Pole barn roofing question

[Deere Dude]

Summertown Metals

This is from a middle Tennessee builder of pole barns and upon reading some of this it seems 29 ga. is suggested for residential and 26 ga. for commercial. I recall once upon a time thinner gauge can be used if it has a higher tensile strength.

I would have the builder do it all. You would be surprised at how fast they can throw a building up compared to the average DIYer.

A word of caution. I had a 36x54 building put up and looked okay. I went to my other property and studied my other pole barn and notice that the new one I just had put up did NOT have any diagonal cross bracing on the walls or on the roof. I squawked at the builder adjuster and he basically said it is up to the actual builder to put wood in as needed. Besides he said, this is not a commercial building. I stewed on it for a while and went through many hard storms and it stood for 10 years.

Then after some complaining about pole barns on this forum someone was bad mouthing a particular pole barn company. I chimed in with my same perceived issues and it got the companies attention. After 10 years they came out and stuck all kinds of bracing up like they should have previously.

 

[Barnbuilder]

I'll see if I can find a link when I get home tomorrow. Trusses on 8' centers with 2x4 purlins are fine if 2c4s are on edge. I'd check cost on steel trusses versus wood. Also it's easier to adapt wood than steel. As if you wanted to add a ceiling later.

 

[aczlan]

I would have the builder do it all. You would be surprised at how fast they can throw a building up compared to the average DIYer.

The builder put up the shell of our 40x30 in 2 days a couple of years back. They were disappointed that they couldn't finish in one Day, but they were held up for an hour by a piece of foundation from the old shed.

Aaron Z

 

[Barnbuilder]

 

[fxrupr]

My Brother is one of thousands of dairy farmers who have been put out of business by a commodities market that favors everybody in the supply chain except the farmer. After selling his cows, most of his land and equipment he was hoping to rent out his fabric covered cow barn to some dairy goat farmers. Before he could do that and because there were no cows inside the fabric structure to heat it, the snow load last winter collapsed it. He is in the process of taking the fabric off and salvaging the galvanized trusses.

Point being that there are probably a number of fabric and truss structures around which are reaching the end of their service life. Perhaps you could help out a farmer in need by offering to buy his used fabric barn cover from him. Perhaps he is going to tear the trusses down, in which case the trusses would make a great roof structure for you shop.