Pole Barn Addition

[BoylermanCT]

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Here are some pics of the crane we built. The winch was the key. You can raise and lower the truss with much more control than using a boom pole alone. We also built a truss carrying jig so we could safely pick up the trusses with multiple points of contact instead of 1 point of contact. We screwed the truss to the jig with 2 screws so it could not fall off while being moved.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Found a close up of the winch. Had lots of help on truss day. Me, my brother in law, father and father in law plus a deacon from church. He's is retired as the shop manager from the local John Deere dealer, so a great friend to know when you have tractor problems!

 

[Drewintoledo]

Excellent! I already have my DIY barn up but I didn’t build it myself. I wish I would have left a header exposed on the gable end like you did. I’ll need to take the metal down and cut down to find purchase.
what did you cut your metal with? I’m told cutoff wheels will destroy the finish and therefore cause the panels to rust where they are cut?

 

[BoylermanCT]

Diablo makes a 7 1/4" circular blade for cutting sheet metal. Supposedly keeps the metal cool so it does not damage the finish or allow rust so I used that for most panel cuts. Did a lot with tin snips too. Had to cut all my soffit pieces by 1/4" and the saw would not do it, so I got a lot of experience with the snips.

I tried to find a crew to build the barn. The website said it could be built for $7000 with one of their contracted crews, but no crews worked in CT. I got a couple quotes in the $20-$25K range to build the barn not including the cost of the kit. Really enjoyed doing it myself, and saved a good chunk of change but would not take on another building this size.

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Boylerman, was the winch AC electric powered? (One photo looks like the operator has a power cord in hand with the controller?)

Also it looks like you used the top of the loader frame on the tractor to anchor the support chain. How did you actually anchor the chain to the loader frame?

Was the chain adjustable? (Appears raising the forks would change the angle of the boom if the chain was not adjustable.)

And I understand the logic for using the winch for fine movement of the trusses. Very nice!

Thanks very much for posting the photos...a picture really is worth 1000 words!

Very helpful...

 

[BoylermanCT]

Yes, it was an AC powered winch from Harbor Freight that a friend at church let me borrow. We mounted the winch to the top of the backplate for my forks. The 20' pole was also mounted to the back plate. We had power at the build site, so it worked well. My loader arm mount has a pre-drilled hole at the base of the loader arm that we used to hook the support chain to. We could raise and lower the loader arms without changing the angle of the pole, so the chain length never changed. We could not use the loader tilt forward and reverse as that would change the length of the chain. The truss carrying beams on the barn were 12' high, and the trusses were 8' tall so we needed 20' clearance to set the trusses. With the loaders 7' lift height, we could easily get the trusses 3-4 feet above the carrying beams to swing them into place. We also tied a rope to one corner of each truss as we moved it, and that allowed us to swing the truss diagonally as we moved it into the barn as the trusses are 32' long and the barn is 30' wide.

 

[BackRoad]

Thanks for the detail...very helpful.

Great ingenuity!

 

[BoylermanCT]

Put the metal roof on this morning. Needed more man power so I recruited 3 fellow firefighters, 3 family members and 1 from church. Roof panels were 28’ long so things went quickly. We had 4 people moving panels to the roof and 4 on the roof screwing panels in. My wife kept us supplied with donuts, coffee and the pizza, chips and soda for lunch.

I have black metal trim pieces to cover the end rafters on order which will arrive in a few days and also have to install 2x6 rub rails in between the posts and on the barn wall to finish off the shed.

 

[s219]

That looks awesome, nice work. Are you putting on a Denver-style rake trim on the ends? That is my favorite, it runs over the top then comes down the side with a drip-edge bend at the bottom. Very easy to work with and accommodates many different types of installs.

 

[EddieWalker]

Are you going to cover the exposed joists? leave them natural or paint them? I like covering them with Hardie, and extending the Hardie past the bottom of the joist to create a bit of a drip edge. Then paint the Hardie and install the trim over the painted Hardie. Once Hardie is painted, you never have to paint it again!!!