Pole building construction pictures

[wedge40]

Awesome photos. It looks like you dont have clear span inside the building, but have a few posts to help support the snow load?

I went to school in Houghton and the photos sure bring back memories. Gods area code is 906.. LOL

Wedge

 

[smfcpacfp]

The back quadrant is going to be a workshop area, and as you pointed out there are three inner beams, It is also where I have two 4' by 5' windows. I will finish that next summer. It will also provide a little support for the snow in part of the building, but the trusses are over engineered at 80 lbs per square foot for the snow load. My original garage collapsed under the snow load, so I am more conscience of snow loads than your average person.

Here is a picture of the inside of my 24 by 42 garage which I took on 3/8/2001. You can see how high the snow is by looking out my 7' garage door and window. Most people in the U S don't understand the concept of really deep snow. It effects how you build things. Note the three courses of block that are under the walls. You do that to minimize the problem that would occur by having the melting snow up against the wood walls.

So are you and engineer (i.e., MTU grad)?

 

[wedge40]

The back quadrant is going to be a workshop area, and as you pointed out there are three inner beams, It is also where I have two 4' by 5' windows. I will finish that next summer. It will also provide a little support for the snow in part of the building, but the trusses are over engineered at 80 lbs per square foot for the snow load. My original garage collapsed under the snow load, so I am more conscience of snow loads than your average person.

Here is a picture of the inside of my 24 by 42 garage which I took on 3/8/2001. You can see how high the snow is by looking out my 7' garage door and window. Most people in the U S don't understand the concept of really deep snow. It effects how you build things. Note the three courses of block that are under the walls. You do that to minimize the problem that would occur by having the melting snow up against the wood walls.

So are you and engineer (i.e., MTU grad)?

Yup Electrical from Empty You. Was great place to go to school. Then again I like cold and snow. I was there winter of '78. Little bar up the road that we use to go to had this old deaf guy that hung out there. I'm guessing in his 70's or 80s at the time. He made some spending money cleaning roofs. He would mime stories of falling off the roof. Sounded horrible till you realize we maybe fell a foot or two at the most.

Winter was fine up there, but I hated the spring and fall becuase of the black flies. First time I got bit I needed a transfusion afterward.

Cant wait to see the finished product. I'm in the prep phase of mine.. Got the trees down and most of it cleared. Have finish moving logs and cleaning brush. Maybe by spring I'll be ready to level the ground.

Wedge

 

[smfcpacfp]

Here are a couple of pictures of the interior as the sheeting is being applied:

​

 

[wedge40]

How are you planning on heating it? And how thick will you floor be?

Wedge

 

[smfcpacfp]

The floor will be 6" of reinforced concrete. Given my workshop area is only 15 by 24, I may just use electric heat and insulate the crap out of it. I hate to cut holes in the building for a propane heater connection and exhaust duct.

 

[woodlandfarms]

A few things.

Did you consider burying your electrical instead of maintaining the poles?

On the barn, have you considered radiant heating the floor with some sort of solar?

Carl

 

[wedge40]

Ya what he said. For you the problem would be keeping the floor above freezing. If you get enough sun then the solar thing would work, but you'd still need a backup for extended cloudy days or those 2 or 3 weeks of sub zero weather.

Wedge

 

[smfcpacfp]

A few things.

Did you consider burying your electrical instead of maintaining the poles?

On the barn, have you considered radiant heating the floor with some sort of solar?

Carl

Yes, I plan to bury the electrical from the last pole on my property to the building.

The radiant heat is a non issue now, because they just poured the floor.

 

[smfcpacfp]

Ya what he said. For you the problem would be keeping the floor above freezing. If you get enough sun then the solar thing would work, but you'd still need a backup for extended cloudy days or those 2 or 3 weeks of sub zero weather.

Wedge

I might wear my -100F boots if the floor is too cold, since I seldom wear them normally!

 

[wedge40]

I might wear my -100F boots if the floor is too cold, since I seldom wear them normally!

Ya but if the floor gets too cold you have can put your beer down or it will freeze.

I'm hoping to use the radient heat in mine. Figure if I can keep at 50 or 60 it'll be more than warm enough to work on stuff.

Wedge

 

[smfcpacfp]

Here is a picture of the roof being completed and with the outside pretty much done:

​

 

[smfcpacfp]

The building was complete on Monday except for the overhead garage door, the concrete, and electircal hook up (which I am doing myself). They were going to to do the concrete work last week, but the day they were going to do it was quite cold, so I asked them to postpone it until Monday.

I woke up early on Monday in anticipation of them showing up and by 7:30 AM they were there and had lights strung around the inside of the building. I wanted to be there to make sure that there was going to be enough clear space between the slide by door header and the top of the 6", 4500 psi concrete floor. We measured it before they got started and there will be 5" of clearance (unfortunately this small clearance was dictated by our zoning ordinance which regulates the height of assessory buildings).

Below are 8 pictures in chronological sequence of their work. Unfortunately it got down to 28F degrees on Monday night and it is 25F as I speak now but they did put the chemical in the cement for below freezing pouring. It isn't supposed to get below freezing for the next week, even thought the average low now should be 25F. They are going to come out tomorrow to cut the concrete slab. Tomorrow afternoon, I will have gravel brought in to finish the 120 feet of roadway to the pole building, and grade it out with my B3030 tractor.

