Guys, thank you for your input. I'm thinking it may make more sense to just bite the bullet and do this project in one chunk instead of nibbling at it. I like 3 hours away from the build site and typically only have weekends to work at it. Wondering if it makes more sense to just hire out building the basic structure (roof and columns, open-air). If I built it myself, how many hours would you typically allow for? Any ideas on the cost to job it out? Thanks in advance.
Pole barn roofing question
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Citydude
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Contact pole barn builders in your area for your specific plans. They would give you real numbers to work with as well as knowing wind shear or snow load requirements for your design.
Is the sole purpose for this to rent it out for weddings? If so unless there is some kind of unusual demand in your area this building will likely never pay for itself. A 40x90 isn’t cheap. I am assuming concrete floor, walls, lighting, sound, etc? Sounds like a six figure structure.
Weddings, primarily, but will also be used for other misc community events. I've been doing wedding work for about 12 years now and have seen how a lot of operators structure their biz. Most places are booking 25+ events per year and 50 isn't out of the question. Yes, it should be profitable, I just need to get over the hurdle of getting a structure in place. It's not too much of a stretch, just trying to do it as cheaply as possible then cash flow the operation from there. If it takes 3-4 years to get fully tooled out, that's okay.
aczlan
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Purlins are generally untreated, posts are usually treated (or at least treated for the portion that is in the ground).
Aaron Z
Thank you. What is the term for the bubble insulation under the roof? Is that usually 4' width or do they make wider?
Scratch that. I should've googled first.
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deezler
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Yeah, uh, no don't use a tarp on the roof.
Source: myself on a 20x23 pole barn I built for temp tractor storage. Replaced the first tarp after 2 years. Second one failed more or less right away. Now I have a leaky building. In my case it was always meant to be temporary, so I'm not crushed by this, but it's still gross having everything wet inside.
Source: myself on a 20x23 pole barn I built for temp tractor storage. Replaced the first tarp after 2 years. Second one failed more or less right away. Now I have a leaky building. In my case it was always meant to be temporary, so I'm not crushed by this, but it's still gross having everything wet inside.
Okay, I've gotten quotes from 2 builders and they both have quoted 29 gauge galvalume for the roof. If I'm doing metal trusses with 2X6 purlins, isn't that going to be too thin to walk on? Would you recommend galvanize steel or galvalume? What gauge? 29, 26, 24, 22? Thanks in advance.
Deere Dude
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29 gauge according to a very popular pole building company around us. 2x6s on edge and every two feet will be strong enough to walk on easily.
Wow, that stuff just looks so paper-thin. It also worries me about the clamp-together roofing, as opposed to screws. I'm worried that it will be prone to pulling out or having water intrusion under the seams. Do you think an upgrade to at least 26-gauge is worth it?
Around here I have never seen a wooden “pole barn” style shop. Everyone builds them entirely out of steel. I beams for the main frame, and then metal c purlins spaced every five feet or so for the roof. It is then sheeted with 26 ga R panels. I would guess 90% of the shops here are built that way.
29 ga does seem thin but if the purlins are every 2’ maybe it would be fine.
A lot of this type of stuff seems to be regional. Travel around and look at some existing buildings in your area and see how they are commonly built in your local area.
29 ga does seem thin but if the purlins are every 2’ maybe it would be fine.
A lot of this type of stuff seems to be regional. Travel around and look at some existing buildings in your area and see how they are commonly built in your local area.
Good idea. Keep in mind that I currently live in Nashville but am building in Alabama (my parents' homeplace). We currently do wedding photography & DJ work and an awful lot of the barn venues I see around Nashville are steel trusses on wood poles. In Alabama I've noticed a lot of the places use stick trusses and frankly I just hate seeing all that trussing so low down. It makes the room feel much more cramped than that big, open feeling from steel trusses.
EddieWalker
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Do you have any experience building something this size? Setting trusses and working up in the air? Walls are super easy, roofs start out really tricky and it takes awhile to get to that point where everything is in place and not about to collapse on you. But even after you have the first couple trusses up, it's still a lot of effort getting the rest of them up in the air.
Doing it on weekends, on your own can easily take a year. I've met clients that started building much smaller barns and gave up after a few years, and then wanted to know what it would cost them to have me finish it off after sitting for five years or more.
There is a point in every project where it overwhelms you, where you have made a mistake that you know you have to undo what you have done and do it over again, and where the money runs out and the weather isn't cooperating. Doing it on your own means that you WILL have t deal with these things.
Oldoak
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29 gauge is the thinnest any manufacturer produces. I would recommend 26 gauge. That is what I just put on my 40 x 60 pole building a year ago. 24 and 22 gauge is commercial grade material and you may find it price prohibitive.
I've done shingle roofing before but never metal roofing. I do know what it's like to be off the ground, dancing around on sticks. I'd really like to job this out but, so far, I'm not impressed by the business acumen of the contractors I've spoken with. Most all of them want to just work on a handshake (no contract to hold them to) and they all want to do it they way they want to, not the way the customer (me) wants. To the last point specifically, they don't want to do concrete footers, they want to use 29-gauge and they seem to think I'm crazy to be requesting insulation. To me, the few requests that I've had and the fact that I want everything in writing seems like something that even the most basic legitimate businessman would expect to be held to. I suspect some of that is due to the roaring economy. Everybody I've spoken with is covered over so I guess they're not very hungry to make a customer happy. If I can't find a contractor that I can work with, yes, I know this is going to be a drawn out process but I do have several H.S. friends that will be happy to help out (this is where I grew up). I'm hoping it won't come to that.
Thanks, that's kinda what I was thinking too. I'm talking with another contractor this morning and requested 26 gauge. My understanding, there's not much price difference. I'm just still torn about having spread out screws holding the panels down or using the clamp down style with screws only on the edge. Seems to me, it would be worlds better to have screws every 1 foot instead of spread 2 feet apart. Your thoughts?
M5farms
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Newer barns with the correct Screw pattern 24" on center and double the rib on bottom survived Hurricane Michael. I lost 2 barns built in 70s and the one built in 2004 had damage but main structure held. Every metal roof I have installed in the last 20 years was unscathed.
I built a 32x60x14 in 2 weekends (8hr work days) with 3 helpers then me and my son put 15' leans on each side in 5 hrs each side. I have 10k in the pole barn material and labor .
aczlan
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If you pay a little more, most truss manufacturers also make what they call a scissor truss which has both the inside and the outside going up in a peak (but at different angles):
Aaron Z
