How to Design a Pole Building Right (The First Time) I received this email yesterday: “My boyfriend and I currently bought some land and we are looking into some different options for building. We are thinking about a shed with a living quarters and 2 car garage. We are looking to have a 3 to […]

When my brother and I were but youngsters, we rode our bike’s a couple of miles from our family home in the Spokane Valley, to where our Aunt Donna lived. Aunt Donna was very artistic, and she taught art lessons in the summers, seemingly primarily to our extended family of cousins (my Dad’s five brothers […]

In typical pole building construction, holes are augured into the earth, columns are placed in the hole so concrete can be placed below the column to act as a footing for vertical support, as well as to encase the lower portion of the column. Above this “bottom collar” compacted soil backfill is used to fill […]

When I was a boy, I used to love it when my Dad would bring home fresh blueprints….I could smell the ammonia before I could see the roll of pages. The smell alone would trigger my senses to alert me to “something was going to get built”! Yes, back in the day, plans graduated from […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

TextraFINE® Post Frame Insulation It is nice to hear from those who have read and learned from the articles I have posted over the past nearly three years. Even more rewarding, is when Hansen Pole Buildings’ team members come up with products for me to investigate. Just today Justine (the Hansen Pole Buildings ordering and […]

Pole Buildings in the Nanny State I’m looking out of the sliding glass patio door of an ocean front, fourth-floor condo in Crucita, Ecuador this morning….watching the waves rolling up the beach. Over the last week, my bride, my brother and I racked up over 1600 kilometers in a rental car – checking out the […]

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans by flooding (remember, most of the city is below sea level), my then 11 year old daughter had a brilliant insight, “Instead of rebuilding, why don’t they move everyone to Wyoming”? Even though it may have been a less costly solution, the reality is, not everyone can […]

Protect Thy Horse – Horse Stall Safety Justine orders materials, gets trusses built and coordinates deliveries for Hansen Pole Buildings. Besides juggling a plethora of plates, she also is of the inquisitive nature – always wants to know more. She reads, learns and pays attention. She recently read this on an online forum and shared […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

OK, I admit, at times I can be a bit “over-the-top” when it comes to pole buildings. I even get Google alerts for any stories which mention pole buildings! Nearly every day there is an alert about a pole building having been broken into. Pretty sad, when one thinks about it, as the concept of […]

While contractors and future pole building owners may moan and groan about having to provide detailed plans for new buildings to their permit issuing authorities – it does better assure the new construction will prove to be Code conforming. Structural plan review, along with site inspections done by certified inspectors help to make sure work […]

Here is the scene…. Our client has ordered a pole building kit package which is designed around sidewall columns spaced every 14’. For those who care, the building has a design roof snow load of 30 psf (pounds per square foot) and the actual roof dead load carried by the roof purlins (including the purlins […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

The year before I started my prefabricated metal-plate connected roof truss career with Coeur d’Alene Truss in 1977, they had provided hundreds of 60 foot span trusses for a cabinet manufacturing plant. The building was being erected by an experienced contractor who had an excellent reputation for quality. For my future employer, this was their […]

I recently read an article in Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave about “Historic barn enthusiasts preserve living agricultural heritage” written by Zinta Aistars. In the story Steve Steir, president of the Michigan Barn Preservation Network is quoted, “Barns are a symbol of peace and quiet, you can see the bones of the building when you walk […]

In 1960 Chubby Checker did a cover of the Hank Ballard and the Midnighters 1959 song “The Twist”. Checker’s cover reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 both in 1960 and again in 1962, becoming the only single to reach number one in two different chart runs. While “The Twist” was a musical hit, […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

In the case of most pole buildings – doors are an important feature. As long as they open and close as expected, most people really don’t give much, if any thought to them. Overhead doors offer many things which other door choices do not. Here are some things which are all too often not considered […]

Market What we Make or Make What we Market? In the last half of the 1990’s I owned a prefabricated metal plated truss manufacturing business. One thing lead to another and I found myself serving five terms on the board of directors of the Machine Stress Rated Lumber Producers Council https://msrlumber.org/. Of the 11 directors, […]

Everyone always wants to pay as little as possible, right? Well, maybe not. Wearing shoes right now? If so, look down at them. If they are a generic brand from a discount store, then maybe you are one of the few who fit into the always paying as little as possible group. There is a […]

I have configured both Google and Yahoo for notifications every time “pole barn” or “pole building” comes up in a new or edited article on the Internet. One of the things I am looking for is new or innovative ways people use buildings. Some of them make for interesting potential blog posts. From Van Buren […]

Wind Happens… …even close to home (or home of Hansen Pole Buildings anyhow) in Roberts County, SD! Friday, October 11, at 5:25 p.m. a tornado touched down about 10 miles northeast of Dumont, (just across the border into MN) in a soybean field. As the tornado moved to the northwest, it struck a barn which […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

The following story by Zack McDonald appeared in the October 17, 2013 Panama City, FL The News Herald: “PARKER — Residents may want to hold off on building any pole barns, carports, garages or storage sheds in their front yards within the next three months. They might be asked to remove them at their own […]