If it were a concern of metal actually rusting out from the back, the cross wood stringers let air pass. Corrugated is better. Another way to end worry is red resin paper under metal, which is resin papers purpose. As for green if it were a heat and cooled space there is one additional step in metal roofing that ends 90% of heat transfer from ext to interior. Reducing energy costs by a conservative 30%.

Mrs. Carey, I grew up in a house that had plaster mixed with horsehair on all the walls. It was an incredibly good insulation.

Hi, Laura, I have posted some photos of the original plan we started with; it was tweaked a bit as we went. I’d suggest working with an architect and/or experienced barn builder to develop your own, as these drawings are not meant to be a substitute for professional advice. The thing that changed the most was the chicken coop and run, so I added some photos of how that turned out. You should be able to view the plans and photos here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DwV4_eSozjmxMKjHXWIwrMS3Vi4Dl_eO?usp=sharing

Great questions, Paul. Trees would have had to be cut in any case. Ours were milled on-site for the siding, so they actually never left our property. That’s a big carbon savings on the transportation. And we are seriously considering going with natural aging. I love the contrast of red barns against snow, but with natural aging this barn would fade to a nice grey that would go well with our grey house.

Great question. It’s an uninsulated structure with a gravel floor, so we don’t have condensation issues.

We had a couple of bids for a concrete foundation and they both came in at about $13K. Our stone foundation cost us $6K. I suspect that’s because we provided the materials; we had saved all the rocks that were turned up when the site work was done. Sometimes stony soil is helpful!