Pole Barn Question

[bdhsfz6]

I'm installing a third pole building on the property. The first two have concrete floors but the new one will be just dirt. This will be my first experience with dirt floor buildings and I'm curious what others do where the overhead doors touch the ground. We get significant frost heaving in the area, are there any tricks to closing the gap at the bottom of the door? Also, what is the best way to close the gap where the steel siding meets the ground?

 

[rScotty]

I'm installing a third pole building on the property. The first two have concrete floors but the new one will be just dirt. This will be my first experience with dirt floor buildings and I'm curious what others do where the overhead doors touch the ground. We get significant frost heaving in the area, are there any tricks to closing the gap at the bottom of the door? Also, what is the best way to close the gap where the steel siding meets the ground?

I don't know about the doors, my pole building doesn't have doors.

But the siding is easy. In most pole barns the poles are connected by horizontal runs of "2by" lumber...like 2x6s or whatever. You simply make the bottom horizontals from treated lumber. Fasten to the poles and let the lumber rest on the Then fasten the steel siding to that lumber skirt but a few inches off the ground.

 

[Rustyiron]

For the door, I'd excavate down to your frost level (and consider the sunlight it will see in the winter) then put in some 2"+/- crushed stone (no fines) for drainage. Then at about 12-16" below your finished grade lay in some 2" foam from post to post and 2' each way outward from the center line between the posts. This will help keep the frost out from under the stone
(4X8 sheets) then continue with the same or a little smaller stone that'll still drain well up to your door level. Having water draining away from this area is important.
For the steel/ground intersection, I'd keep the metal a minimum of 6" above the actual dirt and either drop down to the surrounding grade with PT (like you'd normally use for the bottom wall girt) or some will fill this with well draining crushed stone.
I like the PT lumber method, just be sure it's "ground contact" at minimum. "Direct burial" would be best.
I don't like having any wood contact the ground anymore. They've played with the preservatives so much that unless you can source "marine grade", (yes like in docks and piers) I don't trust it for much more than a mailbox post or a clothesline.

 

[eolesen]

We just had a pole barn built not long ago, without a floor to start. Some 57's in the threshold were enough to keep us happy and the bigger critters out.

It now has a concrete floor, so... can't show a picture. The bottom 2x6's below the metal (PT) became the form boards for the slab.

 

[BlueKnife]

I'm installing a third pole building on the property. The first two have concrete floors but the new one will be just dirt. This will be my first experience with dirt floor buildings and I'm curious what others do where the overhead doors touch the ground.

There isn't really a good way to do that with a dirt floor, unless it's sandy dirt. Graveling the floor would help.

Also, what is the best way to close the gap where the steel siding meets the ground?

The skirt boards (the bottom girts) should extend down below grade. If they don't, you can add more.

 

[Cycledude]

Where I live frost lifting the poles is a very big issue.
So I had a slab poured and built on top of that using 2x6 studs. Built 34 years ago and the building is still perfectly straight, just wish it was bigger.

Have a friend that built a much bigger pole building, part of it has concrete floor, most of it has gravel floor, he installed conveyor belt all around the inside bottom boards in the gravel part to keep snow out and have a ability to little flex , it has worked very well for him, his building is about 5 years older than mine, he did put a new steel roof on it last year.

 

[KennyG]

I have a building with a gravel floor. I embedded 4x4 ground treated timbers under the doors. Works fine but I'm in an area with well drained sandy soil, so even when it freezes there isn't much ground heave.