Free Pole Barn Plans For
Building A Pole Barn Garage

There are tons of free pole barn plans available on the internet. The majority of them are on university websites, and were developed for farm use through the USDA Cooperative Farm Buildings Exchange program.

Sifting through them all to find designs that are suitable for a garage can take a while, because they are mixed in with plans for chicken coops, hog barns and grain silos. Here I have collected a list of the plans that could be turned into a pole barn garage, with a brief description including the size.

Although most of these free pole building plans were not originally intended to be an automotive garage, many of the designs could be easily modified to add garage doors, a concrete floor, and insulation, as long as you don't eliminate or relocate any of the posts.

Some of the free pole barn plans have large open areas that you can easily add walls to. Most of the plans could be expanded by adding identical bays, or shrunk by eliminating bays. Use your imagination!

Many of these free pole building plans were drawn a number of years ago, and may not hold up to current building standards. They are intended to provide design ideas for how to build a pole barn. Most are not actual blueprints that are "construction ready". They offer a great starting point, but may need to be revised to meet current local building regulations and codes.

Because these designs were shared through the Cooperative Farm Buildings Plan Exchange, you will find a number of identical plans on different university websites. Luckily, duplicate versions use the same plan numbers, so you can tell if the free pole barn plans posted on two different websites are actually the same set.

There are some companies that offer free pole barn plans if you provide your email address so you can get on their mailing list. I have not included those here. All the free pole building plans below do not require any information from you.

The University of Tennessee Extension has the largest variety of garage-suitable designs on their website. Click on the link above to be taken to the page where you can find these free pole building plans:

General Barn and Utility Shed category:

- 39 x 60 or 52 x 60, uses rafters with interior supports, ridge centered, (4) 15' wide bays, # 5780

- 39 x 60 or 52 x 60, uses rafters with interior supports, ridge not centered, (4) 15' wide bays, # 5781

- 39 x 60, uses 26' trusses + 13' shed roof, (4) 15' wide bays, # 5782

- 30 x 60, uses 30' roof trusses, clear span, open on one side, (5) 12' wide bays, # 5794

- 24 x 24 2-car single door pole barn garage, uses trusses, clear span, posts 8' OC, # 5930

- 58 x 96 monitor-style building, uses 32' trusses + 13' shed roofs on each side, 18' ceiling in center section. You can make it 58' deep by however long you want in 12' increments, # T4101

Machinery and Supply Storage category:

- 42 x 98, has 70' open with a 42 x 28 shop, rafters with interior posts, (7) 14' wide bays, # 6150

- 40 x 102, uses 40' trusses, clear span, center section higher than the rest, (7) bays ranging from 12' to 18' wide, # 6168

- 25 x 72, uses 25' trusses, clear span, center section taller, (5) bays ranging from 12' to 18' wide, # 6220

- 32 x 130, has 94' open with 32 x 36 enclosed shop, uses 32' trusses, clear span, (8) 15'8" wide bays, # 6287

- 24 x 96, shed roof, rafters with interior poles, (8) 12' wide bays, # T4012

- 24 x 72 shed roof with "bonnet" overhang at front, uses rafters, not clear span, (6) 12' bays, # T4166

- 30 x 52, shed roof with "bonnet" overhang on front, clear span with 30' trusses, (3) 12' wide bays plus 16 x 30 enclosed shop, # T4167

- 40 x 56, 40' trusses, clear span, 32' bifold door on end and 16' overhead door on side, concrete floor, poles 8' OC, # T4180

Forage Storage and Feeding category:

- 46 x 96, 46' trusses, clear span, open on one end, (8) 12' wide bays, # 6279

UT provides construction details for pole building windows, doors and walls in plan # 5833. They also have a number of conventional frame designs available on the same page as the free pole barn plans.

The free pole building plans I found at Colorado State University's website are the same as the ones offered at UT-K.

Iowa State University offers a number of free pole barn plans designed by MidWest Plan Services.

- 42 x 64, can be built 14', 28', or 42' deep and any multiple of 16' long. Uses rafters and interior poles, but has an option for a 28' clear span truss to be used. # 72050.

They have five different free pole barn plans for a 64' wide building. They all use trusses and are clear span, with (4) 16' wide bays.

- 24 x 64, # 72054

- 30 x 64, # 72055

- 36 x 64, # 72055

- 40 x 64, # 72057

- 50 x 64, # 72058

North Dakota State University has free pole barn plans from several different sources listed on their website. Here are the designs that aren't listed on the Tennessee or Iowa websites:

- 30 x 60, uses 30' trusses with no interior poles, (5) 12' wide bays, # 6362

- 39 x 60, uses rafters and interior poles, open on one side with 15' wide bays, # 5830

- 39 x 60, same as # 5380 above but with an offset peak, # 5831

- 26 x 60, 39 x 60, or 52 x 60, with 26' trusses and one or two lean-tos. (4) 15' wide bays. # 5832

- # 6280 shows several different designs using 15' wide bays.

- 32 x 64, uses rafters with interior poles, one side open, (4) 16' wide bays, # ND 724-1-2

- 42 x 64, rafters with interior poles, one side open, offset roof peak, (4) 16' wide bays, # ND 724-1-3

- 56 x 80, rafters with interior poles, one side open, (5) 16' wide bays, # ND 724-1-4

- 40 x 56, uses 40' trusses, clear span, with one side open, (4) 14' wide bays, # ND 724-1-5

The Oregon Building Codes Division has several free pole barn plans that could be suitable for a garage:

- The first one listed at the time of this writing is a generic plan with multiple sizes listed. There is a Construction Schedule that shows the material requirements and lumber sizes required for the different building sizes, ranging from 24 x 30 up to 32 x 36, with both 10' and 12' tall side walls.

- 36 x 36; 36 x 48; and 36 x 60; with 14' tall side walls, using 36' double trusses, clear span, poles 12' on center on side walls.

- 24 x 24; and 24 x 36; with 14' tall side walls, using 24' double trusses in the center, clear span, poles 12' on center on side walls.

That about does it for the free pole barn plans available on university and government websites. Now for a couple of other free pole barn plan resources:

- SDS-CAD has a set of free 40 x 72 pole garage plans available on their website.

- Mother Earth News has published Ellen Franklin's step-by-step write up of how she built a 24x48 open sided pole barn for $3,000 in 1992.

Whew! That took longer than I thought it would! I know there are more free pole barn plans than this out there, but the internet is a big place, and this should be more than enough to get you started. If none of the free pole building plans above suit your needs, there are a lot of relatively low cost pole barn garage plans out there too. Just make sure that you get any set of plans approved by the local authorities before you start buying materials or building the project.

For more information about pole barn plans in general, visit our page on Pole Building Plans. You might also be interested in our pages on Pole Barn Kits and Free Garage Plans. Also take a look at the links to other Related Pages on this site when you are finished digging through the free pole barn plans.

Return from Free Pole Barn Plans to Garage Building Plans

Return to Garage Plans Etc. home page