Machine Sheds

A machine shed is a post-frame (pole barn) storage building designed specifically for heavy equipment — tractors, combines, skid steers, grain carts, trucks, and construction equipment. Compared to a general-purpose pole barn, a machine shed prioritizes wide clear-span interiors, tall eave heights, and doors large enough for modern farm equipment.

Every machine shed we build is sized to the equipment and operation it needs to serve. Common widths range from 40′ to 80′, with eave heights of 14′–20′ and sliding or overhead doors up to 30′ wide and 20′ tall. We size the building around your largest piece of equipment and typical bay usage, not a catalog template.

Yes. Every building is engineered to the specific snow and wind loads for your site, not to a generic regional spec. Ground-contact pressure-treated columns, heavy-gauge steel roofing, and Minnesota-rated trusses are standard on all of our machine sheds.

Yes. We design sheds so adding ridge and eave ventilation, powered fans, radiant tube heaters, or spray-foam insulation later is straightforward. If heat or ventilation is already part of your plan, we can rough it in during the original build so you do not have to re-open walls later.

Weather and site permitting, most machine sheds are framed, sheathed, and dried-in within a few weeks of crew arrival. The overall timeline depends on when materials can be delivered, site work, and how long any permitting/inspection takes. Your project manager will give you a realistic schedule before construction starts.

A machine shed is a specific kind of pole barn. Both use post-frame construction — engineered columns with clear-span trusses — but a machine shed is designed specifically for heavy equipment storage. That usually means wider clear-span interiors (40′–80′), taller eave heights (14′–20′), wider doors (up to 30′ × 20′), and eave-side door placement for snow management. A general-purpose pole barn might be smaller and more flexible in layout.

For most Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin operations, eave-side door placement is the standard recommendation. The eave side is the long wall of the building, and snow sheds off the roof away from the door opening — keeping entries clear after heavy snowfall and preventing ice dam buildup above the door header. Gable-end doors can work for specific site constraints, but eave-side is the default for snow-country ag operations.

Not always. A concrete slab is ideal for clean storage, shop use, and floor-drained wash bays, but many working machine sheds use a compacted gravel floor or a poured concrete apron at the door openings with gravel interior. Your project manager can help you decide based on intended use, drainage, and budget — and we can rough in for future slab pours if you want to defer the concrete.

We do not publish a price per square foot, because on a machine shed it would be misleading. Two 60x120 buildings on neighboring farms can differ substantially once door count and size, eave height, site access, concrete, insulation, and county snow load are settled. The honest answer is that size and clear-span width, door package, floor, and finish level drive most of the number. Our pole barn cost page walks through each of those drivers, and a quote takes a short conversation about your equipment and site.

Often yes, and the agricultural exemption is narrower than most people assume. Minnesota Statutes section 326B.121, subdivision 1(c) exempts qualifying agricultural buildings from the state building code, but electrical inspection, floodplain rules, and other requirements still apply, and county or township zoning can still require a permit. The exemption also does not survive a change of use: finishing part of an exempt ag building into living or commercial space voids it retroactively. We confirm the requirements with your local authority before the build rather than after.

Start with your largest machine at its widest configuration, add the room you need to turn and park it without shuffling other equipment, then add one more bay for the piece you will buy in five years. Because post-frame construction is clear-span, adding width or length at design time is far cheaper than adding on later. Door opening size and eave height usually matter more than total square footage — a building you cannot get the combine into is expensive floor space.

Yes. Machine sheds are a core offering across our entire service area — all of Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin, with primary scheduling focus within approximately 200 miles of our Mora, MN headquarters. That includes central Minnesota, the Brainerd lakes, the Duluth / Iron Range area (with crews using our Floodwood distribution center), and the Polk / Burnett / Barron / Washburn / Douglas county region of NW Wisconsin.