Building Types
60x120 Hay Barn
- Width
- 60 ft
- Length
- 120 ft
- Floor area
- 7,200 sq ft
- Perimeter
- 360 ft
Use
How a 60×120 Hay Barn May Be Used
Equipment shelter
Machinery clearance height and door width are usually the limiting factors, not floor area.
Commodity and forage
Bulk storage depth against the sidewalls affects how the building is loaded and unloaded.
Drive-through access
End-to-end access lets equipment pass through without reversing.
Seasonal working space
Open floor is commonly kept for repairs and staging between seasons.
Example
Example Configuration
Quick dimensions
At a Glance
Width
60 ft across the gable end.
Length
120 ft along the sidewall.
Floor area
7,200 sq ft of clear floor.
Eave height
20 ft at the sidewall on the stored profile.
Configuration
How This Building Is Configured
Configuration summary
| Building type | Hay Barn |
|---|---|
| Footprint | 60 ft × 120 ft |
| Floor area | 7,200 sq ft |
| Eave height | 20 ft |
Planning
Footprint & Space Planning
Footprint
Width and length are chosen together: width is usually fixed by what has to fit side by side, length by how many bays are needed.
Height
Eave height affects door options, storage height and how open the interior feels.
Access
Where vehicles and people enter changes the whole interior layout, so access is settled before anything else.
Doors and openings
Opening width, height and position are specified with the supplier; they affect the frame and the wall bracing.
Site
Slope, drainage, access for delivery and erection, and the foundation are confirmed for the actual property.
Expansion
Extending along the length is usually simpler than changing the width later, which is worth deciding up front.
Access
Doors & Access Considerations
Opening width
Across a 60 ft gable end, the practical opening width is limited by the frame and confirmed with the supplier.
Opening height
A 20 ft eave sets the ceiling on door height before any frame change.
Drive-through
Matching openings at both ends avoid reversing, at the cost of usable wall.
Similar sizes
Other Sizes for a Hay Barn
60′ × 100′
6,000 sq ft
60′ × 140′
8,400 sq ft
50′ × 120′
6,000 sq ft
Related
Related Building Types
Example configuration — for planning purposes only.
FAQ
Common Questions
60 ft × 120 ft is 7,200 square feet of floor area before any interior partitions.
Length is usually adjusted in bay increments, and width is a larger design change. Both are confirmed with the supplier for the final design.
Site preparation, foundation and erection are commonly quoted separately from the building package. Confirm the scope of any quote you receive.
Compare nearby sizes
Related footprints for this building type
Each page works through one footprint for one building type.
Cost drivers
Quantities that move the estimate at 60x120
The estimate at 60x120 moves with four computed quantities: 7,200 square feet of floor, 360 feet of perimeter, 7,200 square feet of wall and 7,589 square feet of roof. Everything else is site and specification. Security and after-hours access are easier to design in the door layout than to bolt on later.
A long simple shell with one open end is inexpensive per square foot, so the cost argument in a deep store is about the apron and the approach rather than the building.
- eave height set by handling clearance above the stack
- how many sides remain open
- the apron the loader and trailers use
- roof drainage over an open working face
Overview
A 60x120 hay barn planned as a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face
This page is ordered around access, because on a 60-foot endwall the opening arrangement settles how a hay barn at 60x120 is actually used.
The footprint holds 20 rows — 4 across by 5 deep — and leaves 10 feet of depth for a turning bay at the open end deep enough for a loader to swing without reversing the full length of a row.
Read this footprint through its span. 60 feet across is the fixed constraint; 120 feet of length is the negotiable one, and at 2 to 1 the building is long for its width, so movement runs front to back. Judge the plan by what has to happen on the worst day of the year, not on an average one.
A 60 by 120 footprint is a clearly directional plan: 7,200 sq ft enclosed by 360 ft of wall, at a 2:1 length-to-width proportion. Along its 120 ft dimension it takes 6 runs of rows at 20 ft, leaving 0 ft over — the 0 ft is where the argument about this size actually happens. Depth is the cheapest storage and the most expensive retrieval. A deep row holds a great deal for its floor area, but everything behind the front face is committed until the face has moved, so the plan is really a decision about how much forage can be locked away for a season. The machine that lifts the bale sets the door width, the aisle width and the stack height all at once.
This footprint is planned as a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face. The longest internal travel on a 60 by 120 plan is about 134 ft corner to corner, and the shortest useful one is the 60 ft cross-run. For a a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face that matters where deep row forage storage sits, because shortening the 60 ft run to serve it lengthens every trip along the 120 ft dimension. Fire separation, setbacks and any storage-specific provisions are determined by the authority having jurisdiction for the specific site and material.
Areas, perimeter, roof area, ridge height, slab volume and the row counts on this page are computed from the stored 60x120 record and this platform's planning module for the hay barn category.
Openings
Openings for 4 rows across
One opening per position works on this gable: 4 across 60 feet, with 8 feet of wall to distribute as piers. Splitting that margin evenly is what keeps the elevation buildable. Daylight placement changes how a floor is used far more than its cost suggests.
