Our building was actually our second purchase and next step in our particular barndominum building process, just after our land, but that was also what worked particularly for us.  It was a good thing we did too, because we were waiting on our building for some time (months) so earlier was better in our case.  We could have also delayed the delivery some if it was ready and we were not, but that wasn’t necessary in our case.  There were many lessons learned along the way, hopefully you can learn from our scenario and skip some of the issues yourself. 

The type of the building for us was a no brainer, since our biggest priority was longevity, my husband wanted big red iron beams and he didn’t want anything wood in the shell due to termites, carpenter ants, carpenter bees and rotting in general.  So, a pole barn was an absolute no for him.  Some have successfully gone with a pole barn and do many things to help prevent the infiltration of all the would-be menaces mentioned above, but it wasn’t even an option in his mind.  He also was quite decisive on the size of the building, but before he was dead set, we did peruse some building sizes and had a few very rough sketches of our home.  We played around with things like a dog trot or breezeway home and many different layouts, but in the end, he decisively settled on a 60×42 metal building.   

A funny thing about my husband and I, which definitely came into play in building the house and fortunately wasn’t the end of us, is we are both very decisive people.  When it matters to us, one or both of us generally know confidently what we want.  Often it works because one of us cares and the other doesn’t.  When neither of us care, one of us tells the other one to “just pick something” and a relatively quick decision is made.  Only a few times in the process both of us strongly cared about something and we had to work through those moments but being decisive definitely can help keep your project on track!  I have seen some people take so long to make decisions, it delays the builds excessively. 

He had done some initial research into the companies and while we really considered going with a more local company, there was one more advertised that he had read a lot about and preferred.  We decided if that company had a building in our price range, we would go with them first.  They stated that they had a 60×44 building on sale (or clearance or something like that) and there was just one available, but it was a special price.  Since this, we learned that this is an extremely common tactic on the sale side of this industry.  They don’t have the building sitting ready to go in a warehouse as they make it sound.  They just rush you a bit to create the sales “urgency” and there is nothing fast beyond that point.  Is it even really on sale?  I doubt it.  However, we jumped in and put down our deposit. 

Now, one thing we didn’t think about initially was the pitch of the roof.  Apparently, the roof came with a 1:12 pitch in that price, common for buildings but not for homes, but we didn’t think to ask.  We thought about if we could really live with that flat of a roof and I simply could not.  It was a costly change to increase the pitch to a more standard house pitch (I believe we went with a 6:12, but it’s hard to remember).  I firmly believe if we had thought to ask and discuss this, we could have negotiated that as part of the price, but even 24 hours later was too late to save the money.   

Another thing they asked us within the beginning phases was to mark the locations of our windows and doors for the exterior walls.  Now, being so early in the process, my husband didn’t want to make that decision yet  so he said to just put it as having no windows but selected the location of the doors.  Luckily, we had already figured out that the lay of the land wouldn’t allow us to position the building the way we originally intended, but that is an important factor to consider.  You want to know how the land will lay for your building and if you are going to run right into the ideal spot for a drain field (septic) or some other hinderance.  The window and door locations created a metal framing opening, which can be still done with conventional framing techniques, after cutting a hole in your building.  However, this also ensures you do not have bracing or beams right where you want a door or window to go.  Since we didn’t tell them where our windows were going, down the road while we are still waiting for our building, but working on our official house plans, we realized there was a brace right in the way.  When we notified them of the issues, they said this would be a costly change, even though we didn’t have the building or the official plans yet.  This could have been another ploy, but it didn’t matter because our hands were tied, and we had to have that bracing in another location.  We also had to mangle a little bit of one crossbar to fit in a window for a room, but there was no option at that point. Thus, it you can discuss with them if you want them to frame the locations windows and doors or not, to allow for some flexibility.  However,  you really want to at least know where the windows and doors are going.  

Another change we made was the type of roof.  We had previously had a metal roof on a home that popped and creaked in the summer heat from expansion and backed all of the screws out to the point we had a small little leak once.  My husband had to climb on top of the roof and put them all back into place, very high off the ground (35’ on the back side of the home).  With our new build being a peak of 24’ off the ground, we didn’t want to deal with that situation again, so we asked how much it would cost to upgrade to a standing seam roof that had no visible screws.  It was an $8000 increase which included the cost of the seamer rental, but later we found they required a $5000 cashier check deposit (credit card wouldn’t do) to receive the seamer at all.  We felt this should have been disclosed and was really unreasonable, so I fought and, luckily, won that battle.  Again, had we thought of that ahead of time, we probably would have been able to get better pricing or gone another route.  However, I will say our roof is quieter in the summer than the previous roof, looks great and feels more durable at minimum. 

When the building finally did come, there was nothing packaged from the company we purchased it from. It was all from a local metal company.  When we made some comments about this (mostly that we would have rather gone with them), we were told that that company still built to the standards and codes given by the company we paid, but in my gut I really felt this wasn’t really the case.  When I posted several unhappy reviews, I was quickly contacted and offered ways to make us happy if I revised my reviews.  I didn’t have to say I loved them, but I had to subdue my review to fix it.  Just, be aware that companies like this exist. 

We also had to rent a 4×4 forklift with boom to unload the structure from the truck, another unexpected expense to add to the quickly growing build budget.  I don’t know if some of these companies include unloading costs, but it may be another thing to investigate or plan for. 

Last of all, was getting the building erected, which was not included in the price of the building.  We were promised a list of general contractors that could help us in our area (from the building company we purchased from), but after multiple requests, they never fulfilled this promise.  When we sought our own, we had some tell us they couldn’t (most large red iron builders locally wanted only commercial buildings), some tell us they could that took our plans and never returned with a call or quote (or our plans), and so forth.  However, finally we found out that someone we actually knew that could provide what we needed.  We finally were on our way, but just be warned that you may want to line this up or consider this before going down this road. 

You can see that there was a steep learning curve from this part of the process.  Hopefully, this will point you in the right direction for research, pricing and planning.  If I can save a few from some of our mistakes and costly experience, I will chalk it all up to at least a somewhat worthwhile loss.