OP
phantom309
Silver Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2002
- Messages
- 195
Re: Any ME\'s out there?
Villengineer-
Thanks for your correspondence on this. I appreciate your opinions.
FWIW, the last building I built was identical to the ones I looked at and the only change that I made was to use more trusses and place them a little closer together.
I've enjoyed the learning process I've gone through so far on this project, including this thread. I've bought and am reading some excellent references including this great book and have enjoyed trying to learn new things.
I want to take the time to have fun learning about and building this new building. I'll take the time to do it right.
That said, there is a little voice in me that says that I'm taking this a little too seriously (I tend towards obsessive/****). Perhaps my past experiences have not been shared by others thanks to building codes (some folks have them, I don't), but living where I do, I've had lots of experiences putting up storage sheds, cattle turnouts, hay barns, etc over the years.
In every case, those were planned on the back of an envelope, materials were bought, poles were planted in the ground, etc and the thing was put together. If it wiggled a little, a brace was added. Sizes of materials were arrived at by guestimate and past experience. When in doubt, upgrade to the next size of materials and all will be fine.
I heard one time that "Anybody can build a bridge that will stand up. But it takes an engineer to build one that will just barely stand up". I think that applies to your typical barn/shed/etc. When in doubt, overbuild. You'll spend more money on materials (something the pro's work to avoid), but the cost savings of DIY will pay for the materials and if you enjoy the work, great.
Without exception, all of the thrown together buildings that I've put up over the years have held up fine, including an all time record snow three years ago.
But I acknowledge that using metal trusses is a different world. Except for the barn two years ago, everything I built was a pole barn. I've not had a problem with any of them, but I have seen a couple members sag a little under a big load in the older buildings. I'm guessing that pole barn construction would tend to give more warning and fail more "gracefully" than a metal truss that might show no signs of fatigue and then fail catastrophically.
So I'll keep at the books. It's part of the fun of doing something new.
Mark
Villengineer-
Thanks for your correspondence on this. I appreciate your opinions.
FWIW, the last building I built was identical to the ones I looked at and the only change that I made was to use more trusses and place them a little closer together.
I've enjoyed the learning process I've gone through so far on this project, including this thread. I've bought and am reading some excellent references including this great book and have enjoyed trying to learn new things.
I want to take the time to have fun learning about and building this new building. I'll take the time to do it right.
That said, there is a little voice in me that says that I'm taking this a little too seriously (I tend towards obsessive/****). Perhaps my past experiences have not been shared by others thanks to building codes (some folks have them, I don't), but living where I do, I've had lots of experiences putting up storage sheds, cattle turnouts, hay barns, etc over the years.
In every case, those were planned on the back of an envelope, materials were bought, poles were planted in the ground, etc and the thing was put together. If it wiggled a little, a brace was added. Sizes of materials were arrived at by guestimate and past experience. When in doubt, upgrade to the next size of materials and all will be fine.
I heard one time that "Anybody can build a bridge that will stand up. But it takes an engineer to build one that will just barely stand up". I think that applies to your typical barn/shed/etc. When in doubt, overbuild. You'll spend more money on materials (something the pro's work to avoid), but the cost savings of DIY will pay for the materials and if you enjoy the work, great.
Without exception, all of the thrown together buildings that I've put up over the years have held up fine, including an all time record snow three years ago.
But I acknowledge that using metal trusses is a different world. Except for the barn two years ago, everything I built was a pole barn. I've not had a problem with any of them, but I have seen a couple members sag a little under a big load in the older buildings. I'm guessing that pole barn construction would tend to give more warning and fail more "gracefully" than a metal truss that might show no signs of fatigue and then fail catastrophically.
So I'll keep at the books. It's part of the fun of doing something new.
Mark
