13 free starting plans

Pole barn garage plans

13 free garage and shop plans, from a 20x20 to a 40x60 pole barn shop. The designer sizes each post for the eave, checks the purlins and the door header against the snow and prices the steel panel by panel.

Customize the 30x40, free Compare the 13 sizes

A red pole barn garage with two white overhead doors, a walk door and windows on the long side

Plans: 13
Floor, sq ft: 400 to 2,400
Materials, about: $7,300 to $26,600
Preliminary checks: 12 of 13 passed

Every size, drawn by the designer

Pick a pole barn garage size.

Each one is a full starting plan: framed, checked for 30 psf of ground snow, 115 mph of wind and a 36 in frost line, and priced. Switch the view to see the frame or the dimensions.

The 30x40 pole barn, drawn by the designer

Drawn by the designer from this plan

30x40

30x40 pole barn

The classic size: two cars or a shop, with a 10 ft overhead door.

Floor: 1,200 sq ft
Eave: 10'
Overhead door: 10' x 8'
Posts: 19, 6x6
Trusses: 6 at 8', 30' span
Bays: 5 of 8'

Preliminary checks passed for the loads you entered. Local approval not checked.

Materials about $14,100, before tax and delivery

Customize the 30x40, free View the 30x40 plan

What it needs

What a garage or shop has to clear.

The door, the eave, the snow and the corners, in that order. Measure what you will park or store; the charts give each plan's side of the comparison.

01Door vs vehicle
The overhead door decides what drives in.
Measure your tallest vehicle or machine with whatever rides on its roof, and the widest with its mirrors out, and compare it with the door, not the building. The chart is the vehicle door on each plan as drawn; the 20x30 has a walk door only, and the designer adds an overhead door to it.
The stores we read list overhead doors up to 12 x 12 ft, and 16 ft wide only up to 7 ft tall. A door bigger than any size they list is a commercial door, and the materials list marks it for a supplier quote instead of guessing a price. Each overhead door also needs 16 in above the opening for its track and spring; the designer flags it when the eave is too low.
- 20x208' x 7'
- 24x248' x 7'
- 20x30walk door
- 24x328' x 8'
- 30x3010' x 8'
- 30x4010' x 8'
- 30x4010' x 8'
- 30x4812' x 10'
- 30x5010' x 8'
- 40x4012' x 10'
- 36x4812' x 10'
- 30x6010' x 8'
- 40x6012' x 10'
02Eave vs equipment
The eave sets the post.
The eave is the height of the side walls. Our garage plans use 10' and 12' eaves; the designer takes 8' to 16'. The post grows with it: 6x6 up to a 10' eave, 3-ply 2x6 up to a 12' eave, 3-ply 2x8 up to a 16' eave, on bays of up to 8' for the 6x6 and 10' for the laminated posts.
Eaves past 12' are drawn too, with a note that they are past the prescriptive guides we read. A taller eave adds steel, girts and a longer post on every wall, so size it for the tallest thing inside plus the door headroom.
- 20x2010'
- 24x2410'
- 20x3010'
- 24x3210'
- 30x3010'
- 30x4010'
- 30x4012'
- 30x4812'
- 30x5010'
- 40x4012'
- 36x4812'
- 30x6010'
- 40x6012'
03Snow and wind
No purlin or header past 95% of its limit.
As drawn, each plan is checked for 30 psf of ground snow, 115 mph of wind and a 36 in frost line. The bar is the most any purlin or door header on that plan uses of its bending or deflection limit. Every one uses at most 95%; past that, the designer moves the purlins closer or goes up a size, and a header goes to the next size. The highest here is the 20x20: roof purlins, 2x6 on edge, 24 in o.c., 90%.
In the designer you enter your own loads, 20 to 70 psf of snow and 105 to 140 mph of wind. Past 30 psf the truss maker designs the trusses for your load; past 115 mph the posts, bracing and uplift need a second look. These are preliminary checks for the loads you entered; local approval is not checked, so ask your building department what it needs.
95% most
- 20x2090%
- 24x2457%
- 20x3069%
- 24x3257%
- 30x3069%
- 30x4083%
- 30x4088%
- 30x4879%
- 30x5090%
- 40x4079%
- 36x4879%
- 30x6069%
- 40x6089%
04Corners
Keep 8' of wall beside a big door.
A wide door near a corner leaves little wall to brace the building, so the designer looks for at least 8' of solid wall between a large door and the corner. The 20x20 is the one plan here that falls short: 6' between the door and the corner on the front wall, so it is marked for review rather than passed. Have the bracing checked, or move to the 24x24.
05Floor
The slab is in the total; the finisher is not.
Every garage plan here is drawn on a concrete slab, priced as ready-mix from published ranges: about $4,256 for the 40x60. If a contractor pours and finishes it, the published figures we read put slab labor at $12,000 to $24,000 on the same plan. The pole barn cost guide breaks it down.

