Shops, barns, loafing sheds, and covers

These are the working buildings on a place. A shop to keep equipment dry and fix it. A barn for horses or hay. A loafing shed out in the pasture so stock can get out of the sun and the north wind. A cover so the RV, the boat, or the trailers quit baking in the sun.

Most are steel buildings or steel-framed covers, on a slab or on posts depending on the use. A shop gets a slab. A loafing shed or hay barn may not need one. We lay each one out for how you'll use it, then build it. For a fully enclosed building, frames, slabs, and drawings are covered on our metal buildings page.

On acreage, where the building goes deserves more thought than which building. A shop wants a short, dry drive and power close by. A hay barn wants trailer access and some distance from the house. A loafing shed belongs in the pasture it serves, on high ground, open side turned away from the north wind.

On a horse place, the barn, pens, and arena often tie together. Planning pens or an arena? See corrals, pens, and arenas so the gates line up with the barn alley.

Size it to what goes in, then add room. Measure the tallest thing you'll park under it, like the RV with its roof air or the tractor with the loader up, and set the eave height from there. On a shop, think about where the workbench, the welder, and the door you use most will go.

For horses, vendor guidance from Horizon Structures puts a run-in or loafing shed at about 12x12 feet per horse. The same source says to build wider rather than deeper, so one horse can't block the opening, and to turn the open side away from the prevailing wind. Take that as a starting point, and size up if your horses don't get along.

Most of these are steel: steel frame, steel roof and wall panels, and trim. Smaller covers and loafing sheds often run a tube-steel frame. Larger shops and barns take a heavier frame from a building supplier. Ask your supplier for the manufacturer's stamped drawings for the building you order, and we build to them.

Shops sit on a concrete slab. Vendor guidance from AA Metal Buildings calls for at least 4 inches of concrete for a workshop and 5 to 6 inches where equipment sits. A horse barn may take a slab in the alley and a packed, built-up floor in the stalls. Loafing sheds do well on a pad raised above the pasture so the floor stays dry.

Every one of these sits on a pad. Parts of the county have clay subsoils, so the pad gets built up and shaped to drain, not just scraped flat. That's on our dirt work and building pads page.

First we walk the place with you and pick the spot: drainage, drive, sun, wind, and how it ties into the pens and the house. Then we set corners on the ground so you see it before any dirt moves.

The order holds for most buildings: build the pad, get the slab formed and poured to the building's drawings or set the posts, stand the frame, then sheeting, trim, and doors. On a slab building, read site prep before a shop slab for what goes on under the concrete. When it's done, we clean up and walk it with you.

A pasture barn needs a gate you can pull a trailer through. A shop needs a dry drive and an apron. A horse barn needs pens off the alley. We build fence and do land work on the same place, so all of it gets laid out with the building.

Around a shop, a lot of people want a closed-in yard for equipment and materials. A chain link shop yard fence with a rolling or swing gate handles that. Around a horse barn, pipe pens and runs off the stalls fit better. See corrals, pens, and arenas.

Water off a barn roof has to go somewhere. We shape the pad so it runs away from the building and away from the pens. If the drive crosses a ditch, ask us about a culvert.

A lean-to off a barn or shop adds room for hay, equipment, or a run-in. Closing in one side of an open barn is another way to change it. Both tie into the existing frame, so if someone else put the building up, tell us what you need and we'll say whether it fits.

Storm-bent panels and trim, doors that won't close, and loafing sheds leaned on by a few too many horses are all worth asking about. Some of that is a quick fix. Some needs a closer look first. Send photos and we'll say whether it fits.