The face opening has to be wide enough to reach more than one row without repositioning outside, because repositioning is what turns a five-minute job into a twenty-minute one during feeding.
Loader-handled from the open side, with the working face moving as the stack grows and shrinks.
Framed-opening sizes, headers and the structure around them are engineered for the specific building. Confirm every opening with the door supplier and the building manufacturer before ordering.
Configurations
Configuring 20 rows at 60x120
At 24-foot nominal bays the structure works with the layout instead of against it: one row per bay line, walls free of awkward half-positions. Two feet of spare width reads as nothing on a plan and as a great deal when a machine is being turned.
Depth here creates a hierarchy: 5 rows means front positions get used and rear positions get filled. Deciding which is which up front is what keeps 60x120 workable. The plan is only as good as the route into it, which is a site question rather than a building one.
Extension is cheapest along the 120 ft dimension, where each added bay repeats work already framed; widening past 60 ft is a different frame rather than a longer one. Growing to 60 by 140 adds a 7th run of rows — useful if the constraint is rows rather than the 0 ft already spare at the far end.
Configured as a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face, 60x120 is judged on whether the 20 rows it holds match the operation, and on whether the 8 feet of spare width leaves the route this mode depends on.
- Does the work need four lanes across, or two lanes flanking an interior work hall, or does it need a second lane that this 60-foot span cannot give?
- Is the 120-foot length being bought for depth, or for the repeated bays — a long repeating bay sequence, so segment boundaries are set by bay lines rather than by walls?
- What stack height do you plan, and can the loader place a bale above it inside the building?
- Which sides stay open for airflow, and which face the weather?
Bay division shown here is a planning module computed from the stored length. Actual bay spacing is set by the manufacturer's frame design for the building.
Usable area
How the 7,200 square feet divides at 60x120
Computed row fit for a 60x120 hay barn
| Measure | Computed at this footprint |
|---|---|
| Rows across the 60-foot width | 4 at a 13-foot module |
| Leftover width | 8 ft (960 sq ft as a full-length strip) |
| Rows along the 120-foot length | 5 at a 20-foot module after 10 ft of circulation |
| Leftover depth | 10 ft (600 sq ft across the width) |
| Total rows | 20 |
| Share of floor committed | 72% |
Module footprint used here is 13 by 20 feet, this platform's planning module for a hay barn. It is not a code minimum or an engineered clearance.
Example allocation of the 120-foot length — planning model, not survey data
| Zone | Length along the building | Computed area |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment bays | 72 ft | 4,320 sq ft |
| Material and input storage | 30 ft | 1,800 sq ft |
| Working and turning space | 18 ft | 1,080 sq ft |
Shares applied to the stored 120-foot length; areas computed against the 60-foot width.
Module footprints and allocation shares come from this platform's use typology and are published as example planning models. They are not recommendations and do not describe a majority of projects.
Allocation
Dividing the floor for a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face
The storage arrangement this floor tends toward in a heavy season is a shared building holding forage at one end and equipment at the other: the two uses meet directly, so equipment stands against the stack and the stack is worked around the equipment. Rows run the length of the building with the aisle at the open end rather than through the middle. A central aisle looks efficient on paper and costs two faces of stack that would otherwise be solid.
Because 10 feet clears the 10 feet this platform treats as usable, the end of the run is a room rather than a gap: 600 square feet for a turning bay at the open end deep enough for a loader to swing without reversing the full length of a row. Rows that cannot be entered independently end up used as one long space.
The 8 feet of spare width runs the whole 120-foot length — 960 square feet of wall strip. It earns its keep as shelving, staging or a walking route, not as another row. Circulation width is the first thing surrendered under pressure and the first thing missed afterwards.
The longest internal travel on a 60 by 120 plan is about 134 ft corner to corner, and the shortest useful one is the 60 ft cross-run. For a a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face that matters where deep row forage storage sits, because shortening the 60 ft run to serve it lengthens every trip along the 120 ft dimension. Fire separation, setbacks and any storage-specific provisions are determined by the authority having jurisdiction for the specific site and material. That movement pattern, not the 7,200-square-foot total, is what decides whether the leftover 10 feet is useful here.
Height
Interior height for a 60x120 hay barn
Span drives headroom at 60x120: 60 feet of width on a 4:12 pitch puts 30 feet over the middle and 20 feet at the walls, so where a tall item stands matters as much as how tall it is. Whoever operates the building daily should read the plan before it is frozen, because they know where the pinch points are.
Height on a 60 ft span is a separate decision from the 120 ft length, and it is the span that sets the frame's behavior. Raising the eave over 7,200 sq ft affects every bay along the 120 ft dimension, so the test is whether deep row forage storage genuinely needs the extra clear height or only the floor area.
Ventilation across 7,200 square feet at this height: airflow through a stack is the reason many hay barns stay open-sided; enclosing them changes how the stored crop behaves.
Clear height below purlins, bracing and lighting is lower than the eave height. The usable figure comes from the manufacturer's framing for the selected building.
