Pole Barn - Why not use center post?

[gabeancounter]

Jim,
Read over your build. Very nice looking place and the barn turned out great. After speaking with the neighbors we will be having a home owners meeting to discuss barns, sheds, garages. There are 4 of us that would like to build a barn this year. Hopefully we can do a group buy on materials or exchange labor!

 

[JimRB]

That will be a fun neighborhood. We like going to the horse club meetings at people's barns to look for ideas to improve ours which we are pretty happy with. I also look at construction details to see what others are doing. At the same time I am looking at tractors and implements. My wife has a desire for a covered arena but that is not in the near future.

My only observation is that an aluminum roof with no insulation is painfully loud during severe weather. I talked to some barn builders at the Moultrie Ag show this past fall and I recall one person saying you have to insulate a metal roof to prevent condensation. Of course there are lots of metal roofs around here with no insulation which seem to work well. Maybe the insulation is important if you close up the building for livestock or want to work in it when it is storming.

 

[SteelDust]

Off topic. I just noticed that it looks like his kid is laying in a stroller while he is working on his barn?? Too funny.


Not sure about his spacing, but it looks very sturdy. I think I will re-read your thread as I found out over the weekend that I think the covenants will require it be enclosed. How much did you have invested in your build?

:laughing: Yeah, that's my daughter in the stroller. I think she was less than a year old at the time. Bundle her up in there and she'd just lay there and either nap or quietly watch me work. In this case, though, you'll notice there had to be a photographer, which was my wife. But there were quite a few times she'd go out there with me and just quietly watch. Now that she's almost 4 and very mobile, it's actually a lot harder to get things done with her as a "helper".


As far as the barn....just to clarify. The run on the 2x12 rafters was 12'. The purlins were 2x6 on 24" centers. Yes, the middle posts do have double 2x12's on either side of the post. Lag bolted with 3/4" bolts (i believe I put pictures up showing this as well). The center section also spanned 12' I cut OSB gussetts for the 2x12's, screwed and glued, also bolted to the posts.

It was all calculated out, and if I remember right, it well exceeded the 25# snow load req for this area of the county. A couple of winters ago it saw the most snow this area has seen in a while. I went out and carefully looked and could not detect any deflection in either the purlins or rafters.

I also ran OSB under the metal, with felt between the OSB and metal per metal roof manufactuers direction. Bare metal will sweat, especially with living breathing animals in the structure. The OSB also quiets the roof down qutie a bit, makes it more "walkable" and was the cheapest option for an underlayment at the time (bought when a sheet of osb was $5.xx).