My 30x40x12' Pole Barn Thread

[RxRatedZ71]

Well we made some good progress today. My father came out and we got all 4 corner posts concreted into place. That was a serious task. One post in particular had 10 bags of sack-crete. I had dug the holes and spaced them 10'OC, which I had mis-calculated and not taken into account the girt thickness on the exterior walls. Therefore, the corner posts had to be adjusted to 39'6" by 29'9". After adjusting their positions, some postholes had extra space and used more concrete. Before you ask, yes, I believe in filling the holes with as much concrete as possible. The largest hole was actually on my post that needed the most reinforcement. I had to bring in 2.5' of fill dirt at that corner, embed some massive 500lb rocks for anchor, then pray that my auger would reach the virgin, untouched soil beneath the pad.

Unfortunately, we did not rent a mixer for the concrete, so it was done by hand then poured in, load by load. I think we'll check into the mixer for the remainder of the holes. We got the south 40' wall up and I'm on my third course of girts. I've cut me a preacher to help mark their spacing and placement. I just tack a nail into the marked line on the post and then rest the girt on top. Then I'm able to nail them up by myself in a quick manner.

I bought some "cool ties" tonight and plan to try them out tomorrow. They are a special neck-bandanna that had beads in them to retain coolness and release it slowly throughout the day. Hopefully they will help keep my core temp down and make these high temperatures just a little more tolerable.

 

[jayste]

Hello Tyler. Sorry, I didn't know you already had a thread on here for your building. Looks good. Nothing like digging in tight Oklahoma soil with a pair of "idiot sticks" in August, huh? Looking forward to the progress. Stay cool. This recent cool front sure makes it more bearable!:thumbsup: BTW, when your cool ties wear out try just a regular bandanna soaked in cool water and wrapped around your neck. Works the same as the cool ties just doesn't cost as much. I use them all the time this time of year. Keeps that blood that's circulating in your head a little cooler.

 

[RxRatedZ71]

Well the 2 week leave of absence from work is over and the newness of the new baby has worn off, so I had to get back to "real work". That has slowed my progress on the barn. However, we got the walls and girts up. Everything was square!:drink: When we had our house built a couple of years ago, the brick-layers left their scaffolding behind, so I've been using it to work on. It really beats working from a step-ladder or tractor bucket (probably safer too).

I had concreted most of the posts in, except along 1 side wall. I took the advice of my grandfather (a retired home builder of 40+ years). He has always said that he built quality homes because he built the house to the roof, not trying to fit the roof onto the house. So we waited until the trusses were up and secured and then we concreted those poles in. Turns out we didn't have to re-adjust but at least I had tipped my hat to him and his years of experience.

Remember the Tonka truck? You can see that my son works up quite a sweat while pushing it all over the worksite. We almost need a pressure washer to clean him sometimes. I had invited some church buddies come out last weekend to help set the trusses. It was the hottest weekend all year and the only 3 that actually showed up were military. 2 National Guard and 1 Navy. I gotta give it to them for stepping up to help me when I really needed it!:thumbsup:

 

[RxRatedZ71]

This is my make-shift boom that I mounted on my FEL. I got a receiver hitch and bolted it to the top and used the square tubing to reach just high enough to set the trusses. Best of all, only cost me $34 for the hitch. I'm not sure of its capacity, but I first tested it by lifting my box-blade which weighs 450 lbs. I figured if it lifted that, then a truss was no biggie! It worked like a charm. I will say that the loader controls are a bit touchy! You tilt the bucket a few degrees and the boom tilts a foot or so. Looking back on it, I should have had everyone on the ground sign liability waivers before I put them to work.

I've got to get the some other pictures from my fathers camera because he caught some actions shots of the boom.

 

[RxRatedZ71]

Three trusses went up on Saturday and two on Sunday. The perlins would have moved faster except that I nailed on half of the cleats in the wrong place on one truss. You'd think that 1.5 inches wouldn't matter, however it was an end truss and it threw off the spacing on all the perlins on that side of the barn. Finally had to stop because of the heat (and all my help left).

