Tag Archives: taller building

Bigger Options, Taller Options, and a “Rocking” Building

This Monday the Pole Barn Guru answers reader questions about bigger options for the Charlotte 40×50 on the Home Depot site, Raymundo asks if a building can be made 2 ft. taller, and how to brace a building to stop it from “rocking” in the wind.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Good morning. I saw on The Home Depot® your Charlotte 40x50ft. Do you have bigger options? Could you send me the size of your biggest buildings with prices? ANTONIO in GOLDSBORO

DEAR ANTONIO: Thank you for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building. We have an ability to provide any fully engineered post frame building with a clearspan width of 80 feet or less (100 feet in some markets – due to fabrication and shipping limitations) and up to 40 foot high walls with three stories (with sprinklers for fire suppression 50 foot and four stories). One of our Building Designers will be reaching out to you Monday for more information.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hi, still really early in the planning phrase. What’s included in your kits? And can I make the barn 2ft taller? RAYMUNDO in HARTFORD

DEAR RAYMUNDO: Hansen Pole Buildings provides fully engineered, custom designed post frame buildings, with multiple buildings in all 50 states. Our buildings are designed for average physically capable person(s) who can and will read instructions to successfully construct their own beautiful buildings (and many of our clients do DIY). Our buildings come with full 24” x 36” blueprints detailing location and attachment of every piece, a 500 page fully illustrated step-by-step installation manual, as well as unlimited technical support from people who have actually built buildings. We furnish all components to seal in your building, with exceptions of concrete, rebar and nails normally driven by a nail gun.

We can provide any building up to 40 foot tall walls and three stories (or, if you add fire suppression sprinklers – 50 foot tall and four stories).

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: What bracing is used to keep the pole barn from rocking against the wind? The base is ok but the top rocks back and forth and creeks a lot. RAY in SAPULPA

Lean BuildingDEAR RAY: If your building is still under construction (in framed up stage) you should be able to stand in middle of roof and rock building back and forth by several inches, just by shifting your weight. Here is where temporary diagonal bracing of wall columns comes into play (especially if some or all of your building columns are not backfilled with pre-mix concrete.

If your building is completed, you should be reaching out to whomever provided your building’s fully engineered plans, as it sounds like there is a serious design flaw or flaws. Provided your building does not have an excess number of endwall openings (doors, windows, etc.) you can stiffen it up by replacing all of your siding and roofing screws with 1-1/2” long diaphragm screws next to each high rib, into every underlying framing member. At top and bottom of each steel panel, place screws on both sides of high ribs.

To further stiffen it, use #12 x 1-1/4” stitch screws at roughly nine inches (or less) on center through overlapping ribs of steel panels.

 

 

It’s All About the Posts!

Trimming Posts, A Taller Building, and Post Treatment:

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Trimming posts or adding Shims? My pole barn kit uses steel trusses that sit on top of the posts and bolt to their sides. If I set two or three posts lower than the rest, can I just add a shim the top (using PT plywood or similar) to match the heights of the other posts, rather than cutting the tops of the other seven or eight posts?
How much mismatch is acceptable? Would a 1/4″ difference in the tops of the posts be acceptable or noticeable? MIKE in ORLANDO

Concrete slab in a pole barnDEAR MIKE: I will give you my answers however prior to implementation of anything I advise, you need to be contacting the RDP (Registered Design Professional – architect or engineer) who designed your building and sealed the plans to get his or her approval.
In my humble opinion, using a non-compressible shim in order to make up the difference should be a non-issue.
As to the acceptable mismatch, structurally the ¼” difference will not make a difference, however there is a good chance it will be noticeable to the naked eye, especially along either the eave girt or fascia board. The closer you can get to perfect, the better the result will be and the happier you will be with it.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hello guru! We have a project on the way, and were thinking that our building the way it is engineered is going to be too short for our needs. What kind of risks, be it enforcement or safety would we run into if we increased the building height 2′? BRAD

DEAR BRAD: From a practicality standpoint all of your columns will be two feet too short, as will the wall steel. From an engineering standpoint going two feet taller changes the required sizes (dimensions not just lengths) of some of the columns. If you want taller overhead doors, then you have yet another issue.

The risks – safety – you would now be putting up an un-engineered building, which would be under designed for the loads being imposed on it and could collapse, causing injury or even death. Enforcement – if they catch you, you would have to do field modifications to bring the building up to Code.

If you are serious about making it taller, we can work with you to come up with the least expensive fixes and material swaps. The sooner you decide, chances are the less expensive it is going to be, however there would be a non-refundable deposit involved as we are going to put in some serious hours on this whether you decide to go forward or not.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: If PCP is not good for health and longevity on a pole house replacement pole. 2 each at 30’….what treatment do you recommend on a DF pole? JOE in KAILUA

DEAR JOE: If you are using Douglas Fir, then the pressure preservative of choice is ACZA. You could also use ACQ, however it is very corrosive to steel fasteners, so you would want to have products with a very high level of zinc in the galvanization process, or use stainless steel parts.