Two Pole Barns, one new and one to renovate

[Ranger Rick]

OOPS, While I was moving the gable truss into the barn I was concentrating on what the truss was doing in the light breeze. As I eased through the garage door there was a loud explosion as the open glass door on the tractor hit the 6x6 post. Not a good thing. I never realized how much glass is in a tractor door and it goes everywhere. This is one of the reasons I did not get more trusses set today. I hope I am not the first to break the door on their tractor.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.
Rick

 

[wmonroe]

Good to hear the boom pole worked well. Too bad about the tractor door though, that really sucks.

 

[schweizer]

Bummer about the tractor door. Great temporary boom pole!

 

[DT86]

Don't worry you're not the first one.

I've broke a door and two back windows before. The door sounded like a shot gun went off when it broke.

My Grandfather bought his first cab tractor in the early 90's. With him, my dad, uncle and later my cousin and myself operating it we broke 8 or 10 pieces of glass between us!

 

[Ranger Rick]

Great temporary boom pole!

Your pictures of your boom pole helped when I was putting mine together. The boom makes maneuvering around the building interesting, it adds a lot of length to the tractor and width when you pick up a 32 foot truss. Rick

 

[schweizer]

You took it the next step, though. Mine was just a quick Rube-Goldberg setup 4x4 that let me lift a 6x12" up to 16' high. Yours looks very sturdy -- very nice. No reason to spend a lot of money for steel and welding when a wooden one works great for setting some trusses. Tricky driving, for sure. I kept the backhoe for weight, and I almost hit parts of my barn on accident.

 

[SHORT KID]

Ranger Rick Nice job on the pole, sorry to hear about the door just thankful you were not hurt. That gable end had some weight to it with the sheeting on. One practice we always did was to nail uprights to the outside of the poles to keep the bottom of the truss from kicking out on us. Good looking job so far, be careful and send more pix.

 

[Ranger Rick]

First thing today I worked on getting the gable truss completely straight and vertical. I added more braces to the ground and pushed and pulled most of the waves out of the top chord. I got the second truss up and started bracing it when I realized that something was not right. My braces on the bottom chord were putting a big curve in the truss. I had laid out the placement of the truss on the wall and not taken into account the 3/4" plywood gusset that I had to put on each end of the truss. The truss ends were 3/4 inch further down the wall then the middle. I went back and adjusted the middle of the truss to match the ends. I will put the next truss where it should go. I also forgot to lay out where the purlins are supposed to go. I should have marked them on the ground. It is much more difficult when they are on the walls. I am still trying to figure out the best method of getting these trusses up braced and ready to go.
The gussets were a lot more work then I anticipated. Cutting the wood was easy enough. Nailing them together was a pain. Each side had to be nailed on 4" centers on each side. So after nailing one side I had to flip the truss over and nail the other side. Each truss used about 100 nails.
The metal for the roof was delivered today. Slowly it will come together. Rick

 

[schweizer]

When I was building mine, a contractor friend came over and helped me set the trusses. Once the gable truss was straight and plumb, all the next trusses were referenced back to it. We had horizontal 2x4's nailed to the gable truss, then to the next truss, and so on. At about the 5th truss, we set a diagonal brace from the middle of the floor at the gable wall to near the peak of that truss. Your trusses are 4' OC not 16" OC like mine, so you wouldn't wait 5 trusses before adding a diagonal back to the floor. All the measurements were made from the 1st truss, not truss-to-truss, if that makes sense, so you don't compound any measuring errors.

I also found that the trusses warped a lot just being out in the weather before I could get plywood sheathing up. That made it more difficult for the roofing guys.

Are you putting anything between the metal roof and the purlins? Plywood with roofing felt adds a little to the cost, but it sure does eliminate drips from condensation. I look up at my dad's barn 25 years later and see lots of stains on the wood where the roof condensation has dripped. It can't be good for the wood (or the hay underneath, or the equipment....)

Your barn looks great, BTW!

Marcus

 

[Ranger Rick]

I also found that the trusses warped a lot just being out in the weather before I could get plywood sheathing up.

Are you putting anything between the metal roof and the purlins?

Your barn looks great, BTW!

Marcus

My gable truss has a little warp up near the peak that I could not get out today. I was able to get most of the other waves out with lots of braces.
I came across this sheathing on the Lowes website 1/4-in x 4-ft x 50-ft Extruded Polystyrene Insulated Sheathing. I was thinking this might be enough to keep frost from forming on the underside of the metal. If I tape the seams it would be a vapor barrier. I do not know if it would work or not. Any thoughts? Moisture on the underside of the metal is a concern of mine. There are several threads where people have moisture under the metal. I could spray foam the roof which would solve that problem but I was thinking that it might be cheaper to put in a ceiling and put in cellulose. Eventually I want to insulate the building well so that I could use it year around but I was going to put it off for the time being. Rick
Rick