Post frame shed?

[s219]

If the underlying soil lets water drain, then posts in gravel will be drier. I have seen in some parts of the country that they now recommend backfilling post holes with self-compacting gravel for this reason. However, if your soil is clay like mine, it won't help one bit -- that clay post hole is going to be like a bucket. Probably make things worse!

The other consideration is wind load -- when we did my barn, the building inspector asked for a soil/footing analysis, and that told us the post holes needed to be backfilled with dry mix concrete and not the dirt/spoils. Because of my soil type, the spoils -- even if compacted -- would not have been capable of resisting much side wind load on the posts.

 

[KennyG]

I guess local conditions impact the optimum approach. A post hole dug here will be dry and stay dry which is why I like gravel. The only place I've ever had water in a hole I dug is in my pond dam. For a large building you do need to consider side loading, but for a storage shed I doubt it makes any difference.

 

[rbstern]

One of the first things I built when I bought my acreage six years ago: A pole barn above my shooting bench, to keep the sun and rain off my head. Works as good today as the day I finished, and requires just about zero upkeep. I made the trusses from 2x4s. I don't think I spent more than $300 on the structure, including the roof.

 

[IH3444]

Buy the bury in hole concrete short post, that then bolts to the 6x6. No moisture on post to worry about. Additional expense, but post is kept dry. Back fill with tamped down material of your choice.

 

[Raised on a Deere]

Buy the bury in hole concrete short post, that then bolts to the 6x6. No moisture on post to worry about. Additional expense, but post is kept dry. Back fill with tamped down material of your choice.

Hummm "bury in concrete short post" are you speaking of a short 6x6" that could be made by cutting up a longer 6x6? or is this something else?


commenting on the backfill method used, if you soil is clay and doesn't drain you certainly do not want to backfill with gravel. it will rot in a few years at best. the post does not have to be kept dry in the hole, you just need to deny access to oxygen. That is why the ole timers around clay country here always said, tamp until it makes your steel tamper ring everywhere around the post. My barn was built in the late 1800's, cedar posts in clay. One perimeter post where I carelessly scooped the dirt mound away from the post delighted me with how solid it looked but then rotted out in about 10 years because water could stand in the depression I left for several days after a rain. On another location in the barn, the ground stays wet due to slow drainage but the poles there are still solid. The clay is stilled bermed up around those posts from the original install I guess. Anyway wet in the ground is not what you are trying to avoid. Wet where it can get oxygen is what you want to avoid. I had to experience poor draining soil to catch on. The farm I grew up on, you could fill a hole with water and in a very few hours at most it would be dry. On my current place you can fill it and watch it empty at the evaporation rate for days and weeks. So septic systems are mostly of the lagoon variety in new construction around this part of KY.

 

[smokinmad]

You live in Michigan....so I don't need to Tell You about Lake Effect.....I'd just make sure I had a steep enough roof, to shed that lil' bit...lol..of Snow you get.

 

[Ford850]

Pole barns rely on well tamped posts for structural strength and to hold it in place during wind storms. I wouldn't use gravel or crushed stone, but we'll tamped soil instead.