DEAR POLE BARN GURU: We are planning to build a pole barn in the near future and, I need some advice on the footings. depth width etc. We are planning to use rough cut 6×6 pine for the posts and plan to use anchors. The soil here on the property is very sandy. I’ve set […]

I’ve designed a fair number of interesting cantilevers in my time, but they have always been as original construction, not as an “add on” after the fact. Here is a request for a cantilevered roof extension from FRED in BURLINGTON: DEAR POLE BARN GURU: My 30′ x 54′ x 12′ pole barn was constructed in […]

Understanding the Needs of Load Bearing Finish I sadly hear this story all too often. A brand new post frame building which quite possibly will not meet the load needs of the owner due to lack of due diligence upon the part of whomever sold the building. Here is the story and my response: DEAR […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I am building a pole barn with rafters at 16″ OC. We sheeted the roof and sides of it. The building is 16′ wide with and engineered ridge pole. Do I need knee bracing at each of the posts along the walls? Can I skip putting the bracing on the corners? […]

When Clients get into Panic Mode Most of us have been there with a major purchase – we were all excited about it and then somewhere before it gets delivered we start to second guess ourselves. Here is an example: Dear Mr. Xxxxxx ~ Thank you for your investment into a new Hansen Pole Building. […]

July 12, 1976 had Richard Dawson (Corporal Peter Newkirk of Hogan’s Heroes fame) uttering these words, “and the survey says” on the very first Family Feud television game show.  Sadly Mr. Dawson has met his demise, however the show goes on with Steve Harvey as the current host. Well, when it comes to placing your […]

Some Unsuspecting Person Will Buy This Building (or one like it) The post frame (pole barn) building industry is relatively unfettered by needs for buildings to have structural plan reviews (In My Humble Opinion [IMHO] BAD), building inspections (again IMHO – BAD), and plans sealed by a registered design professional (architect or engineer – again […]

Shopping for Pole Barn Engineering When most of us shop for a new computer or a new car, we don’t go shopping for the best deal on the design so we can go buy the pieces on our own – we shop for the finished product which best meets with our needs. Getting a “great […]

Not All Pole Barns Are Designed to Code Mandated Wind Loads Photo by Lewis Geyer, Longmont Times-Call Debris are all which remains of a pole barn formerly belonging to Tom Bennett of Berthoud, Colorado. According to Berthoud Fire Chief, Rob Stumpf, their office received a call about 9:15 on Monday morning, January 9, 2017 to […]

Differentiation- Pole Barn Comparisons In today’s world savvy shoppers can go on the internet and fairly quickly track down the best buy on virtually any commodity item. Sometimes even pole barn comparisons. According to the sum of all knowledge, Wikipedia: “The term commodity is specifically used for an economic good or service when the demand for it […]

Yes, it happens. My long time readers will recall I owned two prefabricated light gauge metal plate connected wood truss plants in a not too distant past. And yes – this may come as a surprise – truss people are not perfect. In this particular case, we had set out what we needed explicitly as […]

The Builder Knows More Than We do…. After Hansen 18k Plus Buildings Very few things in life frighten me. Among them are heights (growing up in a family of framing contractors and having vertigo issues were not a good mix) and builders who tell me, “I can build anything”. This last one usually sets off […]

ASCE/SEI 7 Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures The times, they keep a changing, and as they do Building Codes and Building Design becomes increasingly more complex. My long time readers have read my preaching about why all buildings should be designed by Registered Design Professionals (RDP – architects or engineers) to insure […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can you supply me with a copy of the sparrow barn in Texas plans It is a wedding venue I would like to copy. JAMES in HAMPTON DEAR JAMES: Certainly we can, stamped by a registered professional engineer, and custom designed for your climactic loads – and for free. They come […]

Design Wind Speed Changes with Building Code Editions Every three years a new version of the International Building Code (IBC) is printed, which brings with it the latest and greatest information for building design as approved by Code Officials. State and local permit issuing jurisdictions then can either adopt or amend the Code as they […]

40’ x 60’ Used Pole Building – $14000 (Silverton)  SERIOUSLY? The following ad appeared in the Salem, Oregon Craigslist December 6, 2016 in for sale > farm & garden – by owner: “I have a nice fully enclosed 14 foot tall pole building. It is fully disassembled and ready for transport. All the metal is […]

When Buildings Fall Down, People Can Die It was a busy Friday morning in downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota on December 2nd of this year. About 10:30 a.m. near the corner of East 10th Street and South Phillips Avenue, Boyd McPeek was inside the Coffea coffee shop, when the 1916 building across the street collapsed. […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I am building a pole barn 50 foot clear span wide, and 70 foot long, 16 foot to the eve. I am using 4×4 metal uprights on 20 foot spans, red iron purlins and stringers, and 4×4 metal welded all around the top. I am using conventional wood trusses engineered for […]