Comparison
What changes at adjacent footprints
Computed comparison of nearby footprints for a hay barn
| Footprint | Floor area | Rows |
|---|---|---|
| 30x100 | 3,000 sq ft | 8 (2 x 4) |
| 50x60 | 3,000 sq ft | 9 (3 x 3) |
| 40x80 | 3,200 sq ft | 8 (2 x 4) |
| 60x60 | 3,600 sq ft | 12 (4 x 3) |
| 50x80 | 4,000 sq ft | 6 (3 x 2) |
Areas computed from each stored size record; row counts computed with the same 13 by 20 foot planning module.
- 30x100 moves the count from 20 to 8 rows (2 across by 4 deep), which is the reason to choose between them.
- 50x60 moves the count from 20 to 9 rows (3 across by 3 deep), which is the reason to choose between them.
- 40x80 moves the count from 20 to 8 rows (2 across by 4 deep), which is the reason to choose between them.
Nearby footprints read for a hay barn: exact change in area and in planning rows
| Footprint | Area Δ | % Δ | Rows at that footprint | What changes for this use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50x150 | +300 sq ft | +4.2% | 10 (2 x 5) | −10 rows on the same planning module. |
| 80x80 | −800 sq ft | −11.1% | 15 (5 x 3) | −5 rows on the same planning module. |
| 60x100 | −1,200 sq ft | −16.7% | 9 (3 x 3) | −11 rows on the same planning module. |
| 50x120 | −1,200 sq ft | −16.7% | 15 (3 x 5) | −5 rows on the same planning module. |
Areas are arithmetic on two stored size records; row counts use this platform's 13 by 20 foot planning module and are not a capacity statement.
Because this footprint is planned as a deep-row store where bales are stacked in long runs back from a single face, the useful next reads are different from the ones a differently shaped hay barn suggests: deep row forage storage, retrieval sequencing, row depth planning.
Visualization
Reading the 60x120 footprint as a hay barn
FAQ
Questions about 60x120 hay barn projects
It depends on the loader lifting a bale to the top of the intended stack, which is higher than the stack itself. The stored configuration computes to 30 feet at the ridge, but the eave is the number that governs anything standing near a wall.
Reserving 10 ft across the 60 ft dimension for movement leaves 50 ft of working width, which takes 3 rows at 13 ft. Along 120 ft it takes 6 runs at 20 ft. That is 18 positions out of 7,200 sq ft, and the remainder is circulation, walls and the margin every plan needs. Whether that count is enough depends on how deep can a row run before retrieving from the back of it costs more than the space it saved. These are planning figures computed from the footprint, not a quoted layout.
The footprint holds 20 rows — 4 across by 5 deep — and leaves 10 feet of depth for a turning bay at the open end deep enough for a loader to swing without reversing the full length of a row. Those counts use a 13 by 20 foot planning module with 10 feet allowed for circulation, so a different module changes the answer.
Retrieval, not structure. Once the back of a row cannot be reached without unstacking most of it, the depth has stopped adding usable capacity and is only adding volume.
A 6-inch slab across 7,200 square feet computes to 133.3 cubic yards before thickened edges, piers or waste. The final design comes from the foundation engineer.
Methodology
How this page was produced
Sources and methodology
Find Steel Buildings dimensional records
Find Steel Buildings · Primary platform dataset · Tier 1 — code authority, standards body, primary dataset or manufacturer engineering
Supports: Stored nominal width, length, eave height, roof pitch and slab thickness for this subject.
International Building Code and International Residential Code
International Code Council · Model code · Tier 1 — code authority, standards body, primary dataset or manufacturer engineering
Supports: The framework of adopted codes and local amendments that decides permitting, separation and opening requirements. Cited as the governing framework, never as a local requirement.
- Dimensional figures: Width, length, eave height, roof pitch and nominal slab thickness come from this platform's stored record for the subject. Floor area, perimeter, wall area, roof area, ridge height and slab volume are computed from those inputs rather than transcribed.
- Row fit: Counts, leftover strips and per-module areas are computed from the stored 60x120 record against this platform's 13 by 20 foot planning module for the hay barn category, with 10 feet allowed for circulation. The module is editorial planning typology, not a code minimum or an engineered clearance.
- Allocation model: Zone shares come from this platform's use typology for agricultural equipment and crop shelter and are applied arithmetically to the stored 120-foot length.
- Allocation and layout models: Layout splits are arithmetic on the stored footprint, published as example allocation models. They are not survey findings and do not describe what buyers most often choose.
- Clearance and opening guidance: Clearance and opening statements are planning guidance. Final dimensions depend on the selected door system, header detail and the manufacturer's engineering for the building.
Methodology notes
- Prices: No price figure appears on this page. Cost data is published on this platform only with a documented inclusion basis, a collection date and a named source.
Drawn to scale
Plans and dimensions
Every drawing below is generated from the exact dimensions for this building, so proportions and areas are accurate.
Continue your research
Related planning topics
Background reading on the questions this page raises. None of these pages sells anything.
Compare 60x120 hay barn configurations
Review the allocation models for this footprint side by side, then estimate the configuration you intend to build.