Anyone want to spend the summer in Montana and help with some building?

[mtattorney]

Hello friends,

New to this forum but some experience living in a travel trailer and also out of my 2003 Nissan pathfinder for a time.

Curious to see if anyone would have interest in staying on 200 acres in Montana with beautiful views, creek access, drinkable water, etc, and helping build a tiny house in a grain silo? My 70 year old mother-in-law is land rich but cash poor and living in our camper currently. We want to help build her a place to live in the only structure that's sound on the land currently, but many hands would make much lighter work. Even if you know anything about building a tiny home in a grain silo, let me know, I'd love to chat!

 

[Tony's Dream]

Actually thought about converting a grain bin into a house for my son many years ago. What is the silo made of?

 

[NctryBen]

She sounds more like land poor… from experience I suggest selling the land and getting in someplace more adapted to her.
A grain bin in Montana? Winters are harsh there… in my opinion you’d be better off building from scratch. Converting anything in a harsh climate would not only be expensive, but very restrictive to what you could do… she’s 70 you say. Ten years she’ll be eighty. Living in a grain bin or silo may work this year. But next year or whenever she will have used up her resources to build something or better yet sell and buy something she could live in more affordably as well as comfortably.
I wouldn’t waste the remaining resources she has left for current comfort. Hardest thing about aging is accepting how little time we have left and such.
Your name suggests you are an attorney… can you buy the land and she can use the proceeds to build something she can live more comfortably in? When she can’t be there any longer you can sell the land… from what you briefly described, the land is really all she has… that’s her retirement or only option of retirement. I was where she’s at. At a slightly younger age. As soon as I put a shovel in the ground my health really changed. My determination almost killed me. I have a home on wheels now. I can live at “my place” til I die. But my son bought it at a good for him and me price.
Instead of stuck there I now travel to better for me climates, see my nine grandkids more and still able to enjoy and not so much stress over the place I waited to long to build. It happens… it’s only a few short months before old winter will be giving fits to the whole deal. Summer is about over… your camper won’t cut it there… and the grain bin or silo? Not a good option for a quick cheap build in that environment… just the money she’d save in heating you could send her south in a van in the desert and build it better next year… if that’s what she wants to do.

 

[maki2]

Summer is almost over. The conversion needed to get started back at the beginning of June. You lost two months of time for what is a difficult place to insulate wire and put in interior finishes. It takes way more labor time to insulate and put up wall finishes and add utilities into a round structure that in a flat walled structure.

Do you have the plans for what needs to be done drawn up or have the materials on hand? If you were going to get it finished before freezing temperatures arrive it should have already been more than halfway done by now.

Most women in their 70s have some arthritis. The cold winters are pretty tough on them. Better to send her South to spend the Winter in a camper to Quartzsite AZ where it is warm and she can have lots of fun with other people in her age group. The RV parks are not too expensive but many people choose to stay the winter at the BLM long
Stay areas that cost only $180 from mid October through mid April. The silo can then be where she spends the summers out of the heat.

She could even make friends in Arizona this winter to go north and help her with that build next summer.

 

[maki2]

the first step in your project should be taking measurements and then using them to create a model in a 3D CAD program. Then layout inside the structure framing studs 2’ on center. Plus of course the framing for the ceiling. That CAD model will be a huge help in knowing the angle cuts needed for the wall framing. It will also be handy for knowing how much lumber you need to order and how much insulation, wiring and finished wall materials, wiring, electrical outlets, etc.

Plus it is the best way for crews working on the project to have efficient work days that avoid making mistakes that cost time and money. It will allow them to mark out on the floor the foot print of the location of each section of the interior framing before the work starts. The lower sill plates get built onto that layout. The upper plate can be precut and assembled in sections easy enough for a crew to raise using the lower plate as a template. This will keep the framing job fast and efficient. It can’t be done the same way as a conventional house where it is built in whole long wall sections but it can be made faster with a systematic approach.

 

[mtattorney]

Actually thought about converting a grain bin into a house for my son many years ago. What is the silo made of?

I think it is corrugated galvanized steel. It's a Butler bin. The designs are really cool!

 

[mtattorney]

Summer is almost over. The conversion needed to get started back at the beginning of June. You lost two months of time for what is a difficult place to insulate wire and put in interior finishes. It takes way more labor time to insulate and put up wall finishes and add utilities into a round structure that in a flat walled structure.

Do you have the plans for what needs to be done drawn up or have the materials on hand? If you were going to get it finished before freezing temperatures arrive it should have already been more than halfway done by now.

Most women in their 70s have some arthritis. The cold winters are pretty tough on them. Better to send her South to spend the Winter in a camper to Quartzsite AZ where it is warm and she can have lots of fun with other people in her age group. The RV parks are not too expensive but many people choose to stay the winter at the BLM long
Stay areas that cost only $180 from mid October through mid April. The silo can then be where she spends the summers out of the heat.

