Pole building construction

[smfcpacfp]

Unfortunately I have too much stuff, and I want to build a place where I can weld in the winter (even mig welders give off some smoke), so I decided to build a pole building. I should say that I decided to have one built.

I sought advice here and got some good ideas, but few on this forum live in such an extreme and varied climate. We get 15 to 30 feet of snow here each year and there is an average of 40 days a year when the temperature gets below zero, but only 5 days above 90. My soil is a combination of sand and finely ground clay, so it is easy to work with and very stable.

Snow, and snow loads are an overriding consideration when building anything. I live in an area near Lake Superior (8 miles as the crow flies and 900 feet of the lake level) where the snow is especially heavy. My building is built to withstand a snow load of 80 lbs per square foot. In addition I will have 2 foot overhangs on all sides so the snow will have a place to fall without crushing the base of the building. I also have an extra course of dimension lumber running horizontally on the non gable ends to withstand the snow that does fall against the building from crushing it.

My property is about 13 acres and has about 7,000 trees on it (mostly pine). I wanted to choose a site where I didn't have to cut down a bunch of trees to build the building. I have one area not too far from the back of my house which is relatively clear. As it was the power company and I only had to cut down about 30 trees to build my road to the site and put in some additional power poles to the site.

Below is a picture of the site before I did anything. It is also quite level:

[smfcpacfp]

I decided to put in a new metered service for the building since my welder and other 220 tools will demand a lot of juice. I had one power pole to my house with the transformer on the main transmission pole. The power company determined that it would be too long of a run from the transformer to power the new service so they replaced the main transmission pole, the old pole by my house and they added a third pole for my new building.

The first picture is the old pole and new pole by my house with the transformer on it.

Picture of the two replacement poles in place:

The power guys getting ready to drill the hole for the new pole by my building:

[smfcpacfp]

I thought the grading would be a breeze, but pine tree roots and blueberry bushes have tough, extensive and sinewy roots. Although the grading was too difficult with the back back, getting all of the roots out of the sandy soil and away from the building site proved time consuming. After we got rid of the roots, I let the wife finish the grading and she did a great job.

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[smfcpacfp]

To make the site a little higher I had 33 yards of sand brought in to raise the level of the site. My wife did all of the moving of the pile. The truck driver didn't think he could get back to the site, but the sand/fine clay mixture is pretty solid.

At the same time I hired a former student of mine who now owns a tree service to come in do $545 worth of stump grinding. I hadn't seen him for some time so we had an enjoyable conversation after he finished. The picture is beside my (24 by 42) garage on the road that I made to get to the building:

[smfcpacfp]

Last Tuesday they delivered most of the materials. By the way this is a Cleary Building and it packaged in Wisconsin and is being built by an experienced Clearly build crew. The parked the trailer right on the road which is OK since I live near the end of a dead end road and on a slow day maybe 2 cars pass down it (the mail man and newspaper delivery guy) and on a busy day maybe a car an hour.

I thought the second picture was interesting although it is hard to see, but all of the metal taht makes up the building is there except the doors and windows - not much when stacked neatly:

Finally this is the picture of my materials stacked neatly near our garage slab.

[smfcpacfp]

The guy grinding stumps above is at the beginning of my building road. Here are two pictures of the rest of the road to the building site. I am going to guess that the total length is about 180 feet. As soon as they are done pouring the 6' concrete floor for the building, I will have aggregate brought in to finish the road:

[smfcpacfp]

Finally the Cleary crew showed up 2 days ago to start the building. Here are some pictures taken of their progress in 2 days. The 3rd picture is the precast 22" by 6" footer pads. If you look carefully in the last picture you will see my log house on the right side, and my log sided garage through the building structure. I built those two structures 30 years ago this year. At 62 I decided I didn't want to be risky injury on this building. Besides those young experienced guys probably would get 5 times as much done as I would in the same time span:

[Michael]

Great pictures, I love watching them build those buildings, those guys are making good progress. When I had my pole building built those guys seemed to be moving slow but each move was well practiced and if you looked at the beginning of the day and again at the end of the day you sure got a picture of how fast they were actually building it.

The guys that built my garage started on the 3rd of June and were actually finished in about 2 and half weeks except for the concrete work which got delayed by a week because of rain and the entire building was completed 29 days later.

[Ken in NJ]

Thanks for all the photos .. That truck/forklift is a first for me .. never seen one before

I look forward to seeing your building completed

You should have gotten a price to build it from our Pole Barn expert from Michigan .. Steve AKA John Deere Addict .. He has posted some photos of his work ..

[Ken N Tx]

Originally Posted by Ken in NJ

Thanks for all the photos .. That truck/forklift is a first for me .. never seen one before .

Neat...

for the pics..

[Dan Lovell]

Looking Good


Dan

[Maybar]

On top of the rafters are what appears to be maybe 2x4s on edge. Don't know the terminology for these for sure on pole barns so I'll call them roof purlins. Question: How are these fastened to the rafters?

[smfcpacfp]

Originally Posted by Maybar

On top of the rafters are what appears to be maybe 2x4s on edge. Don't know the terminology for these for sure on pole barns so I'll call them roof purlins. Question: How are these fastened to the rafters?

They are purlins nailed to the trusses. The metal sheeting will be screwed to them. I assume they are on edge to give them greater strength. It seemed strange to me also. My trusses are very heavy with pretty wide spacing between them which made me nervous.

My house has a pure purlin roof (no rafters or trusses). Those purlins are 6 by 6's and 20' long in some cases. They rest on the outside wall of my log house on the outside and the stone fireplace in the middle.

I assume these guys know what they are doing. They build a lot of buildings in this area.

[Maybar]

Originally Posted by smfcpacfp

They are purlins nailed to the trusses.

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So I'm assuming either toe nailed or maybe an 80d nail from the purlin top edge into the rafter.

thanks, Maybar

[smfcpacfp]

In watching them work, both toe nailed and straight thru the top.