Pole Barn Build, 40x50x12

[nrc17gto]

Today we got all of the girts up that we are going to put up until we get the trusses up. We also got the headers up on one side. This was MUCH more difficult than I thought it would be. Should have known that getting 20' 2x12 boards around 15' in the air would be a hassle. We drilled and bolted nearly all of the headers on that one side in place as well.


PoleBarn Header by nrc17gto, on Flickr

Nick

 

[nrc17gto]

Another thing about the headers. What do you do for front and back? Do you need double headers on the front and rear? I am sure it would make it strong but what weight is it actually supporting since the trusses sit on the sides of the building?

Nick

 

[fowllife]

On the gable ends all that I use is a 2x4 at the top. You are right that there isn't really any weight in the center. Just make sure that you pole barn spike it to your columns and you will be fine.

Good progress so far, it's looking good.

 

[nrc17gto]

We have the headers bolted on both sides now. Today, we marked where all the trusses are going to go and notched the poles where necessary. I also picked up the simpson truss hangers. I BELIEVE we are about ready to set the trusses.

Now, we have to figure out how we are going to set them with a bobcat and a variety of other miscellaneous things available. I am looking forward to getting them up, but not the process.

Nick


Polebarn notched poles by nrc17gto, on Flickr

 

[ptexer]

There may be a better way to do the rafters. We set them on the 2 x 12s with the peaks down. Place one end of the rafter on the 2by, then the other side gets carried up the ladder, hard part. We set scaffold down the center with a 24' metal plank in between the two sets of scaffold. One person worked off the center and one on each wall. the fourth person went were needed.

We screwed two by on each end of wall and ran a string between them and checked distance with an other piece of 2by and pushed or pulled wall and rebraced until wall was straight. We nailed rafter to that wall first and then pushed or pulled the other wall to correct distance.

The hardest part was caring rafter up ladder. We set and bracer the rafters in an evening of hard work. Only planned to do half but it went quickly so we finished. My building was only 30 X 60 x 14. With your 40' width you might make a tool so someone can assist from ground with some of the weight when carring up the ladder.

 

[nrc17gto]

Thanks ptexer! Good to know it COULD be done this way.

Any more ideas out there?

Nick

 

[Gizmo2]

I would probably start in the center with the trusses and work out.
Hanging the truss upside down and flipping it up has a tendency to push the walls out and it does not take much. You get to the end and you are running out of header.

 

[fowllife]

I would probably start in the center with the trusses and work out.
Hanging the truss upside down and flipping it up has a tendency to push the walls out and it does not take much. You get to the end and you are running out of header.

I would not recomend this at all. You will regret it. The last couple of trusses will be a huge pain to set. ALWAYS start at one end and work your way to the other end. If you start in the center then you will not have anything to brace the first couple of trusses to, and that is just asking for trouble.

It can be a pain at times to set trusses by hand, but it's do able. The best way is to set a gable end truss on one end first. Hopefully you ran your gable end wall post higher then the others. Nail the top and bottom cord of the truss the the post, this will help stabalize them until you get more set and can run a diagnal brace. Your trusses should have came with a packet that has all of the required bracing. It may seem like overkill, but follow it. I have seen quite a few people skimp on the bracing and then have to set the trusses again because a storm came through and blew them down.

When you get to the opposite end, swing the last 3 trusses up and lean them against the rest of them that are already set. Set the outter most one first and use a 16'er to tie it to the rest of the trusses, then set the 2 in between them. Brace them back to the rest and then go outside and set the last gable.

 

[nrc17gto]

Great info (as usual) fowllife! Thanks! We are thinking we are going to try using the following setup.

My 753 bobcat with pallet forks.
Attach a 12' metal T beam we have to it VERY securely standing straight up against the back of the forks. Similar to the setup in this post. Except this person is using wood (and of course a tractor).

If that does not seem to work, we are thinking about renting some type of a bucket lift. We have heard that these have enough weight capacity but do not cost the big bucks of a telescoping fork lift.

Thanks for all the advice.
Nick

 

[fowllife]

Your bobcat should work for you. It really isn't hard to swing them into place with a 2x4 though, and would probably be quicker. Just take a 16'er or so and nail a 2-3' peice onto the end to make your Y. Stick it on your top cord and swing it up into place. You really only need 2 people, but 3 is better.

Be carefull if you try to use a bucket life. Most of the smaller ones are only rated at 250lbs, and your trusses are probably getting close to that. They can be a real pain to move around sometimes for stuff like that also. But if you set the truss tails on the walls first and just used it to swing the peak into place it would work.

