There are a lot of pros and cons to each side of this argument. What did we do?

We fell on the side of buying a kit.

We priced out our build A LOT of different ways. First, we priced it with a kit company that also had a recommended builder to assemble it. The price for the labor was equal to that of the kit… that wasn’t an option.

We priced out our build as a steel frame building. This price was comparable, but we would have those large iron beams to work around with the finished product.

Then we priced out several DIY pole barn kits / metal building kits. There are a lot out there… some with great prices but no “engineered plans.” This was important to us since we are using this pole barn as a residence.

We ended up going with Hansen Buildings kit. The initial rep that we worked with was great, but there were a few miscommunications. I had to go over my plans and window and door openings and share exact measurements with them because they didn’t get it right several times.

We also had a miscommunication about our roof overhang over the garage barn doors. Apparently what we want is called an “eyelash” – who knew!? But we had to file a change order and that cost an additional $700. So be careful – double check everything and make sure that you get it all in writing!

AND, Make sure you go over all the details with them – window/door size – window/door placement – types of trusses you want – truss placement – and ask them to fix any errors BEFORE your order processes. If there is an error after – then you will be responsible for paying for a “change order”, which is another $700.

BIG ADVICE: When we ordered the kit, we had hoped for “metal offloading.” This means that all your metal will be unloaded by the delivery driver. If you have this option – GET IT!!!

Sadly, this was not available in our rural area… which meant we were responsible for getting 28′ lengths of metal off of a truck. We were advised to use a forklift with a spreader bar. Fine – we found a fork lift rental company – – but no spreader bars. Like none – within 100 miles radius. The metal comes stacked on the back of a flat bed semi with no support or wood underneath.

In addition, your metal doesn’t come all at once. So far we have had to rent a forklift 3 times (updated to 5 times now!) Each time that costs us $1,000. One of the loads, the metal actually bent off the forklift ruining the entire 40+ sheets of metal with an additional cost of $6,000. Fun. Our Hansen rep did try to see if the manufacturer would replace it, but sadly they wouldn’t. We still have one more metal delivery with another forklift rental.

To solve the spreader bar issue we finally just went and purchased the longest 4×4’s we could find and put them under the metal to get it off the delivery truck. That seemed to work well and kept our metal roof sheets from creasing.

Hopefully that will work when the replacement metal is delivered!