Side by side

Common pole barn garage sizes compared.

6 of the 13 plans, from the smallest to the largest. Show all 13 for every size in between.

Plan	Floor	Eave	Vehicle door	Posts	Trusses	Materials, about	Labor if hired, broad reference	Build time	Checks
20x2020x20 pole barn	400 sq ft	10'	8' x 7' overhead	10	3 at 10'	$7,300	$2,000 to $6,000	80 to 115 h	1 to review
24x2424x24 pole barn	576 sq ft	10'	8' x 7' overhead	12	4 at 8'	$8,500	$2,880 to $8,640	95 to 145 h	Passed
20x3020x30 pole barn	600 sq ft	10'	Walk door only	16	6 at 6'	$8,400	$3,000 to $9,000	110 to 160 h	Passed
24x3224x32 pole barn	768 sq ft	10'	8' x 8' overhead	14	5 at 8'	$10,300	$3,840 to $11,520	115 to 170 h	Passed
30x3030x30 pole barn	900 sq ft	10'	10' x 8' overhead	19	6 at 6'	$12,200	$4,500 to $13,500	140 to 205 h	Passed
30x4030x40 pole barn	1,200 sq ft	10'	10' x 8' overhead	19	6 at 8'	$14,100	$6,000 to $18,000	150 to 225 h	Passed
30x4030x40 pole barn	1,200 sq ft	12'	10' x 8' overhead	25	6 at 8'	$18,000	$6,000 to $18,000	180 to 265 h	Passed, 2 for your builder
30x4830x48 pole barn	1,440 sq ft	12'	12' x 10' overhead	21	7 at 8'	$17,000	$7,200 to $21,600	180 to 265 h	Passed
30x5030x50 pole barn	1,500 sq ft	10'	10' x 8' overhead	19	6 at 10'	$16,200	$7,500 to $22,500	165 to 245 h	Passed
40x4040x40 pole barn	1,600 sq ft	12'	12' x 10' overhead	20	6 at 8'	$19,200	$8,000 to $24,000	185 to 270 h	Passed
36x4836x48 pole barn	1,728 sq ft	12'	12' x 10' overhead	22	7 at 8'	$22,200	$8,640 to $25,920	230 to 340 h	Passed
30x6030x60 pole barn	1,800 sq ft	10'	10' x 8' overhead	29	11 at 6'	$19,400	$9,000 to $27,000	220 to 325 h	Passed
40x6040x60 pole barn	2,400 sq ft	12'	12' x 10' overhead	30	11 at 6'	$26,600	$12,000 to $36,000	265 to 390 h	Passed

Each row is the starting plan as drawn, for 30 psf of ground snow, 115 mph of wind and a 36 in frost line. Materials are rounded: shelf prices plus the estimated trusses and concrete, before sales tax, delivery, labor and site work. Each plan page keeps the shelf prices, the estimate and the exact sum apart. Labor is the published range for hiring it out, a broad reference and not a quote; build time is total labor hours. Passed means the preliminary checks passed for those loads; local approval is not checked.

What they cost

About $7,300 to $26,600 in materials.

Each plan's materials list, priced line by line: shelf prices plus the trusses and the concrete estimated from published ranges. Hired labor is apart and only a broad reference from published price guides, not a quote; the table above has it plan by plan.