I will try to get some more perlins up this week. Then its on to Simpson ties (hurricane clips) on each perlin. You really need those in this portion of the country thats also known as "Tornado Alley".

I forgot to mention that I'm building this building the "old fashion way", with hammer and nail. The location is too far from a power source to run a compressor and I don't have a nail gun. Probably should have bought one but that wasn't in my barn budget, according to my wife. So lets do some math here:

11 nails per hanger x 70 hangers = POPEYE FOREARMS :shocked:

 

[MarkV]

RX things are looking good. Hangers are a pain to nail. We use a pneumatic palm nailer which makes them much easier. Given that you are not using pneumatic nailers you might want to consider one of these.http://www.craftsman.com:80/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00911818000P I haven't used one but it is the same principal as a palm nailer battery powered.

MarkV

 

[MacLawn]

I took the advice of my grandfather (a retired home builder of 40+ years). He has always said that he built quality homes because he built the house to the roof, not trying to fit the roof onto the house. So we waited until the trusses were up and secured and then we concreted those poles in. Turns out we didn't have to re-adjust but at least I had tipped my hat to him and his years of experience.

Rx, loving this post! Your grandfather's words above are priceless! Please get him to elaborate on that; I think I understand. I had a carpenter help me add a 26'x25' carport on to my house about 12 years ago, and we built it from the roof down. I would not have thought of doing it that way, but it sure made it plumb and square.

Stepping pads under the posts - hmmm, didn't know about that idea either. You put them into the post holes, under posts, right? Makes it more solid, drainage, etc.?

Congratulations on that new baby too! And, your son being with you there is also priceless - the making of a good young man.

Ok, following your posts with much interest. I also need a pole barn for my stuff.

 

[dcyrilc]

The barn's looking great.:thumbsup: I have a barn, origionally built for phesants, which I've slowly been rebuilding into a cattle barn. Basically a full rebuild including posts. 42 wide x 36 long. I can appreciate the work involved.

I'm envious of the concrete involved in your project. I decided to make my lower wall out of concrete so that I can just hose it out without worrying about rot. 48,000# of concrete last summer. All from 60# bags.:laughing:

Keep up the good work and I'll continue to enjoy the pix of your progress.:thumbsup: Here are some pix of mine from last summer.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

This is my make-shift boom that I mounted on my FEL. I got a receiver hitch and bolted it to the top and used the square tubing to reach just high enough to set the trusses. Best of all, only cost me $34 for the hitch. I'm not sure of its capacity, but I first tested it by lifting my box-blade which weighs 450 lbs. I figured if it lifted that, then a truss was no biggie! It worked like a charm. I will say that the loader controls are a bit touchy! You tilt the bucket a few degrees and the boom tilts a foot or so. Looking back on it, I should have had everyone on the ground sign liability waivers before I put them to work.

I've got to get the some other pictures from my fathers camera because he caught some actions shots of the boom.

I did almost the same thing to set my trusses. I bolted a 12' wood 4x4 onto my pallet forks and lifted the trusses with it. :thumbsup: I didn't worry about the liablility waivers either :laughing:, I didn't have any helpers, which made it take longer.
I also hand nailed it all, even though I have a framing gun, as I used longer nails than the gun uses, and the regular nails came with my "barn kit".

 

[dcyrilc]

I did almost the same thing to set my trusses. I bolted a 12' wood 4x4 onto my pallet forks and lifted the trusses with it. :thumbsup: I didn't worry about the liablility waivers either :laughing:, I didn't have any helpers, which made it take longer.
I also hand nailed it all, even though I have a framing gun, as I used longer nails than the gun uses, and the regular nails came with my "barn kit".

I cheated when I hung mine. I used the truck in the first pic. Sorry for the poor picture quality.