converting a finished hog barn to a shed

Looking for some advice, thoughts, suggestions, etc....My dad has a Lester hog finishing building with a 8' pit, sitting empty for the past 10-12 years. Too small nowadays for the hog farmers around SE Minnesota. The east side slopes down below the pit level into a permanent pasture. A suggestion to us was to convert the finishing barn into a machine shed by digging out the middle section of the east pit wall that levels out to the pasture. Put in an overhead door and some new lights and have a new storage/machine shed. The building is 40x60, slatted floor, a foot or so of sludge at the bottom of the pit...so there is a bit of clean up and take the cement slats out of the floor, hot power wash the walls and floor of the pit, seal/paint the walls and floor of the pit, put in a new overhead door, and landscaping.

Has anyone tackled such a project? Suggestions? Best practices, tips, or tricks?

Sounds like a plan to me especially if it hasn't been used in 10 years. Check into these areas first - 1) are the metal plates holding the truss rafters together still good? 2) how does the lumber the trusses are constructed out of look as well as the sheeting? 3) can the pit walls resist the pressure from the outside soil without all of the supports for the slats (might not be designed to be free standing)? I think if everything looks ok I would do it. My son has done some similar work on hog buildings but they were making the pits deeper. They dug the dirt away from an area of the pit and cut an opening. Drove a skid loader in and loaded out all of the sediment and lifted/dropped the slats as they went. Everything was moved with the skid loader out through the cut in the pit wall. After they had the sludge and the slats out they jack hammered the pit floor and dug into the dirt another four feet to make the pit deeper. Poured walls inside the walls and a new pit floor before new slats were added.

I had a 30 by 45 machine shed built into a hillside made for John Deere 730's and IH 560's. Door openings were only 9 feet tall. I pulled 2 feet of dirt out to make the openings 11 feet tall. Building had a concrete foundation. I did pour a wall inside the old wall as I had exposed the bottom of the wall. No foundation, just a 12 inch wall. Eventually I concreted the entire floor. Now I can get cab tractors in. Anything is possible. I think re-designing old buildings might carry some property tax advantages as well. You probably know there are businesses that can cut a nice clean cut into the concrete pit. I don't know what they cost - Areosaw comes to mind as concrete saw company. Good luck.

Iowa wall sawing cuts concrete floors and walls. I used them on a project about 10 years ago in a factory. http://www.iowawallsawing.com/home.
Independence Iowa.

I remember some old dugout sheds that were built into hill sides. Keeping the floors dry was their biggest problem, especially if the floor was below grade and the entrance ramp sloped downhill into the building. Rain water and snow melt would flow down the entrance ramp and pond or freeze at the entrance. Opening and closing the door was a pain.

If you can keep your entrance ramp below the pit floor, I think you should have a good chance of success. Is the concrete pit floor thick enough to support machinery or can more thickness be added to do the job? If you need to add wall height, consider raising the building on a stub wall rather than digging out the existing concrete pit floor and exposing the footings.

Lester Buildings is still in business and may still be headquartered in Lester Prairie, MN, www.lesterbuildings.com They may or may not be able to do your renovation, but they should be able to supply a copy of your original building plan and for a fee tell you if your renovation plans are structurally sound.

There are several old hog barns around me that have been converted like your talking about. If you can get the floor level/door to drain naturally then they are easy to do. One fellow did not have enough fall so he had to install sump pumps and has trouble when it is cold.

There are companies all over that saw concrete.

Some guys say you can't get rid of the smell.....Ben

I have a similar building, I just filled in the pit and concreted over the top, then cut a sliding door in the side. I use it for storage of misc vehicles and farm items. The biggest drawback for mine is the low overhead clearance, I believe it came out to 7 foot 6 to get in the door. And yeah, it still smells a little "hoggy" even after 20 years ! lol

Most enjoyable thing I ever did was raising purebred Duroc and Yorkshire hogs. Been out a long time but still enjoy the smell (wife doesn't).