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Whether you’re researching pole barn construction in Michigan or pole buildings in Washington state, you probably just want to know how much a pole barn cost.
When I was researching the cost of my pole barn, all I wanted to know was, “how much is this pole barn going to cost me?” I mean, isn’t that really the first question on most people’s minds when they’re thinking about building a pole barn?
Lets be honest. No one’s excited about paying a ton of money for their pole building…ever. So we just want to know what the price is going to be per square foot for construction and labor, beginning to end.
The metal pole building that I had built. 30×48 with 10 foot eaves.
What I really wanted was to jump on Google and find an accurate pole barn cost estimator, or even just type in “How much does a pole barn cost per square foot” and get a real guys answer. Quick and easy, right? Wrong.
I couldn’t find a cut and dry answer. So I made one. Keep reading to find out about my building and how much I paid…for everything.
But if you want to get an even more precise idea of what your total cost is going to be, be sure to fill out the form on the top of this post.
About My Pole Barn
What I built was a 30’ x 48’ x 10’ pole building with a 4 inch thick concrete slab floor, 2 – 10’ x 8’ overhead garage doors, 1 – 36” x 80” flush man door and gutters. It was built on fairly level land so excavation that needed to be done was fairly light.
As of today, there is no electricity and no plumbing in the pole building. But I will update this post as I add different things onto the shop. Which means I’ll also be adjusting the overall price of the pole building construction per square foot amount.
Overall Cost For My Pole Barn Including Labor Costs
Pole Building Price Per Square Foot. An Itemized List:
Total Price: $16,720.00 For
- 30 x 48 x 10 pole building
- 30 ft clear span trusses
- 29 gauge metal roofing and siding with a 40 year metal finish warranty
- Insulated vapor barrier in the roof
- Flat wall girts
- 1 – 3 x 6 solid core insulated smooth face fiberglass door with deadbolt and keyed entry
- 2 – 10 x 8 ruff open framed and trimmed for overhead door
- Base trim for rodent protection
- Hole drilling included
- All posts 6 x 6 and 6 x 8 pressure treated
- All lumber #2 Doug Fir KD
- Engineered plans per county specs
- Materials, Freight and labor to build
Itemized Breakdown Of Additional Expenses:
- $1,550.00 For: 2 – 10 x 8 Wayne Dalton 2400 series non-insulated overhead doors installed
- $4,860.00 For: 4 inch concrete floor 3500 PSI with power trowel finish
- $1,450.00 For:1 .5 inch rock for pole building. 6” compacted to 4”.
- $350.00 For: Move in equipment fee
- $1,500.00 For: Machine time to remove sod, spread rock and compact pad$
- $450 For: Gutter Installation
Total Pole Barn Price With Labor =$27,605
Pole Barn Cost Per Square Foot = $19.17
Pole Barn Cost Considerations
If you’re just looking at the overall price per square foot for your pole building, the numbers I gave you should give you a pretty good rough estimate. But there’s a few things you might want to keep in mind when comparing my numbers to yours.
Location
Prices are going to differentiate based on location. For reference, I’m located in the Pacific Northwest south of the Portland area.
Terrain
The cost for excavation and site prep for my pole building was pretty low in my opinion. Perhaps not low, but at least fair. The reason is because the building site was on very flat and level ground. If the site you’re wanting to build your pole building is on a hillside or on requires more excavation, then of course you’ll be expected to pay more for the excavation and site prep.
Pole Barn Cost Estimator
While I was doing research on how much I was going to have to pay for my pole building, I came across this table from HomeAdvisor.com I found it to be pretty helpful with fairly accurate ranges for the cost of a pole building.
As you can see, the size of the pole building I built fit right in the middle of the 30×50 on the chart.
| Size | Cost Range | Typical Use |
|---|---|---|
| 20×30 | $4,000 – $12,000 | 1 car garage, 2 horse barn |
| 24×36 | $5,000 – $15,000 | 3 car garage, 4 horse barn |
| 30×30 | $6,000 – $15,000 | medium farm workshop, 5 horse barn |
| 30×40 | $8,000 – $20,000 | 4 car garage, 8 horse barn |
| 30×50 | $10,000 – $24,000 | farm equipment storage, 10 horse barn |
| 30×60 | $12,000 – $25,000 | 6 car garage, 12 horse barn |
| 40×60 | $14,000 – $28,000 | medium auto or equipment workshop |
| 40×80 | $20,000 – $35,000 | 150-200 bales of hay, 20 horse barn |
| 50×100 | $25,000 – $40,000 | 15 cow herd and milking equipment |
| 60×80 | $25,000 – $40,000 | large auto and equipment workshop |
| 60×100 | $30,000 – $65,000 | Industrial storage or warehouse |
Why I’m Sharing How Much A Pole Barn Cost…My Price.
The reason I’m taking the time to list all of this information out is to hopefully give you at least a good ball park estimate as to how much your pole building will cost. I wanted to itemize out as much as I could so you can see where and how the dollars add up. Then you can subtract the things you’ll either not do, or do yourself.
So if you want to do your own excavating, for example…you can subtract that from the total and get an idea of what you might pay.
What Is A Pole Barn?
Without taking up a whole lot of time, let me explain for those of you that may not know, what exactly a pole barn is. Wiki says a pole barn is “…a farm building with no foundation and with sides consisting of corrugated steel or aluminum panels supported by poles set in the ground typically at eight-foot intervals.”
Great. Awesome. But I don’t live on a farm. So what I built is probably technically considered a pole building. What’s a pole building? Wiki says “…a quickly constructed building in which vertical poles are secured in the ground to serve as both the foundation and framework.”
So, they’re the same thing. A pole building is a pole barn and a pole barn is a pole building. I use mine as a garage and a workshop/ woodshop. I don’t keep animals or farm equipment in mine, so I’ll just call it a pole building.
So that’s what I’ve got for now. Join all the other readers that subscribe to our email newsletter for updates and more!
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this article has given you a good idea of what a typical pole barn cost would be. I’m sure there’s better deals out there, but I’ve always followed the practice of getting multiple bids for a project and not take the least expensive one, nor the most expensive. And that’s exactly what I did with this project.
Hope it helps!