FREE Engineered Pole Building Plans! Yep, you heard it here first…. on Roller Derby (borrowed from Cheech and Chong’s 1973 album Los Cochinos from a skit about the “Evelyn Woodhead Sped Riddin’ course”). Today’s article was sparked into being by an email I recently received: “I’m an architect trying to provide bid documents for a […]

Readers: This is another one of those “Dear Pole Barn Guru” questions where the answer is so lengthy it deserves an article all of its own! DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Why 10d nails? Do you know how difficult it is to get 10d nails? Every hardware store in my area has big boxes of 8d, 16d, and […]

Please Structurally Design My Pole Barn for Free This is one of those POLE BARN GURU questions which results with a lengthy enough answer I feel I must devote a whole column to it. DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Could you please help clarify, for a 40 ft. wide x 64 ft. long x 15 ft. […]

Back in 2000, I had the pleasure of working with Dale Schiferl when we were both with Gruenwald Engineered Laminates, Inc.™ (https://gruen-wald.com/) , manufacturers of (among other things) glu-laminated columns for post frame (pole) buildings. Dale and I both moved on, Dale to open Timber Technologies, LLC, the manufacturer of Titan Timbers™. Dale and his […]

When I attended Bowdish Junior High School in the early 1970s it was located in a rapidly growing area of the Spokane Valley of Washington. When the classrooms were filled beyond capacity, the school district opted to throw their resources into the rental of temporary classrooms (also known as portables). As an adult, and knowing […]

If an Engineer Didn’t Structurally Design This Building, Then Who Did? Many of you have been reading the ongoing and sad saga of Jimmy’s building…..here is the next installment: Jimmy: “You should go buy a lottery ticket, I asked the builder, he told me only on industrial buildings do they use engineering plans. There is […]

Don't be Like Jimmy's Parents A new post frame (pole) building or barn is an investment, a very permanent investment. Readers have been following a couple of articles involving Jimmy's new building, which is NOT a Hansen Pole Building and Jimmy is not very happy. This is how the building was purchased (in Jimmy's words): […]

One of the great things about post frame (pole) building construction is the ability to add interior raised spaces (think lofts, mezzanines and second stories). One of the most overlooked things about adding such space is proper engineering design. In general I have found them to be inadequate to support the loads. This can result […]

Don’t Cut Trusses! In regards to cutting trusses, an excerpt from the NDS® (National Design Specification for Lumber®) is quoted in the Hansen Pole Buildings’ Construction Manual: “Cutting and altering of trusses is not permitted. If any truss should become broken, damaged, or altered, written concurrence and approval by a licensed design professional is required.” […]

Undertaking a commercial building development is a big step for many businesses and it’s an investment which shouldn’t be taken lightly by any means. Unfortunately, too many commercial developments are rushed into for one reason or another—time constraints force the project ahead and before you know it, you’re left with a project coming in overtime […]

One of my loyal readers asked this question in regards to a previous blog post: “We have a pole barn/shed which is 50 X96 plus an additional 16 leant-to tied to posts which creates a total building size of 66 X96. Question is, Can I take out the knee braces on the side with the […]

Every Hansen Pole Building Kit Package comes with building plans which are drafted by a real live human being! They are then reviewed not once, but twice, by upper level team members – who catch just about every errant line. To insure the final building plans are correct (usually it is an issue of “no, […]

From Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designer Rachel: “A nice lady from Pennsylvania called and said she was looking to get some advice.  Her husband died five months ago and she is having a pole building put up.  It sounds as though they have the poles up, skirtboard on and the concrete poured although there is a […]

Even though it is now May – the heavy snowfalls in the New England states this past winter have left many with concerns. Here is an actual conversation, between a client who recently invested in a new Hansen Pole Building kit package, and our Technical Support Department: Client: “Good Afternoon, Quick couple of questions.  The […]

ASK THE POLE BARN GURU is for everyone – those who own, or hope to own, a pole building, contractors as well as Building Officials. Here is a real life interaction with a Building Official: “I have a customer erected pole barn 50 x 60 and very concerned with 50 foot span engineered trusses resting […]

Larimer County, Colorado I drive through the Fort Collins area about once a year. Other than the urbanized areas, the terrain is a classic example of Exposure C for wind (for a “fun” wind exposure story read https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2011/11/wind_exposure/ or to get more technical: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2012/03/wind-exposure-confusion/). One of our clients had been discussing with Hansen Pole Buildings […]

Regardless of what side of the climate change argument one is on – it has been snowing in Massachusetts this winter. A lot. Late January’s Winter Storm Juno alone brought up to 36 inches of snow in some parts of Massachusetts. https://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/winter-storm-juno-snow-totals-wind-gusts As if Juno wasn’t enough, another storm followed – leaving so much snow […]

Back in 2007, we designed and provided a pole building kit package for Chris W. in North Carolina. Chris’ building is 40 foot wide by 50 feet long enclosed with a 14 foot eave height. Along one sidewall his building has a 20 foot wide roof only shed, with a 10’ low eave. In order […]

