# anyone have a single story barn with lean tos?



## lorihadams (May 8, 2010)

We are looking to build a barn for our goats with a milking room. We want to do a single story and put 2 lean tos on it. The dogs will go on one side with access to the pasture with the goats and the ducks and chickens will go on the other with access to the back pasture/wooded area for some aerial protection. Anyone done this, we are having issues with the lean to pitch. Pictures anyone?


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## patandchickens (May 8, 2010)

Are you planning on running the lean-to areas off the gable ends of the barn, or as a continuation of the eaves of the roof?

If you are planning on doing them as a continuation of the eaves of the roof, the dilemma you will face is that if you maintain the same substantial pitch you have on the barn roof, the lean-to additions can't be very wide at all (or the roof gets very, very low to the ground <g>). Whereas if you make them a flatter pitch than the main barn roof, it tends to be a weak point for leaks to enter, particularly in climates that get snow and wet snow.

For this reason, if it is possible to run them off the flat ends of the barn, that is a more trouble-free arrangement. Obviously this means the shed must either be narrower than the end of the barn, or must extend out beyond the barn (which can be done in non-ugly ways, but does involve a bit more fussy-work).

If you MUST have a break in the roofline, where the steeper-pitched barn roof changes to a flatter-roofed lean-to roof, it is a real good idea to stuff wide flashing as far back up under the main barn roof as possible, and caulk the bejeebers out of it where it lies atop the shed roof. It will still probably leak some, so don't plan on storing hay right under there without some sort of protection (a tarp strung up as a hovering umbrella, or wahtever) but it can be perfectly well useable for most purposes except a tackroom. Also it may not leak in the early years of the structure.

The pitch to use for your roofs (main and leanto) depends on a) your area's snowload and b) how much structural support you wanna put under the roof. I would not go flatter than about 2:12 for metal roofing (you can go 1:12 in areas that get very little rain, if you really insist), but more is better, in providing more insurance against leaks and requiring less structural support vs snowload.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat


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## lorihadams (May 8, 2010)

Thanks Pat, we are meeting with a builder that lives above the barn he built so hopefully he  can do it on or under budget. We have several different sizes and such to show him so he can get an idea of what we want, his mother is a good friend of ours and will be living right down the road from us. He really wants to do the job so he can be close to his mom during the day, she just got out of the hospital. We'll get it to work!


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