Catching up on email after vacation (and disk crash).
I've helped a friend frame a pole barn, and I bought a kit
for a steel version, was going to put it up myself, but life
intruded and I paid someone else to.
Basic idea is the poles are your foundation, and the rest of the building
hangs off of them, rather than stick framing off of piers or a continuous
foundation.
For semi permanent, buy a bunch of pressure treated 4x4 (or bigger, depending
on spacing) posts, rent a power post hole digger, set posts. At least put
rock
in the bottom of each pole, or perhaps concrete. Foundation lasts
as long as pressure treated wood lasts in your area.
For the metal version, I dug footings for each pole, then had someone pour a
concrete pad for each pole, then bolted the steel poles to the pad.
Typically you then hang boards between the poles to define walls,
and tie the poles together. Sheeting on these boards finish the
walls, and add a lot to the rigidity of the structure. Frame some
sort of roof, again, attached to the poles. All the building load is
directed to the poles.
For the wood based pole barn, we hung 2x6 lumber between poles to define
horse stalls, spaced about 4 feet apart, plus more connections above to
finish
tying things together as box stalls and roof. Plywood is nailed toe the 2x6.
Rafters run along each set of poles, then girts are nailed across the
rafters.
Sheet roofing is nailed to the girts (Or is it purlins?).
I was amazing to see how the building stiffened up. Climbing
the 4x4 frame at first was really rickety, but as we tied things
together it really got solid.
For the steel pole barn. The poles have brackets welded every 2 feet.
2x4 is attached to the brackets, then steel siding is screwed to the 2x4.
Insulation can be stuffed between these 2x4 later if you want, though
not all pole barns have a convenient spacing for insulation installation.
Steel trusses installed, purlin run between them, steel sheeting bolted to
that. The steel trusses are nice on the inside, I've used them for lots
of lifting inside the barn. The advantage of the steel building is
that a lot of the prep can be done in the shop, with jigs.
Took a crew of 2-3 guys about 2 weeks to build, from pile of parts and
footings
dug (but no concrete poured) to finish building.
As you start to connect roof and tie it all together, you can use cables
and winches to pull the building true and square. Depends how important it
is to you (important for the steel barn, not as important for the wood horse
barn.
I contracted for a slab floor inside later, covered the base of the steel
poles
where the were bolted to the footings. Just used the edge of the building
for the edge forms. For the wood frame barn, just lots of sand, and rubber
horse mats. No concrete in footings that could mess up a horses feet.
Wiring runs are interesting, easy to tack wire (or conduit) along a run of
wall, but you may have to drill or cross girts to go up or down the wall.
Tricky part is some of the engineering regarding how big the posts, how far
apart, how strong a roof for wind, rain, and snow loads, etc. Assembly is
fairly
easy. You can also have all the posts external and hang walls inside, more
popular for living space, while for barns, having the poles inside the walls
is fine.
Poles can also be sandwiched between interior and exterior walls (though that
could make a thick wall), or inside interior walls.
dave