Pole barn truss support

[caver]

This place I bought last summer had a jack-leg built pole barn on it. Its obvious intention was for horses. I never had much use for hay burners
so it will become my junk barn.
Here is a picture
http://caver.smugmug.com/photos/126895192-M.jpg
As you can see it wasn't quite finished. I would like to remove some of the center poles. I talked to a local truss designer but his main comment was there was no diagonal bracing between the trusses. He seemed to imply the poles were not needed. It does appear as if they were added for horse stalls.
The other part of me says, man that truss just doesn't look stout enough.
I did carpentry in my youth but really never paid much attention in building trades class when it came to roof trusses.

They guy I bought the property from doesn't know much about it as he bought the property back from the previous owner/jack-leg carpenter.
I suspect that guy defaulted on his loan. He definitely a master cobbler.

 

[goaliedad]

How wide is the building? From the picture I would assume the posts are not needed. If you pull them out I would run some 2x4'x diagonally on the lower parts of the trusses to tie them together. When I built my barn I did not need diagonal braces vertically between the trusses, but rather horizontal. Hope that helps. My barn was just a baby- 24 wide. If your's is alot wider, the truss man would be the man to ask. Hope it helps

 

[schmism]

I talked to a local truss designer but his main comment was there was no diagonal bracing between the trusses. He seemed to imply the poles were not needed.

if you take a detailed pic of the plates the local truss guy can tell you who made the truss connector plates. YOu can also read the grade stamps off the lumber. with those to pices of info a truss designer can run the desing and tell you if it is capable of clear spanning.

and yes permant braceing is important for the long term stablity of the building.

 

[tallyho8]

There is a lot we can't tell from the photo. The barn appears to be 34' wide with 4 x 6 posts on two sides 6' apart. One important thing is how deep are these 4 x 6s in the ground? They shoud be at least 4' if they will be the only thing holding the barn up once you move the 4 x 4s. I believe I would add some knee bracing to every other 4 x 6. If the 4 x 6s are shallow I would knee brace every 4 x 6 and put some diagonal bracing or sheathing on the inside walls. I would brace the trusses both diagonally together and horizontally. If you cut the 4 x 4s off under the 2 x 6s and leave up the 2 x 6s and the top of the 4 x 4s, instead of completely removing them, this would probably suffice for the horizontal truss bracing. For diagonal truss bracing. I would run 2 x 4s in an X pattern from the bottom of one cut-off 4 x 4 to the top of the next on both sides of the center of the barn. In the photo it looks like some of the 4 x 4s were too short to connect to the runners, so they added short 2 x 4s. It would be a little harder, but I would take the 4 x 4 off completely, remove the short 2 x 4, then push it all the way up to the top of the runner and connect it to the runner, the top of the truss, the bottom of the truss and the horizontal 2 x 6 and then cut off the bottom below the horizontal 2 x 6s.

I saw some barns down here that are not built as well as that one and they withstood Katrina.

 

[caver]

I do know the doors are 8-9" wide. I think the door width is 9'. I'm at work at the moment so I don't have the details. The picture is not great but it's all I have at the moment. I hope to drive over to the property soon and continue working on it. I'll take some more pictures. I'm absorbing all the info given. The young guy at the truss plant said it would help if I had a few more pictures.

 

[kenmac]

I always thought that's why you used an engineered truss system so that you can span a long way without center post.My house has a full basement that was built with floor trusses so that I wouldn't have those poles in the center of the full basement. My span is 34'. I would say it depends on the design or engineering if the trusses as to how far they can span without center support.

 

[caver]

Here's a better view of the truss from the other end.
http://caver.smugmug.com/photos/132298159-S.jpg

2x6 upper, 2x4 lower

 

[MikeD74T]

Free Truss Plans
Take a look at the truss spacing guidelines above. Each truss is designed for clear span & a portion of total roof load. You can also check with the local truss supplier for pitch & spacing for your area. Total load is materials plus snow or wind load. More trusses means more load capability. The diagonal braces could be between trusses vertically as well as on the same plane as the ceiling. Trusses rely on maintaining geometry for strength. A slight bend can cause catastropic failure of the members in compression. Bracing is important for wind resistance. Since the previous owner planned on the posts for stall dividers he may have used less trusses to save money as the posts would carry some of the load. You may have to remove some roofing & install a few trusses to eliminate the posts, which is very doable. MikeD74T

 

[caver]

Thanks for the link Mike.
Loads (no pun intended) of information there.
I know the local truss maker I talked to specified what the area load is.
May have to call them back to verify.
Thanks again.

On edit: My span is 32' which I measured a couple weeks ago. I seem to have forgotten to measure the spacing which is 4 or 5 feet.
Pitch is 5/12.

Brad

 

[tallyho8]

The trusses look like they are 6 feet apart. Remember, even if the trusses are strong enough to span the 32 feet and you brace them well, your exterior walls will need a lot of bracing to support the roof once you remove the 4x4 posts. There will be very little keeping the barn from falling sideways in a wind otherwise.