Realizing barns come in different sizes, is there a standard ratio of width x length x height?
Is their a standard for roof pitch?
I’m thinking about doing a Barn raising for my next project and plans if available would be greatly appreciated.
Fergie
The short answer is no, to all questions. I’ve built and been around (real) barns that are short and fat (usually for heavy equipment storage), long and skinny (usually for poultry), one to three stories, with everthing from 1 to 6 surfaces on the roof. I’ve never noticed any standard anything with them…
I agree with Zepher…no two barns are alike. I’d visit WebShots for photos of actual barns and/or check out some of the Lou Sassi How-To books. I seem to remember a barn or two on his layout.
Check out Dave Methlie’s Stoney Creek, a project layout in several issues of Model Railroader earlier this year. I think there is an Amish barn raising scene on the layout.
And remember that barns differ from region to region. What part of the country are you modelling Fergie??
Hi Fergie: Barns are largly the design of the owner. In my case I built mine 32’x 22’. Why? It just seemed to look right for the spot. It depends on the area it is located. Here in Texas barns are for storage of feed, equipment, and maybe some valuable or sick animals. Up north the barns are used to house the live stock in the cold weather. Barns up north have space up stairs for hay storage. That way the hay can be fed by droping it through holes in the loft floor. Down here we feed outside even in the winter so no need for a large loft area for hay. There are some barns in Wisconsin and I imagine else where that are octaganal in shape. These are interesting and really very practical. Check the local library for books on barns. There are alot of them out there. Reasearch is fun.
Have fun.
I would suggest checking out photos of barns to get a good idea of what you are looking for. Do some scale drawings of the barn’s elevations, to get the feel for the proportions that you think are most appealing. These drawings don’t have to be fully detailed architectural plans just the 4 side views and roof line. If you scale them with an HO rule, they can be copied and used as templates for scratch building.
Keep in mind neighboring farms might be owned by farmers from different cultures who would build competely different barns - an “English” barn (which is more or less the standard American barn) is quite different from a German one for example. German ones often use stone for a good part of the wall, and are often built into the side of a hill to allow easy access to two levels.
Hi Fergie, I did a Yahoo search and there are literally over 10 pages of info on Barns and dimensions etc. I’m sure you will find what you want there. But as Paul and the guys have mentioned already, there does not seem to be a standard barn size. Some have Gambrel roofs, some have hip roofs, etc.
Barns can be any size as already stated, however whatever size youmake it you can proportion it according to the universal golden ratio of 1-1.618. In other words the side should be 1.68 longer than the end and the area of the ends and sides proportionately the same. For further reading on this subject consult the book Unlocking the DaVinci Code.[:D]
I have some photos of an area prototype barn that I took a while ago. It was old and weatherbeaten, which attracted me. I printed my photos on heavy paper and mounted them on heavy cardstock (actually photo matte board), and made an HO scale model of the barn this way. I posted the photos of the barn, inlcuding full views of an end and one side in a web album way back in 2004, and posted the web address several times. People are still visiting the photos, with over 2900 visits so far. Check it out here if interested: http://gallery38074.fotopic.net/
There is a photo of the entire barn as well as my completed model.
Bob Boudreau
Atlantic Canada
Bob that barn turned out really good. I’m gonna have to try that photo technique. I really like building paper models of all sorts including planes, and ships. One can get some pretty sophisticated looking models without a lot of painting and weathering problems to handle.Theres a lot of paper buildings out from Dover Press that make really nice temporaory models to fill in while the real thing comes along. Best of all you can get a whole village for around $8-10.
quick listing from my structure bibliography–
Barn & blacksmith shop, Railroad Model Craftsman May 1981 p.78
Southern barn preserved at Key Largo, Florida, one side open. Scale drawings: Railroad Model Craftsman March 1989 p.72
Tobacco drying barn from South Carolina, scale drawings Railroad Model Craftsman November 1979 p.62
You can also get plenty of barn photographs along with architectural scale drawings over the internet free from Library of Congress (it’s your tax dollars, why not use them?) go to www.loc.gov, then “American Memory”, then I think architecture or something like that, then search with keyword “barn” and pick your structure. Prepare to get barns from pre-revolutionary times to the 1930s.
Being utility buildings, barns can be any size. In modern times they usually use an increment of four feet for the floorplan; older barns may use a two-foot increment. It depends on the spacing of the studs and rafters. Height is a different matter, which seems to depend on what’s being stored. Again, think of standard lumber lengths. I was inside many barns in New England, and heights ranged from 8, 10, 12, 16 feet for the first floor. I’ve never seen a barn with an 11-foot first floor. Framing for roofs varies. In snowy or rainy regions, the pitch is probably at least 6:12, and often higher. A lot also depends on the timber used. Heavy timber usually means wider spacing. Lumber has been pretty standardized for perhaps two centuries. Timber sizes for spans have also been standardized for a long time. That does not mean that farmers always followed standards. Hence, swayed-back barns are common.
heres another intersting site on barns etc.
www.ohiobarns.com/index.html
tom