Pole Barn Build, 40x50x12

fowllife · Apr 28, 2011

Putter said:
I think this is a bad idea.
From my limited knowledge you want gravel at the base so water does not settle at the base of the pole and induce rot..I have heard no concrete at all is preferable. just pea gravel, that allows for settling and over time the gravel sets the pole itself tight.

The "right" way to set a post has been highly debated in the construction community for years and they have not come to any real "standard". Putting gravel around the base will help so water doesn't set next to the post, but it reduces your lateral and pullout forces. Using native soil, especially clay, will drastically increase your lateral force and also create a suction that will increase pullout.

You will get a wide variety of opinions on the matter, concrete or no concrete, stone, native soil, coating the bottom of the poles, perma-column, ect. The only real answer is to not put the post in the ground at all, but we all know that isn't going to happen since it's so cheap and easy. Having said that though, yes I do have pole barns with the post in the ground, and I will build more in the future. For me it's laminated columns and no concrete or stone. When they rot off I will cut them off and pour a concrete pad.

If i were you though I would try to get at least 12" deep, or the deepest you can easily get, then set the post on top the bedrock. And yes a 8"-12" peice of rebar drilled through the post near the bottom would be helpfull in term of pullout.

nrc17gto · Apr 28, 2011

Thanks everybody. Wish me luck today. Hopefully I will be posting some pictures of poles in the ground tonight!

Nick

Grayson Klassen · Apr 29, 2011

Before I give my thoughts did you hit bedrock and how deep are the holes?

If you hit bedrock obviously you wont have an issue with the poles sinking due to weight load, if you are in an area that suffers deep frost you might want to pour cement around the pole bases to help prevent heaving also helps if you are in an area that suffers high wind. Then back fill and compact once your cement is set up and your posts are braced.

The remainder of the structure because of the style of building is supposed to maintain its integrity.

This is based on what I have read.

EDIT Obviously I missed a bunch of this thread before I replied, I dont think 12 inches is deep enough I would want at least two feet.

nrc17gto · Apr 29, 2011

Well, we got the four corner posts braced today and poured concrete in 3 of them. I would say they are all at least 2' in the ground and a couple are further than that.

Hopefully we will get a full day in tomorrow and set the rest of the poles.

Pole Barn Pole by nrc17gto, on Flickr

fowllife · Apr 29, 2011

Looking good. If you have them 2' plus setting on bedrock then your good to go.

nrc17gto · Apr 29, 2011

Got poles up for 3 out of the 4 walls now! Made some good progress today. Also poured concrete around a lot more of them.

Poles for PoleBarn by nrc17gto, on Flickr

QRTRHRS · Apr 30, 2011

Kind of late to ask this now seeing how you are progressing. Anyway, is the rock solid? I have one of those Harbour Freight electric jack hammers with some three foot long points that I use when digging holes in rock that will break up or is mixed with clay and rock hard.

The hammer was only around 360 when I bought it and has paid for itself many times. I think they run about a hundred more now. The two three foot points cost almost the same as the hammer.

I have a corner fence post that I could only get down to two feet on when I hit solid rock. I just dug the hole larger in diameter, put some galvanized bolts in the post to stop uplift and put four bags of concrete in to anchor it. For the two brace posts on either side, I just used one bag of concrete each. The corner has held up just fine for the coated tensile wire fence.

nrc17gto · Apr 30, 2011

Thanks for the info QRTRHRS. A little late now but we sure could have used something like that earlier. I did get my framing nailer from Harbor Freight and we just started using it today. It is working great so far.

We got the rest of the poles set today and concrete in all of the holes. We then started working on the girts as you can see below.

PoleBarn Girts by nrc17gto, on Flickr

More to come! :thumbsup:

nrc17gto · May 4, 2011

I have mentioned this in a different thread but never got an answer. On my material list it shows 2x12s as my "triple header". Any reason I would need my header made of 3 2x12's??? From what I read, most headers are a 2x12 on each side of the 6x6 post that are then bolted together.

Thanks,
Nick