Humor me here – do a Google, Yahoo or Bing search for either “Free Pole Barn Plans” or “Free Pole Building Plans”. Up should come a million or so choices. With all of those possibilities, it has to be a great way to go….right? To begin with, keep in mind free pole barn plans are […]

If it is On the Internet, It Must be True The internet is a great and wonderful place, a highway with a plethora of information rapidly available on nearly any subject. And for me, it has been my livelihood for the past dozen years. On the ‘net can be found websites like Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), or […]

National Lampoon’s Vacation In the iconic 1983 movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, the Griswold family plans a trip to Wally World to see Marty Moose Just like the Griswold’s plans, sometimes best laid plans for buildings don’t come out just as anticipated. Wrong turns are made, dimensions sometimes go astray. Face it. In life, stuff happens. […]

Michael Perry is a Wisconsin author, humorist and intermittent pig farmer. Below I have excerpted from his November 10, 2014 article in the Wisconsin State Journal, “Weather just might call for a torpedo heater”. For more about Michael Perry’s work see www.sneezingcow.com “Nothing captures the changing seasons like that moment when your cousin the carpenter […]

You Want To Add What to Your Building? For the most part, adding random extra framing members to a new pole building kit package is not a big deal. There is at least one crucial exception – which could result in a catastrophic collapse if included. We go to great extremes to supply original pole […]

When Plans Examiners Try to Apply the “CODE” to Pole Buildings Today’s example happens to come from the State of Michigan, however it could happen in any Building Permit issuing jurisdiction in the U.S. What is most interesting to me about this particular example is, last November I was invited to be a presenter at […]

The One Simple Secret to Pole Buildings Which Stand Up HINT: It has nothing to do with how it is built! Regardless of what anyone pays for a new pole building, whether investing in a complete kit package, piece mealing it together, or having it constructed – the general idea is to have the building […]

How to Get Building Code Approval for Something New Some folks have the idea Code approval is something easy. Well, not so much….but there is a quicker and less costly approach than what most folks might have initially envisioned. The information below was provided by Qualtim (www.Qualtim.com), and at the least gives some insight into […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: My school district has two adventure courses on our property. One has been up for approx 20 years. It is made with telephone poles. We are concerned that the poles may be in need of replacement. How would we know? Is there testing we could have done? ROWING ON LAKE RONKONKOMA […]

My regular “day job” is as Technical Director for Hansen Pole Buildings. This is a fancy title for, “the guy who solves problems when things go astray”. DIYers are frankly hilarious, as they come holding hat-in-hand saying things like, “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve done wrong, it has to be the worst mistake ever!” In […]

I was blessed to have been a member of the then American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) Structural Committee back in the latter half of the 1980s. Blessed because there were many brilliant engineers on the committee who were very focused on moving what had been “pole barns” into the Code conforming “post frame” buildings. […]

As my loyal readers know, I recently attended the NFBA (National Frame Building Association) 2014 Expo in Nashville, TN.  The NFBA (https://www.nfba.org) is the only national trade association which represents post-frame industry professionals. The association is the country’s primary source of post-frame building resources, research, networking, news and education. This is Part II on a […]

Nationwide® Insurance and Common Pole Building Failures As my loyal readers know, I recently attended the NFBA (National Frame Building Association) 2014 Expo in Nashville, TN.  The NFBA (https://www.nfba.org) is the only national trade association which represents post-frame industry professionals. The association is the country’s primary source of post-frame building resources, research, networking, news and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Finding Stuff on the Road Author’s Note: This is part 7 of a series of blogs written from a 6500+ motorcycle trip from WA to Ohio and back.  See Blog from Oct. 15th for the beginning…and hang on for the ride! There are many Building Departments who offer nifty little handouts to property owners who […]

The International Building Code (IBC) is the resultant of years of practical experience and sound engineering practice. The authors are a collective group of Building Officials and engineers, whose mission is to protect the safety of those who will be utilizing the structures built under the auspices of the Code. For practical purposes, every word, […]

Personally, I am no fan of having buildings exempted from structural plan reviews. As most of the agricultural exemption buildings tend to be pole buildings, some of them are prone to being under designed, under built, and subsequently fall down – which does not cast a fair light on the providers of pole buildings (such […]

Not everyone wants to conform to the rigid (and in some cases minimalistic) requirements of a “residential” (according to the Building Codes) airplane hangar. While a bit more work, a Building Permit can often still be obtained. Some permit issuing jurisdictions are tougher than others. In the case of an aircraft hangar which does not […]

Things Which Scare the Pooh Out of Me And we are not talking about things which go bump in the night or hide in closets waiting to jump out. Hansen Buildings’ Designer Rick recently ran up against an interesting situation. One of the responsibilities of clients is to verify the code information with their Building […]

Thanks to a High School Student My eldest step-son Jake, started a Facebook Group for students where he taught Physics at Lenore City in Tennessee. One of his students shared this with the group: “Three professionals, a mathematician, a physicist and an engineer, took their final test for their job. The sole question in the […]