She could even make friends in Arizona this winter to go north and help her with that build next summer.

She has horses, leaving the state is not an option right now.

 

[bullfrog !]

Just so you know Caballo Loco south of Three Points, Arizona has accommodated horses over the winter. There is a company in east Texas that specializes in converting silos to living spaces/offices/antiques shops. I believe I saw them on Facebook.

 

[WanderingRose]

Sounds like an improved housing situation for your mother in law is fairly critical at this time, getting her out of your camper and into something better insulated before winter.

If she has horses, she sounds fairly active and able, so I suggest moving forward with converting the silo for now, making a presumption that you have looked at options and this is the best short term solution.

Selling land and livestock isn’t quick and simple, so I say longer term planning can wait.

Good luck, and were I closer and able I would come help you.

 

[bullfrog !]

What about building out a horse trailer or finding a combination camper/horse trailer? Smaller spaces with lower roofs are easier to insulate and heat

 

[Carla618]

She has horses, leaving the state is not an option right now.

Could she trade the horses for cash to pay carpenters to do the work on the silo? How many horses? Maybe she could keep one (if she has many).

Or, sell 10-50 acres (of the 200) to pay a carpenter/contractor to work on the silo.

 

[maki2]

She has horses, leaving the state is not an option right now.

Then you are going to need to round up a crew of people to get the silo heated by winter. Time to get busy with a phone list and put out a call to the local community for volunteers to come out to get the interior wall framing done quickly so insulation can go in as well as a heat source. That way work can continue after freezing weather arrives in about 6 weeks.

The majority of the nomadic community will be heading south before the freezing weather arrives except for the ones earning money at the beet harvesting.

 

[abnorm]

Can you imagine the STAIRS.............and for a 70 yr old !

 

[Gr8ful]

I didn't see the silo size listed but converting a round structure IMHO is going to be hard such as adding windows, etc. Is there zoning & building codes?
The 1st cabin I built was 16'x24' we prefabbed in 8' wall sections with the siding on & windows & door in, rafters all cut, 12/12 pitch with a sleeping loft, hauled 580 miles, drilled 3 rows of 7 or 21 4' holes 18" in dia. put 18" concrete cookies & 4x6 treated post & 6 rows of 2x12s for beams & 2x12 floor joist. The 1st time we had to break out the saw was to cut the roof sheathing. We had to carry everything in 300 yards & had it closed in, sided, windows in, door locked & roof felted & were gone in 1.5 days from arriving. We worked all day friday, drove all night arriving after dawn on sat & left before noon on sun. It was 10 miles on 2 track after 6 miles of gravel rd near Silver Mtn & joined the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness area in Michigan's Upper Pen. I've done 4 total the same way.

 

[Tony's Dream]

To keep the costs down......forget trying to build curved walls and assume that you are going to loose square footage in your floor plans. Depending on the diamater, consider making section walls that divide the exterior walls into equal sections. The length of each section will depend on the curve of the wall. Most builds use the cross beam or spoke supporting system for floors. The most important thing to remember is........metal absobs heat/cold.......so you want to make sure you allow for a think layer of insulation between exterior wall and your livng space. There are several builds found in YouTube.

 

[NctryBen]

Horses do change the situation... you could build a butler bin out. But I’m thinking to do it right in that environment would be costly. Kind of defeating the op’s criteria of not a lot of money. That’s all I was saying… summers are tough. Some of us make our living for the year in a few short months. Others , it’s the only time we see grandkids and such… very short notice for such a build. I hope you find the right people…

 

[maki2]

Can you imagine the STAIRS.............and for a 70 yr old !

it is funny how much visuals can differ in people’s minds. You are imagining a tall grain silo type of structure and I am imagining a the metal farm silo which is often only one to one and one and a half story in height for the lower walls on a small ranch property. But 2 story grain bin silos are likely the most typical ones.

Not all 70 year old seniors are unable to climb a flight of stairs! Also true of some 80 and 90 year old people. If this woman has a ranch with horses to look after and is living in a truck camper she is very likely physically fit enough to climb stairs. She just might not have the carpentry and other skills to DIY the build all on her own.

Abnorm my 80 year old best friend in Seattle is way more physically fit than you are. He deliberately stays healthy and fit so he is not limited physically or mentally in what he can do by his age.

 

[abnorm]

Abnorm my 80 year old best friend in Seattle is way more physically fit than you are. He deliberately stays healthy and fit so he is not limited physically or mentally in what he can do by his age.

OUCH ! ....................No Klondike bar for You !

 

[maki2]

OUCH ! ....................No Klondike bar for You !

No problem

As a 73 woman I can still climb stairs as long as I do not consume too many Klondike bars. Of course I could also design and build out the interior of a small silo too, but it would get done at turtle speed. But I am done with living in places with cold winters.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Wow...the way that some people can turn silos into homes is amazing:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=silo+home&t=brave&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images