Pole shop and shed building

Glassback · Jan 20, 2015

Hi all

I had posted a picture of my pole shop and shed on another thread. A TBN'er wanted to know more about it and asked me if I'd do a post on it. The idea was to build a small shop and shed for the tractor using logs from our land and as much salvaged materials as possible. We were finishing up building our home on the same land. I got to use leftover construction materials like 2 bys and pine siding that wasn't good enough for the house. It was a lot of fun to build!

davesl708 · Jan 20, 2015

Cool. Thanks for posting. Keep us updated.

KennyG · Jan 20, 2015

Looks like you really grow your trees straight out there. I'd have trouble finding that many good ones near me.

Glassback · Jan 20, 2015

The shop base is made from a bunch of beech trees that were cleared for house construction.

Using my chain saw and a $45 "Beam Machine" I flattened one side of the logs. You screw a 2x4 to the log and level it along it's length. I tried it on a test log first.

The Beam Machine gets clamped onto the chainsaw bar. The 2x4 acts as a rail guide to make a straight cut.

I would't try to mill beams for a whole house with this but it's great for what I had in mind.

Once the flat side is cut I turned the log over to flatten the first 12" to 14" of the other side of the log. I made up a jig so the cut would be parallel to the first and make a 6" wide beam.

The floor beams were ready.

Glassback · Jan 20, 2015

KennyG said:
Looks like you really grow your trees straight out there. I'd have trouble finding that many good ones near me.

Well the base was made out of some not so straight beech. I had to roll them to get the straight side. We have a mix of hard and soft woods on the lot. There's about 3 acres of balsm fir. I could go "shopping" for the straightest logs. Especially when it came to the roof rafters. Balsm isn't the strongest stuff but as poles or spaced close enough for rafters they have held up fine.

MacLawn · Jan 20, 2015

Wha' a great idea! Reckon ye don't have to get a building permit in ye part of Vermont, eh? In my GA county, them tax rascals want ye to permit about everything. But, I have a heap of big straight pine trees I'm taking down, and would sure like to use them for something like ye barn.

Looks great Glass.

roadhunter · Jan 20, 2015

Nice work. Love the primitive construction.

fitter1 · Jan 20, 2015

Nice job. I'd like to cut my own and make a run in shed, but that won't happen. Most likely I'll sell some trees, buy some ruff cut and hire some local yahoo's while I drink beer. Because I can:drink:

wmonroe · Jan 20, 2015

Very nice. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of this build.

Glassback · Jan 20, 2015

MacLawn said:
Wha' a great idea! Reckon ye don't have to get a building permit in ye part of Vermont, eh?

There are zoning permits, but that's about it. There's no building inspectors or code enforcement up here. You just can't build too big or too many buildings for your size property. If you want to spend your resources building something that's gonna fall down in five years have fun! There are plenty of examples of that up here. Even when we built our house there was no structure, plumbing or electrical code inspection. But the mortgage company sent someone out to make sure I wasn't building something that would fall apart!