Pole Barn Walls: opinions please!

[Laminarman]

Board and batten, the boards are still nailed down on both edges, and you finish up with the batten later... just to cover the joint - I alternate left and right to secure the batten on both sides... jmho. Nailing within an inch of the edge, I have not had any split... but my wood is dried for a couple years before I use it.

I knew about nailing both sides of the boards, but assumed you nailed down the center of the batten to the wall purlin in the gap you leave for expansion/contraction not on one side of the batten. I've heard this before, not to nail both sides of the batten so it seems wood quality is what determines this.

 

[Steve C]

Sorry, a clarification. The roofing at Lowes I referred to as fiberglass is Ondura by trade name and "impregnated asphalt" is the process. Ondura Corrugated Roofing - Residential Roofing - Commercial Roofing - Agricultural Roofing - Re-Roofing - Tallant Inc. Roofing Company is their site. Looks just like fiberglass with a baked on painted finish, limited lifetime warranty for residential applications and 25 years warranty for commercial applications. Just an FYI

My brother had the Ondura roof on his pole barn for around 10 years. It leaked from day one and got progressively worse. He also got a lot of condensation on it so even if it wasn't raining outside, it was often raining inside his barn. He finally got tired of it and had a standard shingle roof installed. He ended up paying for 2 roofs......but he is happy now. I had some condensation and dripping with a metal roof on one of my barns several years ago so when I had my new barn built I went with dimensional shingles that match the ones on my house and full length soffet vents and a full length ridge vent. I think that this is the best way to go. No condensation.

 

[Steve C]

Just to throw another idea out there I built my barn and put up 7/16" OSB then did a 3 tab shingle roof to match the house and used vinyl siding and sofit. Its built as a pole barn but had to get the wife's approval on the exterior.

One other thing. Go bigger then you think you need. My barn is 32x52 primarily to make 4x8 sheets of OSB work, but I wish now I would have done deeper like 52x40. Also I kick myself for only doing 12' tall. So many things like my buddies dump truck, my boat, and friends RV, my neighbors Case Back Hoe all will not fit in a 12 footer. 14' would be so much better and I could have built a stand up loft in the rear of the barn for small item storage.

Sorry, no good pictures, I am on a backup computer.

Chris

Very nice looking barn, you are right though 14 foot should be a minimum height. I had a 34 x 48 with 10 foot side walls that came with a house I bought. It drove me nuts. I had to use the garden tractor to get my 22 foot starcraft Islander Hard top boat in there because it wouldn't fit through the door if it was connected to a standard hitch. And my 32 foot Diesel motor home had to sit outside, worse yet I had to service it outside in my gravel driveway. I told myself that I would never build a barn with less than 14 foot side walls after living with that one.

 

[Laminarman]

My brother had the Ondura roof on his pole barn for around 10 years. It leaked from day one and got progressively worse. He also got a lot of condensation on it so even if it wasn't raining outside, it was often raining inside his barn. He finally got tired of it and had a standard shingle roof installed. He ended up paying for 2 roofs......but he is happy now. I had some condensation and dripping with a metal roof on one of my barns several years ago so when I had my new barn built I went with dimensional shingles that match the ones on my house and full length soffet vents and a full length ridge vent. I think that this is the best way to go. No condensation.

Was the condensation from the barn being heated? I won't heat this one, perhaps ONLY if it's frigid below zero and I'm hanging a deer in there and want it to stay in that magic zone of 35-40 degrees. In that case I'd use a couple propane heaters, but yes, condensation would be a concern if that caused it. Great, a new set of worries!

 

[MarkV]

Generally on a metal building condensation is not due to heating the building. Condensation is caused when the sun warms the outside and the inside is cooler. It can be solved with the use of insulation designed for pole barns.

MarkV

 

[Diamondpilot]

That's why you need a bigger barn. Between your buddy's dump truck, your friend's RV, and your neighboor's backhoe, it's no wonder there's no room for your own stuff.

No, they are never in there at the same time. Just brought in to service, or at least tried too. The problem is and I was trying to point out was the 12' door was not big enough to get any of these items in. I kick myself every day for not going 14'

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

Very nice looking barn, you are right though 14 foot should be a minimum height. I had a 34 x 48 with 10 foot side walls that came with a house I bought. It drove me nuts. I had to use the garden tractor to get my 22 foot starcraft Islander Hard top boat in there because it wouldn't fit through the door if it was connected to a standard hitch. And my 32 foot Diesel motor home had to sit outside, worse yet I had to service it outside in my gravel driveway. I told myself that I would never build a barn with less than 14 foot side walls after living with that one.

Nice boat. We do not see them like that down here in Indiana.

Chris

 

[Ken Cunningham]

Definetly go with the insulation in the roof if you get a metal building. Its not cheap, but my building is alot cooler than a friend of mine that didnt get it insulated, and i dont have any condensation worries.

Have you considered your color choices for the walls, roof, and trim. Before it was time to choose the colors for mine i never realized how much the different colors could make the same building to so different.

 

[Laminarman]

Definetly go with the insulation in the roof if you get a metal building. Its not cheap, but my building is alot cooler than a friend of mine that didnt get it insulated, and i dont have any condensation worries.

Have you considered your color choices for the walls, roof, and trim. Before it was time to choose the colors for mine i never realized how much the different colors could make the same building to so different.

Thanks for the info. I was thinking cream/ivory walls and brown or dark green roof.

 

[Steve C]

Nice boat. We do not see them like that down here in Indiana.

Chris

It was just an little aluminum fishing boat. I am sure glad that I had sold it
otherwise it would have been in my barn when it burned down...

It is now floating around in Colorado I am told....

I had it set up for salmon fishing on the great lakes and for walleye fishing on Saginaw bay. As near as I can tell my fish cost me about $ 100 a pound. But you can't buy fish like that in the store. We never caught any huge salmon, only some 25-30 lb fish. But we did drag a 15# Walleye over the transom in Saginaw bay, that thing was a hog. It wouldn't lay flat in my 100 quart cooler it was to long we had to fold it to get it in there.

It is the second best boat I have ever owned. Lightweight, lots of room, easy to launch, very easy on gas but would still run around 34 mph. And the hardtop was great for those 12 hour days on the water, and was priceless when the weather got bad.