Lowest: $7,300, 20x20
Highest: $26,600, 40x60
Per sq ft of floor: $10.77 to $18.16
Labor if hired, broad reference: $2,000 to $36,000

Excluded: sales tax, delivery, permits, site work, engineering and equipment rental

The pole barn cost guide breaks it down by group, and the pole barn cost calculator runs the same numbers for your own size.

Materials for each pole barn garage plan

20x20$7,300
24x24$8,500
20x30$8,400
24x32$10,300
30x30$12,200
30x40$14,100
30x40$18,000
30x48$17,000
30x50$16,200
40x40$19,200
36x48$22,200
30x60$19,400
40x60$26,600

The $39 builder's plan

Free to plan. $39 to build from.

Every plan above is free to open, check and price. The builder's plan is drawn from the barn you finish, for one payment. These are real sheets from the 23-sheet plan for the 30x40 pole barn.

Free

The design in 3D, and every change you make to it
Every preliminary check, with its rule and its source
The materials list priced line by line
A summary PDF of the design and its checks

$39 once

The post layout, every post dimensioned from one corner
Every wall framed: girts, headers and openings with heights
The truss order sheet to hand the truss maker
The roof frame and the steel, panel by panel
The cut list, the shopping list with store prices and the build, step by step

Customize the 30x40, free

You check out in the designer, with your design loaded. If the plan has an error, we fix it or refund you within 30 days. Guarantee terms.

Real sheets from the 23-sheet sample plan for the 30x40 pole barn

01Post layout
02Wall framing
05Truss order sheet
04Shopping list

Questions

Anything else? Write to us or read the questions about all plans.

Questions about pole barn garage plans

We price our own plans rather than an average. Across our 13 garage plans the materials come to about $7,300 for the 20x20 up to about $26,600 for the 40x60, slab included, before sales tax, delivery, labor and site work. As a broad reference from published price guides, not a quote, hired labor adds $2,000 to $6,000 on the smallest and $12,000 to $36,000 on the largest.

The materials for our 24x24 pole barn come to about $8,500: $6,699.11 at shelf prices plus $1,824.10 for the trusses and the slab, estimated from published ranges, exact sum $8,523.21, before sales tax, delivery, labor and site work. Hired labor adds $2,880 to $8,640 as a broad reference, not a quote; built yourself it is about 95 to 145 labor hours.

Our 40x60 pole barn comes to about $26,600 in materials, before sales tax, delivery, labor and site work, of which about $4,256 is the ready-mix for the slab. If you hire it out, the published price guides we read give a broad reference, not a quote: the building at $12,000 to $36,000 and the slab work at $12,000 to $24,000.

The posts go in the ground, so they must be treated for ground contact and set below the frost line; our plans set them 4' deep on concrete pads. Clear spans of 20', 24', 30', 40' and 36' need engineered trusses from a truss maker. A wide door close to a corner leaves little wall for bracing. And a pole barn you want to live in needs its own engineered design and a residential permit.

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Your loads, your barn

Start from the 30x40. Make it yours.

Change the width, the length, the bays, the eave, the doors and your loads. The post size and depth, the purlins, the headers and the materials list follow every change. Free, no account.

Customize this design, free

Designing: Free
Builder's plan: $39 once
Account: Not needed

Inside a new pole barn: trusses, girts and a workbench, the overhead door open on a field

Pole barn garage plans

Pick a pole barn garage size.

30x40 pole barn

What a garage or shop has to clear.

The overhead door decides what drives in.

The eave sets the post.

No purlin or header past 95% of its limit.

Keep 8' of wall beside a big door.

The slab is in the total; the finisher is not.

Common pole barn garage sizes compared.

About $7,300 to $26,600 in materials.

Free to plan. $39 to build from.

Questions about pole barn garage plans

What is the average cost to build a pole barn garage?

How much should a 24x24 pole barn cost?

How much does it cost to build a 40x60 pole barn with a concrete slab?

What are the downsides of a pole barn?

Not quite the barn you picture?

Horse barn plans

Carport plans

All free pole barn plans

Start from the 30x40. Make it yours.