side of his machine shed. He trucks locally for a living so every night he backs the truck into the machine shed and steps into the apartment. I've never seen the inside of the apartment but he's a neat freak so I'm guessing it's immaculate inside. Keeping the diesel fumes from sifting into the apartment might be a problem. Airing up a truck on a cold morning is bound to smell a little strong.

Wemedeeres · Sep 18, 2014

If I were still a bachelor and looking to put up a shop that'd the route I'd go! I was thinking an 80 x 150 with a 30 x 30 living quarters/office addition on one side would work out nicely.

A guy I used to work with talked about an old friend from school that put a hot tub inside one of his smaller steel bins that he didn't use any more. He put it in the middle of the bin and built a walkway/deck around the tub. Sounds like it was set up pretty nice it would have been neat to see!

Spudm · Sep 18, 2014

Check out "Top Shops" on YouTube.

DBAF · Sep 18, 2014

I live in a pole barn 2/3 is shop & 1/3 house. I don't really notice much smell from the shop. I didn't have enough money to buy a farm and build a house and I don't enjoy working on old houses. Mine is very simple and that's the way I like it but have seen some that are very fancy

Tim in OR · Sep 18, 2014

A bunch of years ago, I delivered to a dairy that had a huge pole barn. The owners lived in an apartment above the loafing shed. I was there in the hot part of the summer, and the smell was intense. I can't imagine what it was like in that apartment.
Tim in OR

D beatty · Sep 18, 2014

In our area there was a guy that built a large pole barn and put a 14x70 mobile home in side of it. He put windows wall of barn to match up with windows on the one side of mobile home. He had no livestock but did some grain farming.

oldtanker · Sep 18, 2014

we have several home/shops in our area. I've never heard anyone complaining about them.

Rick

bison · Sep 19, 2014

In Holland all the older dairy farms have the barn and house under one roof or the barn attached to the house
I grew up on one,...i never noticed a smell or heard anyone complaining about one.

hermit · Sep 19, 2014

You might check garagejournal.com for some ideas. Some people on there have done that. I think it is under the garage gallery section. I have also thought (dreaming) about something like that.

NNP · Sep 19, 2014

well, I have heat/stereo/TV/etc in my shop and the family has accused me many times of 'living' out there.
does that count?

Seriously though......sign me up.
You know that great smell you get when you first unlock
the door and walk into your shop in the morning.
A little stale exhaust, gas, oil, paint from a few days ago...ahhh..heaven. yep, I could live there.

BAnNC · Sep 19, 2014

Some of the newcomers to this area have built living quarters over the horse areas. Can't say I've been inside but don't know how they are staying warm. No insulation under the floor and most want to put 6" overhead next to metal roof.
One couple put their 30 ft travel trailer inside the horse barn til they got their house built. Said it was really unique to hear the rain again.

Geo-TH,In · Sep 19, 2014

How did they curve the metal on the roof?

mkirsch · Sep 19, 2014

You have to have a fire-rated wall between an attached garage and the house, so I can't imagine it would be any different in a steel building.

Noise and smell can both be dealt with using modern techniques and technology. Positive pressure in the living quarters would keep any smells out, and sound walls are easy to build. Isolating the concrete pad under the living quarters would also go a long way toward reducing noise from floor-mounted equipment like air compressors.

Stew Holliday · Sep 19, 2014

Hey George,
Don't know how they cured the tin on the barn. Was like that when we bought the place.
The old owner built a apartment upstairs for family. It also has central heat and air in the hole barn.

Geo-TH,In · Sep 19, 2014

I had a friend in college who bought a converted barn. The house was SO COLD in the winter.

Dean Olson · Sep 19, 2014

That's real common down here in TX. Called a barndominium.
Typically built when "ranch" is purchased as a weekend or hunting property.

Anyone have an apartment in a steel building?

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