Projects · Flathead Valley, MT

Shire Barn

Framing of a large barn-style custom home, over 6,000 square feet, with wall heights exceeding 22 feet.

A worker on a raised scissor lift setting a beam at the peak of a tall timber frame, with three of the crew watching from the bare concrete floor far below.

6,000+sq ft: Size
22+ft: Tallest walls
2: Telehandlers to set walls

The Shire Barn came together as one of the larger framing jobs the crew has taken on, with wall heights running over 22 feet and a footprint north of 6,000 square feet. Standing inside once the walls were up, the scale of the place is obvious — everything reads bigger than a typical custom home.

Getting those walls standing wasn’t simple. The panels were built out of heavy-duty material, heavy enough that a single telehandler couldn’t manage them. The crew ended up running two telehandlers together to lift and set the tallest walls, and even with both machines working in tandem it took real effort to get them into place.

The result is a barn-form home with a big, open interior volume framed to hold up over time. It’s the kind of build that stands out on the crew’s list for sheer scale and the engineering required just to get the walls up.

Challenges

Wall panels were built from such heavy-duty material that standard lifting methods weren't enough. Crew had to use two telehandlers working together to raise the walls into place, and even with both machines it was a struggle to get them up.

More photos

The finished interior looking up into a dark timber truss beneath a pale boarded ceiling, a tall glazed wall opening onto grass and a small leaded window set high in the gable, with a mitre saw and stacked trim in the foreground.

The interior closed in and dry, timber posts and beams carrying a trussed gable overhead with roof trusses running away behind it, a stair climbing at the right and two of the crew working at the far end by a work light.

The long elevation sheathed and the roof papered, three dormers standing out of it with their window units already in, and the ground-floor openings sheeted over in plastic against the weather.

The gable end square-on, sheathed to the peak with timber brackets stepping up the rake, one small divided window set high and a wide opening below sheeted in plastic.

A timber porch roof reaching out from the sheathed corner, a buck-and-rail fence crossing the foreground and a work trailer standing open beyond it on patchy snow.

A work trailer standing open in the mud with its shelves of tools showing, the house behind it under roof paper with three dormers along the ridge and a timber porch roof reaching out over the drive.

A wide view of the elevation under roof paper, dormers along the ridge and a bracketed gable at the right, the ground-floor openings sheeted in plastic and pallets of stone stacked ready at the end.

The roof decked and papered with two dormers standing proud of it, a boom lift raised to the eave with one of the crew in the basket and a telehandler working from the other side, the yard churned to mud.

The long elevation sheathed and the roof papered, a boom lift reaching up over the ridge with its basket at the dormers and a telehandler standing in the churned mud below.

A tall sheathed gable wall standing braced to the ground with a telehandler at each side holding it steady, two of the crew on the slab in the opening beneath and mown grass running right up to the work.

Inside on the bare concrete floor looking up the full height of the barn gable, a scissor lift extended to the top plate with one of the crew in the basket and a second lift parked below.

The crane lifting a tall narrow sheathed panel up past the standing walls, braces propped against the sheathing and ladders leaning where the crew will follow it up.

A framed gable section coming down on its straps onto the top of the barn wall, one of the crew watching from the floor and another riding a scissor lift up to meet it.

A long wall panel swinging up on the crane strap, seen from underneath with its studs and sheathing edge-on, the walls already standing around the open floor below.

A sheathed wall panel hanging nose-down from two yellow straps as the crane swings it over the bare concrete floor, with the standing walls and an open gable beyond.

Inside the barn frame with two trussed gables standing one behind the other, heavy posts and beams framing a tall opening through to the grass, and two scissor lifts parked on the concrete floor below.

A trussed timber gable hanging from a single crane strap as it comes down onto the posts, with four of the crew spread across the floor below watching it in.

A finished slab the length of the clearing with anchor bolts set around its edge and rainwater standing on it, equipment and a work trailer parked along the treeline beyond.

The first long run of stud walls standing and braced on the slab with their window openings framed, a lift boom raised behind them and stacks of plate lumber waiting on the graded dirt.