A small pole building for the PT

[BillCroasmun]

Well after several years of reading on here about others building homes for there tractors it is now my turn. I need to replace one of those Harbor Freight portable garages that pretty much desinegrated after it's third season. Held up great at first but once the material started to "thin" it went quick!

I started looking into large sheds that were large enough to hold the PT and a few attachments (plus a few other outdoor items that were in the portable garage) and went into sticker shock. I only have roughly $2000 to put into this and have two criteria: It has to be largest enough for the tractor and "cute" enough for the wife. After looking at various wood, vinyl and metal options that didn't seem to meet those two criteria (within budget) I stopped by a local Carter Lumber to see if they could quote me a pole building idea I came up with. The attached drawing is what I took them and it came in right around $2000 (and I never told them anything about my budget at all). Bingo!

The second mocked up photo is what I think it will look like. Roof footprint 24x24. The shed will be the 16x16 back corner. This will give it a 6' front overhang and an 8 foot "pavillion" like area to the side. We've always wanted a pavillion and this will give us the affect by just adding two more posts and 4 more trusses. (Plus down the road I can probably build a gazebo somewhere else on the property and box in this 8x16 section... shhh don't tell the wife).

Floor will be slag like the drive. No plumbing, electricity or anything too fancy.

I'm in the process of trying to find someone nearby with an auger, once I do that I should be able to start fairly soon.

 

[JB4310]

The price sounds pretty cheap for so much material? is this a kit? looks like a good deal for what you need. The only problem might be the height, shows it at 12' at the peek of the roof, will that give you enough door clearance?
Good luck, JB.

 

[BillCroasmun]

JB,
No not a kit. I just took the drawing up there and the guy I talked to has a lot of experience building pole barns so he priced it out on the fly by building it verbally ("First thing I'd do is set the 13 posts {ring up 13 posts}, then I.d attach the...{ring up next item}, etc."

I'll post the material list later to see if anyone see's anything missing. I think the only things not included was hardware (nails and hinges for doors), cement for post holes and paint. It included flashing, roofing materials and trim boards.

As for the height, the side walls are 8' and the roof is eng trusses every 2'. That means I won't have any usable space above the 8' really. For me this will be OK. I don't have any large agricultural tractor and ROPS. I have a Power-Trac PT-180 and even with my custom cab it will clear a 7'6" door with space to spare. I have thought about making the side walls 8' 10" by just moving the T1-11 up 10" and running a pressure treated 10" board around the bottom perimeter. That would allow me to handle 8' lumber or sheets of plywood inside with a little room to spare if standing on in.


Bill

 

[ldabe]

Hey! That looks great. Can't wait to see the material list.

Keep us posted.

 

[ToadHill]

When I built my 24' by 24' building m wife kept telling me that I'd want one bigger I said "no way". Well it was full in short order, you may want to think bigger.

 

[BillCroasmun]

Thanks ldabe.

ToadHill, At this particular location even if I could afford to go larger there's no room. It will be sandwiched in between my well, drive, trees, etc. I have other areas on the property where bigger would fit but this one I want adjacent to the drive for convenience (especially in the winter!)

Here's the material list, although I just remembered this is only for the 24'X16' area. The extra 8' of "pavillion" I added after this list was worked up.

11 - 4x6 14'
6 - 2X10 16'
2 - 2x10 8'
9 - 24' COMM 4/12 2'OC 1'OHBE
12 - 2x4 16'
18 - 5/8x4x8 YP TEX 1-11
14 - 1/2x4x8 OSB
2 - 2x6 16'
9 - F4 1/2 WHT ALUM DRIP EDGE
3 - 6"x12' ALM FASCIA WH
1 - 15 FELT
15 - 25YR O/C SUPREME ONYX BLACK BDL
8 - 7/8x4 8' R/S CEDAR #3 & BTR
14 - SIM H2.5A RAFTER TIE
1 - 11-1/4"x20' VENTSUR RIGD ROLL VT
3 - 7/8x4-16' R/S CEDAR #3 & BTR
3 - 2X4 16'
4 - 2X4 12'

 

[MrJimi]

This may be to easy
Just get a used shipping container
It will be lot's less than 2K delivered

 

[BillCroasmun]

MrJimi, If that would of met the wife's cuteness requirement I'd seriously consider one... I guess you could hang a few flower boxes on the side.

Maybe that's why wife doesn't let me help decorate the house.

 

[MrJimi]

Bill, there is a guy in Tampa that fixed his up and I know your wife would just love it, It has shrubs painted on the sides and really looks nice
maybe some of out Tampa guys will take a picture of it for you, It's down 580 west on the right
and you have to look hard

 

[Barryh]

Bill, there is a guy in Tampa that fixed his up and I know your wife would just love it, It has shrubs painted on the sides and really looks nice
maybe some of out Tampa guys will take a picture of it for you, It's down 580 west on the right
and you have to look hard

Mr Jimi, I would like to see a picture, sounds like a great idea.

Hey Bill, l can't wait to to see this get started. Looks good on paper for sure. I'm a little jealious already Did you mention a custem cab? I must have missed that one. Got a pic?