​

 

[jcaron2]

Looks great. I'm way jealous of how fast those guys can get stuff done. I've been working on mine alone for 4.5 months now (well, with plenty of help from the Kubota, of course), and I've got a long way to go.

Josh

 

[wedge40]

I've never watched a pole barn being built in person, but I wonder why you couldn't leave a panel off on each corner to make it easier for the guys to get the cement in?
I'm going to guess the little pedestals were there to gauge the depth for the cement.

Wedge

 

[smfcpacfp]

I've never watched a pole barn being built in person, but I wonder why you couldn't leave a panel off on each corner to make it easier for the guys to get the cement in?
I'm going to guess the little pedestals were there to gauge the depth for the cement.

Wedge

The pedestals you see are the floor drains. They are connected to pipes that run outside. Gauging the depth was fascinating to me, but I haven't had, or seen any concrete poured for many years. I built the house that I live in, and it is the only house that I have ever owned. They poured that concrete 31 year ago. I am a home buying virgin.

If you look at the first picture, you will see a yellow thing sitting a ledge near the back window. That is a laser level. One of the guys had a trowling pole with laser receiving device on it and it was set at the appropriate height to make the concrete 6" thick. It would be beeping as he worked to signal him when he was at the right height. To me that was a neat use of technology. To those of you who build regularly, it is probably old hat.

 

[Steve C]

Looks great. I'm way jealous of how fast those guys can get stuff done. I've been working on mine alone for 4.5 months now (well, with plenty of help from the Kubota, of course), and I've got a long way to go.

Josh

The crew that built my barn consisted of 4 young guys and one old fart about my age.

The barn was up and complete in 3 and 1/2 days. It is 40 x 60 with 14 foot side walls, 4 windows a man door and an insulated 12 x 13 overhead door, trusses on 24 inch centers and has a shingled roof. The only equipment used besides hand tools was a Bobcat that was used to bore the post holes and set the 6 x 6 poles and the roof trusses. Every other component was moved by hand. The trusses were moved to the bobcat by hand also. It remained stationary moving only 2 feet at a time while setting the trusses. When I asked them why they didn't use the Bobcat to move the trusses and just load a pile of the 4 x 8 roof sheeting into the bobcat bucket and rais it to the roof level they told me it was to slow to do it that way.

They had 2 guys on the roof placing sheets, one guy running from the pile of OSB and passing it to the short guy with the big arms who was standing on the ground. The barn has 14 foot side walls the grade falls off right at the edge of the barn. He had to turn the sheet diagonal and push it up over his head in one smooth motion pushing only about 5 inches of the corner of the sheet was above the eaves for the guy on the roof to grab with his fingertips.

If the guy catching the top of the sheet missed it, the guy on the ground would have to let it swing on down again and try it again. They didn't miss very many. The guy on the ground with the big arms voiced his disspleasure to the guy on the roof when it happened. It was the hottest days of the summer when they were doing this. And they had a long ride back home all in the same crew cab truck to work on their "team building" exercises!


He would then throw it like a giant playing card to the other guy on the roof who was tacking it in place. It was amazing to see how fast a 40 x 60 roof can be covered using this method. The guy pulling the 4 x 8 sheets of OSB on to the roof and throwing them like playing cards has a pretty firm handshake.

This is what can be built in 3 and a half days with youth and an old fart who has figured out how to get it done faster, even if it is more work doing it that way. After all he didn't have to do hard work, he has done his share in the past.

The first picture shows the finished barn, the second is what they got done on the first day, the last picture was taken at the end of day 2. Day 3 they finished the roof and the rest of the siding. The next half day was devoted to hanging the overhead door, man door and a little bit of trim work and clean up.

 

[survriggs]

I've been following your construction and it is a very nice building. I like the idea of the floor drains. I'll definitely include those in my future shop plans. Thanks for posting the progress.

Ralph

 

[smfcpacfp]

My building took about 3 1/2 days also with a 4 man crew. That bobcat is a great tool for the small projects like mine.

The concrete guys (another 4 man crew) had a bobcat to remove sand from the inside of the building and level it. They got here at 7:30 AM and were done with the basic pour and leveling by 11:45 with most of the concrete carried in wheelbarrows.

Except for cutting joints in the concrete and the over head door, the building was done in a week, but it cost me to have it done that quickly, but not in aches and pains. It was fun watching guys who knew what they doing build the building.

If you want to see a pole building built in under 3 minutes, check this out on YouTube:

YouTube - Fast Barn

 

[jcaron2]

If you want to see a pole building built in under 3 minutes, check this out on YouTube:

YouTube - Fast Barn

Wow. Now I feel grossly inadequate for taking almost five months of weekends to get to the point of having a roof and exterior walls.

My thread is posted under the "Build-It Yourself" forum, which in retrospect, was the wrong place to post it. Here's the link if you care to see what one guy and a Kubota can do.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/153626-my-horse-barn-progress.html