Can’t Afford a Backyard Guesthouse?
Who wouldn’t want a backyard guesthouse and the endless possibilities it offers? You could use your guesthouse to host friends from out of town or house parents or in-laws. You could earn some extra income by renting out your guesthouse on Homeaway or Airbnb, or you could use it as your very own sanctuary for a relaxing staycation.
Unfortunately, many homeowners convince themselves that the cost of building a guesthouse on their property is too steep to justify the project, no matter how much they would enjoy the additional living space. However, price doesn’t have to be an obstacle when you use a pole building house kit to construct your beautiful pole barn guesthouse.
What is a Pole Building and How Can It Become a Guesthouse?
Pole buildings are cost-effective, easy-to-install permanent structures. As the name suggests, poles play a significant role in the design: pressure-treated timber columns are embedded in the ground to support primary structural frames. The walls and roof of the building are supported and connected with purlins, girts, and sheathing. This is a building style that has its roots in agricultural communities. You may have seen pole barns before! More recently, this affordable, customizable, and versatile structure has become increasingly popular for primary homes, seasonal cabins, hobby buildings, and guesthouses.
While the standard pole building can have a somewhat industrial look, your pole building can be designed with your preferred aesthetic in mind, whether you’re looking for a rustic back garden cottage or a modern, minimalist detached studio. When you order from Hansen Pole Buildings, you can get a custom pole house building kit with each component designed to meet safety, space, and style needs.
Adding a Pole Building Guesthouse
Before you decide to add a pole building guesthouse, you will, of course, need to check your city’s zoning and property laws. Building codes vary from place to place, but in most cities, you will need a building permit to add a new standalone structure to your property.
Once you’ve obtained the proper permitting, the actual construction process is relatively straightforward. Because residential pole barns come in prefabricated kits with detailed instructions, it’s not even necessary to hire a construction crew—many ambitious DIYers choose to construct their own pole barn guesthouses.
With your pole building completed, it’s up to you to decide how you want to use it. Maybe you’ll decide to host more visitors—or to set aside the space for your own work or relaxation. There’s no wrong way to use a pole building guesthouse.
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: We are planning to build a shop with an attached ADU (additional dwelling unit) for my mother to live in. Can the ADU with a monolithic slab share a wall with a pole-barn, that will also have a slab floor? CARL in SHERIDAN 
DEAR VICTOR: I think you will find a general consensus as to closed cell spray foam applied directly to steel roofing and siding as being “the best”. In my humble opinion, it is most effective in Climate Zones 3 and under when entire building shell is being encapsulated by it. It also comes with a very pricey initial investment.
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: My wife and I are looking at post-frame for our next house and we don’t need a full second story, so we’re considering a loft/one-and-a-half story setup because we also want traditional gabled dormers. We really like the looks of cottage style architecture and want a roof that is somewhere in the ballpark of 9/12 or 10/12, but want to take advantage of the cost savings that post-frame. It’s my understanding from reading other posts that the minimum eave height for two story post-frame houses with 8ft ceilings is ~19ft. What would the minimum eave height for a loft/one-and-a-half story be, and about how much would doing this (for the purposes of adding functional dormers) inflate the cost of a similar size building? NIK in CLEVELAND 
For extended reading on wet-set brackets 
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can a pole barn be used to create a backyard ADU (accessory dwelling unit)? My city allows them with rules and specifically said hoped to use modular to decrease construction noise but it seems that this might be a similar decrease in noise. However the issue is size I need it to be 400 which is the current minimum my house is 700 so my backyard is around 40×60. I would actually prefer a two story which could then have a smaller footprint perhaps 250-300 sq ft on each level with a simple porch lift between with an exterior staircase as back up and fire escape, or a two car garage with the ADU as the second floor. The ADU would become my home as I need a wheelchair accessible space. thank you. KRISTINE in GRAND RAPIDS