Don't overthing it, the best made plans never seem to work, lol. You will figure out what will work for you after you get a couple set........good luck.

 

[nrc17gto]

FINALLY- We got all of the trusses set yesterday. We ended up renting a telescoping forklift to do the job. It was very time consuming for us. Probably because there was just two of us and this was our first time. But, we got it done safe and successfully!


Trusses by nrc17gto, on Flickr

I'll try to take some more pictures today with all of them up.

Nick

 

[nrc17gto]

Another picture.


Pole Barn With Trusses by nrc17gto, on Flickr

 

[mfairbank]

hey great lookin start to you barn.
I got a question for you.....im planning on building a 30x40x16 pole barn in a week or so.
I plan on using 6x6 posts 3' in the ground and a 2x6 PT skirt board to allow for the concrete 4" floor to be put in.....Since how im gonna be basing my entire shop off the level of the skrit board what is the best way and most accurate way to get the skirt board level?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[nrc17gto]

hey great lookin start to you barn.
I got a question for you.....im planning on building a 30x40x16 pole barn in a week or so.
I plan on using 6x6 posts 3' in the ground and a 2x6 PT skirt board to allow for the concrete 4" floor to be put in.....Since how im gonna be basing my entire shop off the level of the skrit board what is the best way and most accurate way to get the skirt board level?

Thanks,
Matt

Hi Matt,

I would not say I am an expert by any means, but I can tell you what we did. We used a line level. To compensate for sag from the weight of the line, we stretched it between a few poles then put a nail partially in and stretched it again.

Someone else here may have a much better method. Good luck with your build!

Nick

 

[mfairbank]

Nick,
Thanks for you info i appriciate it. This is my first pole barn and im just nervous on getting the barn all leveled up. My wife just wants to hire a guy and have them build it but i think thats just gonna be a little to much money so im gonna tackle the job myself....lol

So you guys just streched a string from one side to the other, and used a line level. ok if i read that correctly you used some stakes underneath the line to stop the string from saging so much then marked the line on the posts and slaped the skirt board up.

Or did you just streach the line really tight using batter boards on each end
Thanks,
Matt

 

[nrc17gto]

This is my first pole barn too. If you look back through this thread you can probably tell...haha.

We didn't use stakes. We would basically stretch the line level across 3 poles, get that level, drive a nail partially in on the third pole in the correct place to support the line, then go three more poles and repeat. We used batter boards to square up the building but not for leveling the skirt boards.

Again, this may not be the best way but just the way we did it. Hopefully, others on here will chime in with a much smarter way.

 

[mfairbank]

ok i get it now, thanks for the input. Well with this being your first pole barn it seems like everything work out for ya..good job.

So yea your method sounds pretty much fool proof...easy and level. then after you get the nails all the way around you can just hang the skirt board on the top of the nails or put them on the bottom and it should be perfectly level after that. Then probably take a 6' level and double check it again before you secure it to the posts.
Sounds good thanks alot,
Matt

 

[Gizmo2]

mfairbank,
Do yourself a favor and pick one of these up , about $80.00. Mine came with a small tripod and the unit is self leveling. All you need is no sun light and you will be good to go. The spread on the laser beam is really wide and if not wide enough just turn the head after the first half is marked. I marked all four corners of my new in progress pole building without turning the unit 20 ft X 32 ft building. Right tool for the job within reason.

 

[mfairbank]

mfairbank,
Do yourself a favor and pick one of these up , about $80.00. Mine came with a small tripod and the unit is self leveling. All you need is no sun light and you will be good to go. The spread on the laser beam is really wide and if not wide enough just turn the head after the first half is marked. I marked all four corners of my new in progress pole building without turning the unit 20 ft X 32 ft building. Right tool for the job within reason.
View attachment 215164

Gizmo,
That sounds about perfect, so can you set the tripod to a certain level and just leave it and the laser level will level its self. so in order to do this 30x40 pole barn i might have to shift it down a little and rotate the laser head the other direction to get bolt sides. So i can just level the skirt board at night so i will be able to see the laser well. Thanks alot for the product information...
I will have to look into that....

 

[chad22]

looking good. I plan to build a shop sometime soon. I plan on building it so I can have a separate shop from our auto shop.

Work probably won't begin for at least a few years though. It's probably not gonna be a pole barn though.

I'll probably start buying a few bags of concrete now and then until I get enough.

I was gonna go with a wood floor but decided not too since I remembered I would be using my welder in there.

Chad