Building a Shop

[Huskerplowboy]

Pretty cool. Did that cost extra, or was that the foundation guy's everyday forms?

That's this company's standard forms. Every job I've seen that they've done around here has that same brick look. I figure down the road I may find some paint or something to give them some color once I know how much of the concrete will be exposed where after the final landscaping...

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Question for those who have built pole buildings before:

Which would you install first, the wall steel or the roof steel? I can think of reasons for both but thought I'd pick a few brains out here too. I'm currently leaning towards doing the roof last to avoid a large wind-catching "sail" on top of some spindly legs with minimal bracing.

 

[Duffster]

Question for those who have built pole buildings before:

Which would you install first, the wall steel or the roof steel? I can think of reasons for both but thought I'd pick a few brains out here too. I'm currently leaning towards doing the roof last to avoid a large wind-catching "sail" on top of some spindly legs with minimal bracing.

Roof first, Let me repaet myself, Roof First. Trust Me

 

[Johndeere3720]

Yeah, roof first. My grandpa builds pole barn so I've learned a few things from being on the job. We've only used wood to build the barns and it seems pretty simple. Oh, when you put up the metal sideing, predrill the holes so that when screwing it on to the shop, the screws are in line and go in a lot smoother. You will notice that screws for metal are not cheap. Have you chose a color yet?

 

[yooperdave]

Make sure you laterally brace all those posts while installing the roof.

Good Luck,

Yooper Dave

 

[Duffster]

Make sure you laterally brace all those posts while installing the roof.

Good Luck,

Yooper Dave

How do you mean Dave?

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Update:

Well, on Sunday, the wife and I worked some on laying out the shop. First, we pulled a string line along the west property line so we could square the building up to the world. Then we flagged the approximate corners where we intend the building to sit.

After roughly placing the building, we drove stakes and nailed on batter boards so we could pull stringlines. So far, so good.

Next, we set out to square up the strings. We spent a good deal of time and struggled to get things to come out right. I hadn't expected it to be easy, but something seemed off. Eventually (after she'd gone back home frustrated) I figured out that the 150' open reel tape measure would stretch or seemed to stretch, so you could make a measurement come out to any number you wanted, just pull a little more or a little less. Worst was any measurement along a stringline up off the ground, since you had to pull quite a bit to take up the sag, so getting a measurement to repeat was nearly impossible...

I got things close enough for hole drilling I thought, considering 18" holes for 14" footings and 4.5"x5.5" poles...

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Broke stuff:

I had tried out my old 3-point post hole digger with the big auger and my 2320 a couple weeks ago. It'll turn it, but it's all that tractor wants and more once you get 2.5-3' deep. So, I borrowed a friend's 4020 for the hole drilling, figured I'd be able to idle back and keep the digging more under control with the bigger "real" tractor.

After getting the stringlines close enough, I marked the hole locations and hooked up the PHD. My wife came back out to watch and help me keep things plumb. We drilled the first hole with ok results. The deep clay is real sticky, so it doesn't clean out the best, but it worked ok. We got about halfway down the second hole, and "pop"

At first I figured I'd popped a shear bolt on the digger, so I pulled it out of the hole and took a look. Yes, the shear bolt was gone, but when I tried turning the auger and shaft to see if the hole would line back up, I noticed the input shaft to the gearbox moved in directions it was never intended to move! Looks like a bearing and/or something else in there is giving up and likely will never like drilling 16 holes that big around and that deep. So, it looks like I'll be renting a skid loader with a PHD on it to drill the remaining holes, if it ever stops raining...

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Have you chose a color yet?

Yup, went with "Hickory Moss" (beige sort of color) on the walls and "Evergreen" on the roof, trim, and wainscot. Cleary put up a nice looking building 5-6 miles away this spring with those colors, looks real sharp. Plus, it should work pretty well with the house colors the wife has in mine.

 

[Duffster]

You will need a steel tape.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

You will need a steel tape.

Yep, picked one up last night. Kinda ticked at myself for not figuring out the problem earlier in the day. I'm going to blame the heat, just never clicked for an hour or more of measuring... And then the lightbulb came on!

 

[mjncad]

Fluke now has a couple of laser measuring tools out that look promising, especially the 416D.

416D and 411D Laser Distance Meters)

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Looks like that Fluke 416D is around $230. Wonder if it works as well as it sounds like it would...

I'm also about 90% sure most pole barn building crews don't try to be nearly as accurate as I'll tend to be. A guy I know had a 50x90 building put up and it was supposed to be a 5 working day job for the crew, have to imagine they didn't spend a whole lot of extra time dialing in the stringlines once they got "close enough"

 

[JayCat]

It's a barn....not a church!!

 

[dodge man]

I'm a land surveyor and yep, those cloth tapes will really stretch. Over 0.10' in 100 feet. Everything we do that requires accuracy, which building layout falls under, we use a steel tape that we call a "chain". Just about everything we do is in 10ths and 100ths of a foot and not in inches. That really confuses people when they first start out. For shorter distances, say less than 200 feet, a steel tape is more accurate than our electronic equipment. You should also correct if the tape is to hot or cold, it will shrink or grow to long. Thats more of a problem in the winter than the summer though.

I like your laser level rig. If you have ever been around alot of construction equipment, they use a similar rig when grading building pads. They do a great job.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

On a 40x30 building, how square is square enough would you say? With a steel tape, I'm confident I'll have 30' and 40' sides pretty darn close to accurate, but wonder about the diagonals and how close I'll need to get them dialed in before a person wouldn't really notice the error when hanging the tin and such, especially since the corrogated steel will flex some and may be less square than the building...

 

[Duffster]

, especially since the corrogated steel will flex some and may be less square than the building...

No, No, No

The steel doesn't really flex and you will see if you are out of square over an inch. This will be most visiable in the roof sheets.

Try to get the diagonals on the ground within a 1/2" and you should be good to go.

 

[dodge man]

I agree, getting the diagonals close is important. When we lay out a building, we use an instrument to turn 90 degree angles at the corners, but you can do just as good a job by getting the diagonals close. I would think 1/2 inch would work well for a building like you are putting up. It can take alot of going back and forth to get it just right. Concentrate on 3 of the corners and get them correct, then the fourth will be alot easier.

 

[Huskerplowboy]

Thanks for all the tips so far, I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go.

Fighting the weather at the moment. Rained 1.5" Tuesday and Tuesday night, big front heading this way today with predictions of up to 1" again tonight. Trying to watch the forecast for a couple of dry days to get a rental skid loader out there and drill the holes. Might give it a shot on Monday, still looks like the weekend will be clear enough to dry things out enough so they can get in to deliver the building materials Monday morning and also maybe I can get some work done that afternoon.

Picked up the 16 concrete footers last night, had Mendards order them in. They're 4" thick, octagons that are 14" across the flats, so slightly more surface area than the 14" round pads Cleary called out on the blueprints. Wouldn't have wanted to haul many more of them than that with a 1/2 ton pickup, since they didn't have much luck getting the pallet slid all the way forward in the box...

 

[datanull]

Picked up the 16 concrete footers last night, had Mendards order them in. They're 4" thick, octagons that are 14" across the flats,

Do these go in the bottom of the 4'(?) deep post holes and the posts sit on them?