# Converting old house to barn?



## happy vagabonds (Jun 24, 2012)

i am so excited! we have been trying to buy the property next door to ours for at least 10 years. The old owners never wanted to sell. Last year the old man passed away and the lot went on the market. As soon as we saw the sign, we called, but someone else had already bought it!!! The new owners *moved* an old mill house onto the property and intended to fix it up, but progress was slow and finally just stopped. We have been watching for it to come up on the delinquent tax auction, but today, the caretaker called DH and told him that they were looking to dump the place. Yay!

So it looks very positive that we will be acquiring more land (for the goats!)! ((i see my goat herd growing already... don't tell DH!))

At the very least, we can store hay in the living room and i would like to turn the kitchen into a milking parlor (no more milking in the leaky roofed milking stall when it rains? what?!). i was thinking to turn one of the two bedrooms into 2 sleeping stalls for the girls and the front bedroom could be for kidding and weaning. 

the biggest issue i can think of is the fact that we're dealing with wood floors. any suggestions on how to overcome this? would vinyl flooring be suitable? ceramic tile (costly)? something that i am not thinking of?

as far as the milking parlor in the kitchen... would that be an issue for milk handling? there is a small mudroom on the back porch area that would probably be large enough for my milking stanchion if bringing goats directly into a section of the kitchen would cause issues with the health department.

thoughts? comments? suggestions?


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

Wow, interesting. I love when people convert buildings, rather than tearing them down and building something else. Seems such a waist to do that. I don't know anything about construction, but is there a way to take out the flooring entirely? Down to the dirt, or at least the concrete foundation if it is solid?


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

What type of wood is on the floor? Years ago...and I mean like 30 years ago, we bought a country homestead that came with a two-cow milking parlor/barn. It had wood floors and they were in perfect condition. I assume they were oak.


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## smithurmonds (Jan 20, 2011)

I have a neighbor who converted an old Southern farmhouse into a barn. It's absolutely adorable.


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## happy vagabonds (Jun 24, 2012)

not sure what kind of wood the floors are, but we can't tear them out as the back end of the house is about 10 feet from ground level! we're going to have to build a ramp or two for the goats to be able to get into the house. 

the house is adorable, really... just needs A LOT of work to make it habitable. was built sometime in the beginning of last century, probably no later than 1930s. 

i am really stoked about it. so quirky and charming... exactly what i have always dreamed. now to just make it happen.


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## swgoats (May 21, 2010)

Just make sure the tax assessors mark it up as a barn. My in laws bought a piece a property with an old house on it, and they had a really hard time convenience them it was just a storage building and not habitable. I think they wanted them to remove the roof. It was nuts...


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## smithurmonds (Jan 20, 2011)

FWIW we use wooden decks for our goats. There isn't a flat spot on the property, so there is about a 4 1/2' difference in the grade from the front of our small barn to the back. We're still in the process of building, but by the time we're done all of the stalls will have wooden floors. We used pressure treated 2X6's. I love how easy it is to clean and disinfect them, the goats love being up off the ground, and I don't have to clean so much bedding, usually just waste hay. Ours is still very much a work in progress, but I like how it's working so far.


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## Rose (Oct 26, 2007)

Please post pictures!


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

If it were me, and I wasn't replacing the floor boards, I'd apply some sort of water proofing to protect the boards. If I were replacing them I would use pressure treated boards, decking or plywood. Check for people tearing down wheelchair ramps or decks for good used PT decking or boards. I got close to 2000.00 worth of really good PT decking boards and 2x4's from a long wheelchair ramp when a state building decided they needed a new ramp.

If the house is that old and not been lived in for a while, I would check the boards and supports for soundness. Even though the floor is 10 feet off the ground you can still tear up boards and replace them. Supporting frames can be replaced or "sistered" by attaching another board to the weakened area as long as it is attached to solid, good timber.

I'd worry about vinyl or anything like that. Its easily cracked and the water and urine would get under it and rot the floor. It would also be very slippery. Ceramic can be very slippery when wet also.

Are the walls plaster, wood or drywall? The goats will eat the plaster or drywall. The drywall wouldn't hurt them but it would make an awful mess and that and plaster does not hold up in moisture. You would end up with a moldy, mildewy mess.

Running water and electricity? Are the wires where the goats can chew them? They will for sure. Does your area get cold enough for water to freeze? I'm not sure the house could be kept warm enough with just a few goats to protect pipes from freezing. You would have to make sure you wrapped them with foam and out of the goats reach.

Up here turning houses into barns or barns into houses is pretty common. At one time I was using an old mobile home as a goat and chicken barn. If I would have had a place to put it, that's what I was thinking doing for a goat and chicken barn after the fire.


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## happy vagabonds (Jun 24, 2012)

Squee! Hubby just got home from signing the paperwork! We got it! Will close on it this week!

Rose: pictures? sure! soon!

Angie: yikes! i am sure DH's father will make sure all is copacetic and will help us get through permits and paperwork. he's very savvy like that. thanks for the head's up tho! remove the roof?! that's ridiculous... even barns and storage units need a roof! lol

Sully! thank you for your input! i am not sure what the walls are made of atm, if i remember correctly, they are wood... maybe paneling... but you have certainly brought up some good points for me to be aware of! so appreciate that!

it does not have running water yet, but does have electricity. the wires are in the walls. we are in an area that freezes every winter, so i am sure DH will make sure the pipes are well insulated. 

After the fire? yikes! i hope your home and property is safe!


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## fmg (Jul 4, 2011)

I really only have had problems with freezing pipes if temperatures have gone below zero. At or around freezing, even in an unheated building, I would think should be fine, especially with insulation.


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## happy vagabonds (Jun 24, 2012)

the walls in the rooms where the stalls would be are that totally rad paneling from the 70s. you know the stuff!

the walls in the rest of the house are mortise & tenon(?). all wood. as are the floors, mortise and tenon, i think is what it's called. one edge has a groove and the other edge has a lip and they nest together and lock... or something. 

so much work ahead of us. wow. but so looking forward to this if we're going to convert it to a barn.


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## Dee Kennerly (Apr 7, 2010)

Hi, We built a chicken house and put a wooden floor in it. We painted the floor with two coats of porch paint. As long as we had chickens, about 4 years, we kept shavings on the floor and scattered grain once in a while and the chickens kept the shavings moving around. We live in humid and hot East Texas, and every other chicken house I had been around had a dirt floor and was usually smelly. Never in this one. We swept out shavings twice a year and put them in the compost pile. After we got rid of the chickens, we remodeled the house for a small workshop. The only place on the floor that looked worn was where we walked through along side one wall. Even under the roosts, the paint held up. We also used this paint for the floor in my small milk room in the barn. It is a pole barn for good air circulation, but the milk room has half walls with shade cloth on the outside upper walls. We left a gap between the walls and floor so I could hose it down good sometimes. Paint is still holding after many years. Perhaps something like this would work for you. Dee


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