Pole building construction pictures

[smfcpacfp]

Unfortunately we have too much stuff, and I want to build a place where I can weld in the winter (even mig welders give off some smoke), so I decided to build a pole building (30 by 48 feet).

I sought advice here and got some good ideas, but few on this forum live in such an extreme and varied climate. We get 15 to 30 feet of snow here each year and there is an average of 40 days a year when the temperature gets below zero, but only 5 days above 90. My soil is a combination of sand and finely ground clay, so it is easy to work with and very stable.

Snow, and snow loads are an overriding consideration when building anything. I live in an area near Lake Superior (8 miles as the crow flies and 900 feet of the lake level) where the snow is especially heavy. My building is built to withstand a snow load of 80 lbs per square foot. In addition I will have 2 foot overhangs on all sides so the snow will have a place to fall without crushing the base of the building. I also have an extra course of dimension lumber running horizontally on the non gable ends to withstand the snow that does fall against the building from crushing it.

My property is about 13 acres and has about 7,000 trees on it (mostly pine). I wanted to choose a site where I didn't have to cut down a bunch of trees to build the building. I have one area not too far from the back of my house which is relatively clear. As it was the power company and I only had to cut down about 30 trees to build my road to the site and put in some additional power poles to the site.

Below is a picture of the site before I did anything. It is also quite level:

 

[mjncad]

Pretty area, I'm looking forward to seeing your building come to life.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I decided to put in a new metered service for the building since my welder and other 220 tools will demand a lot of juice. I had one power pole to my house with the transformer on the main transmission pole. The power company determined that it would be too long of a run from the transformer to power the new service so they replaced the main transmission pole, the old pole by my house and they added a third pole for my new building.

The first picture is the old pole and new pole by my house with the transformer on it.

Picture of the two replacement poles in place:

The power guys getting ready to drill the hole for the new pole by my building:

 

[smfcpacfp]

I thought the grading would be a breeze, but pine tree roots and blueberry bushes have tough, extensive and sinewy roots. Although the grading was too difficult with the back back, getting all of the roots out of the sandy soil and away from the building site proved time consuming. After we got rid of the roots, I let the wife finish the grading and she did a great job.

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[smfcpacfp]

To make the site a little higher I had 33 yards of sand brought in to raise the level of the site. My wife did all of the moving of the pile. The truck driver didn't think he could get back to the site, but the sand/fine clay mixture is pretty solid.

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At the same time I hired a former student of mine who now owns a tree service to come in do $545 worth of stump grinding. I hadn't seen him for some time so we had an enjoyable conversation after he finished. The picture is beside my (24 by 42) garage on the road that I made to get to the building:

 

[smfcpacfp]

Last Tuesday they delivered most of the materials. By the way this is a Cleary Building and it packaged in Wisconsin and is being built by an experienced Clearly build crew. The parked the trailer right on the road which is OK since I live near the end of a dead end road and on a slow day maybe 2 cars pass down it (the mail man and newspaper delivery guy) and on a busy day maybe a car an hour.

I thought the second picture was interesting although it is hard to see, but all of the metal that makes up the building is there except the doors and windows - not much when stacked neatly:

Finely this is the picture of my materials stacked neatly near my garage slab.

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[smfcpacfp]

The guy grinding stumps above is at the beginning of my building road. Here are two pictures of the rest of the road to the building site. I am going to guess that the total length is about 180 feet. As soon as they are done pouring the 6' concrete floor for the building, I will have aggregate brought in to finish the road:

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[smfcpacfp]

Finally the Cleary crew showed up 2 days ago to start the building. Here are some pictures taken of their progress in 2 days. The 3rd picture is the precast 22" by 6" footer pads. If you look carefully in the last picture you will see my log house on the right side, and my log sided garage through the building structure. I built those two structures 30 years ago this year. At 62 I decided I didn't want to be risky injury on this building. Besides those young experienced guys probably would get 5 times as much done as I would in the same time span:

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[ultrarunner]

Very cool pictures... looks like a great building for a great location...

How big are you going?

 

[smfcpacfp]

30 by 48 feet

 

[dave1949]

Great set of pics. I like that semi tractor fifth-wheel fork lift, guess those Cleary people are thinking. Nice building site. It is amazing what a crew of guys can get done in a couple days. No sense struggling with that yourself.
Dave.

 

[ultrarunner]

Do you have a close-up of a pole?

Looks like the poles are laminated from the how the truss attaches.

 

[roamerr]

The 8th picture down on the 2:49 post shows the poles good. They look like 2x6's sandwiched together.

 

[smfcpacfp]

They are three 2 by 6's laminated together which leaves a pocket at the top for the trusses to fit in. I thought that was a clever idea.

 

[ultrarunner]

They are three 2 by 6's laminated together which leaves a pocket at the top for the trusses to fit in. I thought that was a clever idea.

So the three 2 x 6's make up the part of the pole that is buried?

Are they laminated together with adhesive, bolted or both?

 

[smfcpacfp]

Laminated, according to their literature, but it doesn't say with what. It claims they are stronger that one solid piece of wood.

 

[Duffster]

So the three 2 x 6's make up the part of the pole that is buried?

Typically the whole post.

Are they laminated together with adhesive, bolted or both?

Typically nailed and glued.

 

[ultrarunner]

After my post I went to their website and then called... they don't have a CA dealer. They do have one in Grant's Pass OR that will work in CA...

Can't have too much info... right?

The lady on the Phone asked where I learned about Cleary... I told her on TractorByNet.

 

[smfcpacfp]

The next three pictures were taken after they had the purlins in place, so the superstructure was in place. The first two pictures are taken from near my house looking at the front of the building. The third picture is taken from the back of the pole building where you can see my log house on the right and garage through the building:

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[smfcpacfp]

Next they completed the eaves and sofits, and then started on the roof. Unfortunately it started to snow:

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