Barn Conversions

More and more people are converting old barns into houses or in my case today a wedding venue. Under modern building codes, ASCE 7-10, barn floors that support hay or grain must be capable of supporting 300 PSF live load. So most people think barns can easily be converted to a house. Agricultural buildings are typically exempt from building codes and many old barns were constructed before there were any building codes. Today’s structural inspection of this 4-story barn revealed the main loft was only able to support 20 PSF live load, which is half of a modern house. So large timber columns and beams may look impressive, but until you crank out the numbers you taking a big gamble.

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