Finally started pole barn - 40x50

[cowpen]

Here's a shot with all the rafters up. I still have to place my purlins, and trim the rafter tails to a 24" overhang. It's kind of satisfying to see the outline of the barn finally starting to take shape.

[cowpen]

While I was trying to finish the framing, a buddy who's in the grading and trucking business brought out his excavator and dump truck to dig out my pond for more fill. I need to raise the road to the barn a bit, build a new road around the back of the house, and level the inside of the barn for the slab.



Groundwater levels fluctuate a lot where I live and right now it's about as low as I've seen it. The pond actually overflows for a few weeks almost every summer rainy season. Since the pond was almost dry, he was able to drive the excavator down into it and get really deep. It'll be almost 20' deep when the water's up, so I may be able to keep some fish alive in the future.

The soil is mostly fine sand, with thin layers of blue-grey clay here and there. It's really soft and erodes easily when it's wet, so I had to buy some crushed limestone base rock to top dress some of the problem areas. For the rest, I'll plant some bahiagrass which does a great job firming everything up.

[cowpen]

Graded and leveled. The fill from the pond worked great once it dried overnight, and Paul spread the whole thing with his old Ford tractor and box blade. He's been doing grading work with that tractor for a long time and he's truly an artist at his trade.



I've got the purlins finished. Just need to trim everything square, nail up the fly rafters and fascia, and I'm ready for metal! Really looking forward to getting "dried in".

[cowpen]

I've really been sweating about whether the roof is going to end up square. My wife says I'm obsessing about it, but I just want to avoid any "sawtooth" edge on the metal when I'm done.

So I stretched strings, measured, applied the 3-4-5 rule, re-measured, and discovered that I had been a little sloppy with the overhang of my purlins on the gable ends. I had planned for a full 2' overhang, but I was a couple inches short on several of them. The biggest reason for the mistake was a lack of homework on my part. I didn't realize until too late that fly rafters hang under the ends of the purlins. I thought they got nailed into the end-grain of the purlins.

So I ended up trimming all the purlins to match the shortest one. Then I hung my fly rafters and nailed up the fascia all around. I used 1x8 PT on the eaves and 1x6 PT on the gables for fascia. I'm leaving the soffits open, so the transition between the two isn't really all that noticeable.

[bones1]

God job Cowpen. You do nice work and will have a nice building when finished.

[EddieWalker]

Great project. I really enjoy your solutions to installing the trusses and hanging the heavier pieces. There's always a way and with some planing and creativity, you got it done!!!!

I'm wondering about your trusses. I read that you toenailed them on, but didn't see anything else to lock them into place. Is that all you did to hold them there?

Straping would be the best, but blocking has been around forever and is fairly effective. Probably not for Florida, but it's still allot better then just toenailing.

Did I miss something?

Eddie

[cowpen]

Bones - thanks! We're having a lot of fun with the project and I'm learning a lot in the process.

Eddie - I'm glad to know you've been watching my progress. I always look forward to reading your perspective on the various projects posted on TBN.

Re: tieing the trusses down... you're right - that's definitely a must-do here in hurricane alley! I just toenailed to hold everything in place as we set trusses and purlins. Later, I went back with Simpson H4 hurricane ties on each truss except the gable ends. The bolts through the posts & beams were in the way on those, so I used straps instead. I think I must have gone through 10# of nails just on the ties! The palm nailer worked great for this task. I'll try and post some pics.

[cowpen]

Metal for the roof got delivered last week. I found a really nice and honest guy - Tommy - who builds pole barns locally. I hired him to order my metal and help install it. He uses an outfit in Moore Haven (about 60 mi. away) that rolls out their own sheets. I chose a 36" multi-rib 26ga. ag panel in white. I decided to go with single long sheets that cover all the way from the peak to the eave, so I needed 30 sheets at 28' 6" to cover the barn. The cost was about $3100 total including ridge cap, closures, screws, & delivery. The white color was more expensive, but will hopefully make for a cooler barn compared to the plain galvalume. We'll see...

Tommy brought his 90HP Kubota over on delivery day to unload the metal. He said that these were the longest sheets he's ever worked with and he was concerned about the bundle kinking when he lifted with the forks. Fortunately, with me lifting on one end of the stack and the delivery guy lifting on the other we managed to set them off the trailer without damage. I was amazed at how much the stack weighed. Judging from the front tires on the Kubota while he was lifting, we must have been close to capacity on the loader.

Here's the barn - ready for metal. Tommy will bring a couple of guys in the morning. He said we should be able to knock it out in a day.



Note the shed's now behind the barn. Attached chains to the runners and slid it over with Paul's old Ford grading tractor - after emptying it out of course. It'll be hidden from view once the siding's up which is a bonus according to my wife.

[em14]

"I needed 30 sheets at 28' 6" to cover the barn" ... I'm curious as to why you choose to use such long pcs of metal roofing … I would think they would be harder to install. You are going to have a great barn!
Leo

[EddieWalker]

Originally Posted by em14

"I needed 30 sheets at 28' 6" to cover the barn" ... I'm curious as to why you choose to use such long pcs of metal roofing I would think they would be harder to install. You are going to have a great barn!
Leo

My wife and I installed the roof panels on our home and shop. She was on the trusses and I carred them to the wall and slowly slid them up, over the purlins, to her. She would help pull and positin them while I climbed up a ladder and held them in place. Then she would get a few screws into them and I would go get another piece.

The long one in the picture that she is standing on is 33 feet long. I picked it up by myself. It was awkward, but I just took it slow and we didn't have any problems. It was longer because it actualy goes past the peak in the middle of the building to a short peak off to the side on the second story.

Eddie