 

[MrJimi]

Barry, I know very well what these things look like and this one in Clearwater, not Tampa like I mentioned in the other post, on the north side of 580 going west from 19 is something to see. My wife said noway I turned around and pointed some features about it and we were on our way and It's in a residential neighborhood with lot's of house near it and It sits on a corner lot

 

[BillCroasmun]

Barry, I wanted to post a thread about the cab on the PT forum but if I don't get to it I'll be sure to include a photo of it in the background of the shed pictures.

I called Carter again today to inquiry about gambrel (barn style?) trusses but they more than triple the truss price plus they would take more roofing material so they are out of the question. That added vertical space would of been nice...

On the other hand, a neighbor with a Bobcat said they'd come drill the post holes for me so I should be starting soon!

 

[Barryh]

Barry, I wanted to post a thread about the cab on the PT forum but if I don't get to it I'll be sure to include a photo of it in the background of the shed pictures.

I called Carter again today to inquiry about gambrel (barn style?) trusses but they more than triple the truss price plus they would take more roofing material so they are out of the question. That added vertical space would of been nice...

On the other hand, a neighbor with a Bobcat said they'd come drill the post holes for me so I should be starting soon!

I'm sure it will be a first class job

 

[AndyM]

On the other hand, a neighbor with a Bobcat said they'd come drill the post holes for me so I should be starting soon!

Looks like something has been started over there...
I saw an arrangement of posts sticking out of the ground when I looked over on our way to church this morning. Hopefully, we'll be seeing pictures posted soon.

 

[BillCroasmun]

Andy,
Your right, I had the post holes dug out on Saturday. I dropped the 13 posts by sunset. It rained Saturday night so Sunday morning was spent using the manual post hole digger to pull up about a foot of mud from the bottom of each hole... well at least the first 8 then it dawned on me that I could leave the muck there and just reposition them with a sledge and a sloppy golf swing .

By the end of the day yesterday I had the four corners plum, square and braced. I should of got more done but I had a few other side jobs to contend with like cleaning out the chicken coop (which was way overdue).

Three questions:
Before I start posting pics is there a suggested size (in Mb and in resolution) for the forum?

I have a smaller air compressor (I think 4.3 cfm at 40psi, 3.3 at 90 psi). If I were to rent/buy a nail gun that had a higher requirement than this would it:
A. Not work
B. Work partially (i.e. drive nail only 3/4 of the way)
C. Work completely but require extra "recovery" time between nails.
D. Something else???

If the answer is C I'll probably go ahead and try using one because it would still be faster than me hand nailing everything. Even if I had to shoot one, hand nail one, shoot one, etc.


What's the most common way to fasten the 2x10 header boards?

Thanks!
Bill

 

[BillCroasmun]

Something just dawned on me... the footprint is going to be 24 x 24. Depth I made the posts 22' so the 24' trusses would have 1' overhang each side.

From one gable end to the other though I didn't think about overhang... the posts are 24' outside edge to outside edge. Is this going to be an issue later?

 

[BillCroasmun]

Well, since I haven't heard otherwise I'll post my pics the same as I did the "What it should look like" photo.

As for the headers, I guess I'll just stick with code... I wanted to know if in general people went beyond my code on this as I wanted to take the stronger of the two approaches.

As far as the nail gun question goess, I guess I'll keep hammering unless I hear a better option.

And lastly I'll keep the posts at 24' and wing it if I run into any issues. (I'm good at winging it! )

 

[Brad_Blazer]

800 x 600 is a good picture size
Didn't see your original header question but code is generally good.
A framing nail gun works fine on a small compressor. The guys building crates that sound like machine gunners need more compressor. You won't. Just keep all body parts more than a nail length in any direction from the barrel. The nail gun will not stress the already built part like hammering does.

The ends should overhang beyond the trusses to protect the ends of the building from the weather. The posts are in place so you will need a little more roofing.

 

[BillCroasmun]

Brad,
Thanks for the info!

Tonight was not a good night... I remeasured all the sides and diagonal and one of the poles shifted quite a bit.

Of course we've had rain and the hole has partially filled in. Trying to reposition it with it like it was wasn't working... using the post hole digger around the post was a pain... ended up pulling it out.

Of course I spent 30 minutes trying to do so manually... using the tractor didn't dawn on me to I was pretty worn out. Then I ended up nailing a 6" 2x4 to the post (about two feet up), slid the lip of the bucket under it, raise it a foot or two, then used a cinch strap over the FEL arms under the bucket and around the post to keep it from tipping. Then it lifted right up with no effort.

I cleared back out the hole with the manual post hole digger (did I mention I was already worn out BEFORE starting this...) then set back in the post.

After all that I still can't get it right where I want it.

I called it quits for the evening... here's a quick photo from Sunday.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Bill,
Sorry to hear about the tough time getting the posts where you want them. For tamped posts you pretty much have to be able to accept a 1" position tolerance. You can brace a post in a clean hole and pour concrete to get more accurate or do concrete piers and brackets to bolt the posts to them.

I like a chain around a post for pulling it. For setting them too when I do power pole posts.

Your site does not look level. Are you planning on a raised floor? If not and it's really not level I would pull the posts, level the site, and start over (Yikes!) You will never be happy with a sloping floor.

Sure it's a lot of work but on that PT it should be fun.

Good luck!
Brad