A $500 Barn for Suburbs or Country-By c. H. Miller, ,s 



IF YOU DO YOUR OWN WORK OR HAVE ONLY ONE MAN AND WANT A BARN THAT 

 WILL ACCOMMODATE TWO HORSES, A COW AND YOUR VEHICLES, STUDY THIS EXAMPLE 



THIS barn cost $500. That's all there 

 is to that. You may think it cost 

 too much and that you could build it for less, 

 but you cannot. In these days of high prices 

 we may as well know the worst. Nothing is 

 gained by ignoring facts. The owner of this 

 barn was just as wise and economical and 

 practical as you are. He refrained from the 

 " gilt weather vanes and gewgaws," too, but 

 the fact remained that in this building there 

 was used over $350 worth of lumber, so 

 what's the use of deceiving ourselves and 

 thinking that we could build one like it for 

 $300 in our part of the country.- 



The barn of this article is noteworthy 

 simply because it represents about the cheap- 

 est form of barn construction that will be 

 durable and convenient and at the same time 

 not be unsightly and a blot on the landscape. 

 It is not presented because of its architectural 

 charm and symmetry nor even because it is 

 unusual. The man seeking economy must 

 not do unusual things. They are generally 

 experiments and cost money. This barn is 

 really a stable, but it happens to be on a six- 

 acre farm and is painted red, therefore the 

 owner calls it a barn. 



It was built in June of this year and cost 

 about $500. The prevailing price for hem- 

 lock lumber in the section where it was built 

 (northern New Jersey), is $30.00 per thou- 

 sand feet. Carpenter labor averages $2.50 

 per day of eight hours. So with the price of 

 material and labor somewhere near these 

 prices, it should be duplicated anywhere for 

 the price already mentioned. 



The outside dimensions are 20 x 36 ft., 

 with fourteen-foot posts. The lower floor 

 contains a carriage room, two single stalls, 

 one box stall, designed to be used for a cow, 

 harness closet and feed chute. The entire 

 second floor is devoted to a hay and straw 

 loft except one corner which is partitioned 



off with f-inch T. & G. North Carolina 

 ceiling boards and serves as a sleeping room 

 for the coachman-gardener. 



In front of the barn and to the left is a 

 grated platform for washing carriages. Water 

 for this purpose, as well as for all the stable 

 work is obtained from a cistern built of 

 rough field stone laid in cement and sand 

 to which the gutters lead by means of gal- 

 vanized pipes. Of course, in cases where a 

 supply of water or even a wind mill is avail- 

 able, the cistern would be unnecessary. 



The siding is unplaned hemlock. As this 

 was not properly seasoned and was not 

 painted promptly it has warped somewhat, 

 causing cracks where the boards join. If the 

 barn were to be used in the winter all of these 

 cracks would have to be battened but for the 

 present use, the owner has found that a lining 

 of resin-sized sheathing paper has made it 

 sufficiently warm and wind proof. If battens 

 proved necessary, then it would have been 

 cheaper, to begin with, to have used tongue 

 and grooved pine barn siding, planed on one 

 side, in place of the hemlock. The first cost 

 is somewhat more expensive and this lumber 

 is usually full of knots and sappy spots, but 

 pine will not warp as much as hemlock, 

 is far more lasting, and in many ways, es- 

 pecially in looks, is superior. It, too, must 

 be painted as soon as it is in place and all the 

 knots must be shellacked first or the paint 

 will not cover. In the case of some particu- 

 larly inferior grades of pine, the knots form 

 almost a quarter of the surface, but as long 

 as they are tight they are not a serious objec- 

 tion. The stalls are 4 ft. 8 in. wide, with a 

 floor made of 2-inch spruce plank, laid half 

 an inch apart. The foundations are field 

 stone roughly laid to support the sills. The 

 barn is well provided with windows and doors 

 both for convenience and ventilation. The 

 roof is made of Vancouver, British Columbia, 



cedar shingles laid on shingle lath. The 

 building is painted with red metallic paint 

 and the eaves and door and window frames 

 are painted white. 



The stonework that shows in the picture 

 of the barn is not a part of the building it- 

 self but was made necessary because of the 

 sloping ground where the barn is located. 

 Its cost therefore is not included in the items 

 given. As a matter of fact its cost would 

 be very difficult to compute because all the 

 stones were on the place and the work was 

 done by the coachman. Another item that 

 is omitted is the gutters and leaders the cost 

 of which is not available. Probably $30 

 would cover them. 



There are cheaper ways to build a barn 

 than this. A tar paper roof for instance 

 costs less than a shingle roof and in sections 

 where wood is plentiful a hewn frame made 

 out of native wood — oak or chestnut — might 

 prove to be cheaper than sawed lumber but 

 most men are too busy to attend to the 

 details of getting out a "home made" frame. 

 Then, too, a floor is not absolutely necessary 

 in a barn. Some people contend that both 

 horses and carriages do better if allowed to 

 stand on the ground. We have never heard 

 of a case however where a horse suffered 

 particularly because it had a dry clean place 

 to stand on in place of a dirt floor that was 

 either damp or dusty all the time. There is 

 no question that a floor is a good thing to 

 have in a barn if you can afford it, provided 

 that the foundations are under the entire 

 building A "floorless" barn is much warmer 

 than a barn on piers. 



The itemized cost sheet of this building 

 was furnished me by the owner. Of course 

 it does not include either architect's fees or 

 contractor's profit. It was as follows: Labor, 

 $122; material, $358.18; painting, $24. 

 Total, $504.18. 



The dimensions of this barn are 20x36 foot, with 14-ft posts. The siding is 

 unplaned hemlocK and the roof is m&de of cedar shingles 



The rough stone cistern and the grated platform for washing carriages, 

 supply of water near a barn is practically indispensable 



A good 



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