Corn Crib Converted Into Heated Shop

Corn Crib Converted Into Heated Shop AG WORLD In 2010 I bought a small acreage that came with an old drive-through corn crib After my brother and sister-in-law helped us move in we were looking at the crib and my brother told me I’d better do something with it or it would be junk in a few years He and his wife offered to come help me for one week the next summer and that’s when we converted it into a nice large shop equipped with radiant floor heating ” says Duane Claussen Wanatah Ind “We bought new trusses and tinned the roof as well as 3 sides of the building Then we installed radiant floor heating and put in a 10 by 12-ft overhead door as well as a walk-in door We’ve still got more work to do but we’re satisfied with the results so far ” The shop measures 34 ft long by 24 ft wide and was originally 30 ft high with an asphalt shingle roof which Claussen replaced with a low-angled metal roof That lowered the building to just 14 ft 3 in The building originally had 8 overhead bins and a 12-ft wide drive-through alley running all the way through The cement floor was 1 ft higher than the ground and had a 1-ft deep alley running down the center where a corn sheller’s dragline could be laid down Workers would then rake ear corn into the dragline “In January 2011 I started removing the overhead bins and the decking above the alley ” says Claussen “The goal was to get the upper half of the building off before my brother came over to help I knew that if I was going to make the building useable I’d have to take the inner walls out in order to open the building up I nailed 2 by 6 boards across the opening over the corn crib to the floor of the old bins over the alley and laid plywood over them to serve as scaffolding We used the scaffolding to install new trusses ” The building’s walls were made from 2 by 8’s and some of them had rotted away so he replaced them with salvaged wood and then installed tin over it “We didn’t tin the front side of the building because I wasn’t sure what kind of doors we were going to install ” says Claussen The crib’s interior walls were originally supported by a 2 by 8 but the sill plate was poured into the floor Claussen rented a diamond cutter and jackhammer to remove the sill plate then laid rebar in the alley and tied it to wall bolts He put 6 in of polystyrene on top of the old cement then installed radiant floor heating and poured 8 in of cement on top of it He also installed floor drains He used the 14-ft tall 4-in wide panels from a large meat freezer which he got at work to insulate the walls all the way around the interior of the building He says he plans to insulate the roof “I never figured my total cost to convert the barn but I know it’s less than I’d have paid to put up a pre-fab garage ” says Claussen Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Duane Claussen 11301 S 1025 W Wanatah Ind 46390 ph 219 733-9615; lclaussen@frontier com   

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