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15 Feb ’12
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In the past, houses would be built with the barn on the ground floor and living space above. it had several advantages, body heat from the animals would rise during the winter and help keep the living area warm, it would save on constructing different buildings etc.
Biggest down side would be the smell for those that don't appreciate the odor of a barn, I think it could be handled with free ranging and pasturing during the summer months, and heavy rotation of bedding during the winter.
Could you do it?
I came across this cool little home design and thought it would be a great use of the space.
5 Mar ’12
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We held a large family reunion in the suburbs of Chicago at a huge renovated barn. They still kept horses on the first floor and the smell was noticeable but wasn't terrible. I wonder if you could really try to seal the spaces so odor wouldn't be a problem but also somehow use PEX tubing or other methods of capturing heat and routing it up to the first floor.
15 Feb ’12
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Good question, my first thought is with plastic, construction adhesive, t&g 3/4 inch osb, you could make it pretty darn vapor proof
5 Mar ’12
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But would you also block out the ambient warmth from the animals?
15 Feb ’12
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I would think if you sandwiched plastic between the osb and the joists you would still gain some residual heat from radiation
15 Feb ’12
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one of our followers on facebook said they live like this, and said smell really isn't a issue, I asked them if they did anything special to prevent that. This was their response.
No but we do have mats down in the stalls and the center aisle is concrete so everything can be cleaned. We have 7 stalls that could turn into 4 foaling stalls. I now house 14 dairy goats. Noise is the only problem
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