Pole barn

[cowboydoc]

SHF,
I did steel on my interior as well. It is much cheaper than anything else you can put on and you have a nice finished area in no time at all.

 

[Chuck52]

Bill.
Did they pre-drill holes for those long nails? It seems like you'd end up splitting more than a few purlins if you didn't. Of course, most folks are probably better with a hammer than I am. Maybe the pros use a driver of some kind?

Chuck

 

[cowboydoc]

Chuck,
No predrilling is necessary. You just hammer them in. Very few you will split. I don't recall splitting any on my barn and it was much bigger than the one you are doing.

 

[Bill_in_MI]

Morton does a lot of stuff at the factory to make the job go faster on site. I believe the purlins were drilled with a pilot part way. The young guys driving the nails home were still doing a lot of pounding, though.

To answer a couple of the other questions that were asked:

I picked steel because I needed something to finish off the inside over the insulation, and I was not going to do it myself...though I wish I had the time to. Morton does steel, so that's what I went with. Should be low maintenance and look decent. I send some photos when the inside is done.

Mark V: Size is 36' x 45'

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Cowboydoc

Hadn't even though of steel as an interior material. Wonder if it might be a little better for a building in which there could be a lot of welding going on? I'm not sure what the heat transfer would be through the material, if steel would offer an edge over drywall. It certainly would in the finishing area, since the steel usually comes precut and just needs to be screwed in place.

SHF

 

[Chuck52]

Bill in MI,

Did Morton use 6x6 poles built up from 2x6's? The local building inspector says they do that at least sometimes. Apparently, 2x6's are usually treated to 0.6, while most 6x6's are only 0.4, so the built up posts are more decay resistant. If they did that, did they nail or bolt the 2x6's together? The inspector doesn't much care for my plan to have two 16 foot bays on the open side of my 24x32 barn/shed. I didn't get a chance to explain my plan for diagonal braces from the end posts and the center post which would make the actual span for the two 2x12's I will use for the truss support more like 10 feet rather than 16. Maybe that will make him happy. I ran into an old fellow at the local lumber yard who thought 6x6 posts for my building with 9 foot walls was overkill until I told him what county I was in. Then he suggested I look for 12x12's.

Chuck

 

[rdln]

Morton uses 2x6's laminated with SS nails. the wood is treated to .8cca thier website is the most complete around check it out at "mortonbuildings.com"

 

[Bill_in_MI]

Chuck,
Yes, Morton did use the built-up posts...claim .8 treatment throughout the base of the column that way. The non-treated above ground tops of the posts are nailed together at the factory as are the treated bottoms. The splice is then also nailed on site. I have attached a pic which should show this. This also allows them to field trim the burried post bottoms and then swing the finished wall into place...kind of a neat system. And as I mentioned before they definately have this down to a system approach...even to the way they deliver and lay out the materials in a particular order and location. The laminated column also gives them a "slot" at the top of the column to fit the trusses into. These are nailed and bolted in place. I send a separate pic of that in a following reply. The building inspectors here are familiar with this construction and had no problems whatsoever.

Hope this is useful, and good luck with your plans and project. Let me know if there is anything else you want to see/know. I probably have photos since I shot a few at the end of each workday. Let me know...happy to share.

 

[Bill_in_MI]

Chuck,
Here is the other photo showing a closer view of the built-up column.

 

[cowboydoc]

That's how I built mine as well Bill. My building was so big that they wouldn't guarantee it unless I built it with those engineered poles. I still don't see how that is stronger than a good old 6x6 though. Luckily where I'm at because I'm a ranch and over 40 acres I don't have to contend with any kind of building permits, even for a house.