1st – Get a Barn
Starting a barn conversion may seem daunting at first. Maybe it's obvious, but not always simple, get a barn. You can get a barn by buying a property that has one on it or by moving a barn to your property. We call the second option "adopting a barn." This involves having a team help you find the right fit.
Pro tip: You can’t just pick any barn. There are some conditions that need to be met. For example:
- The barn should be structurally sound, and a structural engineer who is familiar with timber should review it. (In our experience, not all frames can be converted.)
- The Barn should provide an area that both fits your needs and fits your budget.
- The Barn should have features you like, such as a swing beam and ladders, or a history you can tell.
To learn everything you need to know about adopting a barn, visit our post "How to Adopt a Barn."
Barn condition review of a beautiful triple-braced barn. It will become a winery near Bayfield.
2nd – Determine the budget. How much can you invest?
The costs are more than you think. The biggest myth of barn conversions is that it's already a building, and we’ll just fix it up for living in. Not the case, it's much more complex and costly than that. We provide a breakdown in our blog post "Unveiling Barn Conversion Costs: What You Need to Know."
The biggest mistake people make when creating their budget is that they just focus on the building costs, which are the costs of materials and labour, but forget all the other soft costs that go with building. The soft costs include HST (don’t forget the tax man wants to take 13% off your budget right off the top!), engineering and consultant fees, contractor mark-ups, permit and development fees, landscaping and site works.
We offer a Barn Condition Report service that gets these answers for you. It forms the basis of the project, so don’t start your barn conversion without it!
3rd – Figure out what spaces you want and need in your house
We always recommend that clients put a piece of paper on their fridge with a pen, and every time they think of something that they want, a feature to be included, or something they dislike about their current living space to write it down.
The second tip is to start a Pinterest board of barn conversions. Determining your space needs for your house will help you and your selected architect find a barn frame solution faster.
If you need some inspiration, you can check out our pinterest page.
4th – Hire the right team
Getting an experienced team in place will make all the difference. Your team should also include a qualified contractor. There are a lot of unique problems with converting a barn to a house, so you want to make sure your team is anticipating them and planning ahead. In fact, with an experienced team, you won’t even notice the challenges as they will have already integrated the solutions into the design without you even knowing!
Construction crew erecting the barn frame for a conversion
5th – Start designing, building, and enjoying! And have fun along the way!
There are many particularities to converting a barn during construction so you need an experienced designer to plan ahead on the details and/or a contractor who has done this before. The frame will likely need upgrading to meet current building code standards. This can be anywhere from a few extra pieces of wood to fire safety to exits.
As part of Project Scouting with VELD, we determine this early so you know what you are getting into! And then, you need to design and take advantage of the wonderful space you have in the frame.
In summary
A barn conversion will be a labour of love, but you will love it when you are done!