Tag Archives: do-it-yourselfer

Looking for a Contractor to Build a Post Frame Home

More and more consumers are seeing the practicality, unique architectural and energy savings advantages as well as cost savings from a post frame home. This includes loyal reader Brian who writes:

Engineer sealed pole barnHello, my wife and I are considering building a post frame home. We contacted a designer who actually had plans for a home that is close to what we were wanting. He suggested it may be difficult to find a builder that would be comfortable building a pole barn home – so that is why I am contacting several builders to develop a list that could be considered in the future if we move in this direction.

Please find the attached plans he provided as a reference and let me know if this is a project you would be willing to tackle. Although we have not bought land we are currently looking in Warren and Clinton counties in Ohio.

Dear Brian: Thank you very much for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building. We design and provide building plans, installation instructions and materials for totally custom post frame buildings. Your proposed plan (as would be any other plan) is totally doable as a post frame (pole barn) home.

What we do not do is build. Our buildings are designed for the average do-it-yourselfer to successfully construct their own beautiful building, which is why the majority of our clients do their own work. Those who construct themselves, end up with a far better finished result than what you would get from any builder.

In the event you do hire a builder (technically an erector), any builder who can and will read and follow the plans and instructions should prove capable of doing a satisfactory job. Given your geographic location, just a caution based upon experience – there are members of a well know religious group which construct many post frame buildings in your area of the country. While their prices sound too good to be true, it is our experience they do not always build to the provided plans or follow instructions. Again, just a caution. Otherwise a capable erector should be able to construct the building shell for about 50% of what your investment in the materials is.

About Hansen BuildingsI am not normally a fan of “canned” plans for any type of construction, as they are rarely going to meet with the true needs of the client. My best advice is always going to be to determine the spaces needed, determine how large each of those spaces need to be. A good way to find the right size of rooms is to take a note pad, writing tool, and a tape measure and start visiting open houses and home tours.

Once room needs and sizes have been determined, starting putting the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together – place rooms where they are most efficiently grouped for ease of access and use. This may take some adjustments of individual room dimensions, however the resultant will be the most effective. Now, and only now, should you put the “box” around the contents!

 

 

Do It Yourself Pole Buildings: The Ikea Effect

Thanks to Hansen Pole Buildings Designer Bob, for his inspiration on this post!

Have you ever spent a couple of hours working on a craft project — or a presentation for work — and then fallen in love with the accomplishment? Do the colors picked for the PowerPoint background pop so beautifully you just have to sit back and admire your own genius?

If so, get in line: You’re the latest person to fall victim to the Ikea Effect.

Furniture AssemblyThe name for this psychological phenomenon derives from the love millions of Americans display toward their self-assembled furniture (or, dare we say it, their badly self-assembled furniture) from the do-it-yourself store with the Scandinavian name.

“Imagine that, you know, you built a table,” said Daniel Mochon, a Tulane University marketing professor, who has studied the phenomenon. “Maybe it came out a little bit crooked. Probably your wife or your neighbor would see it for what it is, you know? A shoddy piece of workmanship. But to you that table might seem really great, because you’re the one who created it. It’s the fruit of your labor. And that is really the idea behind the Ikea Effect.”

Most of us intuitively believe the things we labor at are the things we love. Mochon and his colleagues, Michael Norton at the Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely at Duke University, have turned this concept on its head. What if, they asked, it isn’t love which leads to labor, but labor which leads to love?

In a series of experiments, they have demonstrated people attach greater value to things they built than if the very same product was built by someone else. And in new experiments published recently, they’ve discovered why it happens: Building your own stuff boosts your feelings of pride and competence, and also signals to others you are competent.

Having been involved with thousands of clients who have constructed their own pole buildings, over the past three plus decades, I’ve seen the results of those who have self-assembled.  It’s astounding.

Given specific plans and good directions, these do-it-yourselfers generally end up with a far better finished building than they ever could have paid to have constructed.  And to be honest, most of these folks are lucky to have used a hammer a time or two in their lifetime before they constructed their own pole buildings.

The why, is simple….people care about their own buildings. They don’t race through the construction process trying to cut corners to save money or ignore important details.  They read directions, study the plans and if they have a question….they ASK before making a huge mistake.  OK, usually they ask.  But even if they make a “boo-boo” they are quick to humbly admit it and ask for guidance in correcting it.

From advanced geriatrics, many older couples…hubby and wife teams… to dads building with their teenage daughters as a bonding experience, I’ve been able to witness a plethora of different combinations of age, as well as prior skill sets. When it comes to constructing a pole building package, the adage is true more often than not.

If you want it done right, do it yourself.