Tag Archives: Grade change

Materials for Girts, a Raised Floor, Truss Loads

This week the Pole Barn Guru answers reader questions about girt material choices for a 60’x120′ shed, Mike’s thoughts on a raised floor to compensate for a 7% grade change, and if some 4′ oc trusses can handle the load of a heater.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I plan on putting up a 60′ x 120′ post frame shed. I’m going to run my 6×6 posts at 8′ o.c. can I use all 8′ 2×6 material for the girts or should I have some 16′ material staggered in with the 8′ material? Will that increase the strength or do you think it would be similar? Thanks guru! JASON in NEW HOLSTEIN

DEAR JASON: Depending upon eave height, design snow and wind loads and wind exposure 6×6 may be inadequate to carry imposed loads. Using 16′ external girt material will be slightly stiffer against wind loads perpendicular to girt and will deflect slightly less. They will not impact overall building strength. Depending upon spacing, grade and species of 2×6, and again design wind speed and wind exposure, they may also prove to be inadequate.

Personally, I would look at using glu-laminated columns every 12′, double trusses directly aligned with columns and 2×6 bookshelf style wall girts. This will result in fewer holes to dig and fewer pieces to have to handle and install. It also allows for wider sidewall door openings, without requiring large headers.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I’m building a home on land that is at a 7% grade from top to bottom. I was thinking about doing a raised floor/crawlspace with the back aligned closer to grade and the front more elevated. What are your thoughts on this idea, and elevated floor pole buildings generally? I assume you would support the floor with piers instead of spanning entirely? Thanks! MATTHEW in HOUSTON

DEAR MATTHEW: Having built for myself an elevated floor post frame building (I had 14 feet of grade change in 24 feet), I feel as though they are a great solution. Unless you had enough grade change to practically utilize space below, I would use interior columns to reduce spans of beams and joists – little, short columns being far less expensive than large multiple ply beams and large dimension floor joists. My knees also prefer to live on wood, rather than concrete – making this a double win.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hot Dawg™ heater…..just built a 40×30 pole barn. 4/12 roof, trusses are 4′ apart, wanting to hang a 80kbtu heater from trusses, with steel channels being suspended from two trusses. Will trusses handle the weight? Thank you. SHARKBITE

DEAR SHARKBITE: In order to determine if your trusses can handle weight of this unit, you would need to look at your engineer sealed roof truss drawings. If Bottom Chord Dead Load (often shown as BCDL) is less than five (5) psf (pounds per square foot) then probably not. Ideally, reach out to whomever fabricated your trusses. Give them weight of your unit, where you propose to hang it, as well as if you have a ceiling and insulation and they can give you a definitive thumbs up or down.

Building Codes, Site Prep, and Heating & Cooling Efficiency

This Wednesday the Pole Barn Guru answers reader questions about whether or not a Hansen Building meets Florida/Dade building codes + a few others, optimal materials for site prep on a grade, and heating & cooling efficiency in a long, narrow structure.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: A few questions:- Do your products meet Miami/Dade building codes? If no you can ignore the remaining questions.- Do you build telephone style structures?- Have you built projects for zoos?- Have you built animal habitats, climbing structures for monkeys? You can call me for more information. Thank you. CHARLES in KISSIMMEE

DEAR CHARLES: Yes, our fully engineered buildings can meet or exceed Miami/Dade building codes.

We are not contractors, so we do not build anything. We provide fully engineered custom kits – designed to be erected D-I-Y or (for those without time or inclination) by a building erector of our client’s choice.

We do not use telephone (utility) poles for any of our buildings, whether new or recycled. We have provided buildings at zoos, amongst them would be Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs, Colorado) Zoo’s Nature Center and Las Vegas, Nevada zoo’s giraffe barn. Our buildings incorporate structural aspects needed to adequate enclose spaces – roof, walls, doors, windows, any elevated wood floors and stairs. Non-structural aspects of our buildings are left to our clients.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I’m building a pole barn on an uneven build site and am trying to figure out the best material to level the site with. I need as much as 3ft of material in some areas. I can get sand for cheap nearby but I didn’t know if it was the appropriate material for setting poles.

As an added complication, I’ve already acquired my poles, which won’t reach the soil beneath the fill material. However, I will be compacting the material in lifts. REID

DEAR REID: While sand compacts well, it also is prone to washouts. Please read: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2011/11/site-preparation/
and subsequent four articles to follow (use right arrow at bottom of article to move to next).

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I’ve enjoyed perusing your website 😉 We will be building at some point in the next few years, land is already purchased. I designed our current home, but plan to have help on our future home.
The prettier view will be to the North, but I always want Southern exposure in every room possible. Do you think it is a bad idea to design a home that is only one room (24’) deep? It would be long and narrow. I guess my primary concern is heating & cooling efficiency.
Any thoughts you can share would be greatly appreciated! I will likely get back to you for a quote on designing our home, when I get my ideas pulled together. JOYCE in QUINCY

DEAR JOYCE: Provided you are able to locate your HVAC so it is centralized heating and cooling should not be an issue with a long and narrow floor plan. You see this regularly done with manufactured housing.

Your biggest challenge will be laying out rooms so they can have both a North view and a Southern exposure. Unless your plan is to have basically only three major room zones, say a great room in center with a bedroom suite to each side of it, you are going to either be forced to have a hallway, or rooms with only either a view or exposure.

Our staff floor plan experts can help to create your ideal dream floor plan with this look. Every barndominium Hansen Pole Buildings provides is 100% custom designed to best meet the wants and needs of our clients and their loved ones, please see #3 here to assist in determining needed spaces and approximate sizes, and to have professional floor plans and elevation drawings produced affordably. https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2021/02/a-shortlist-for-smooth-barndominium-sailing/

Bonus Pole Barn Guru Tuesday

Bonus Pole Barn Guru Tuesday- Today’s extra answers questions about cupolas, heating a monitor style building, and steep grade changes on a build site.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: We are considering putting two cupolas on the roof. Can we run our drain waste vents through them instead of through the roof itself? BRANDON in CALVERT CITY

DEAR BRANDON: Provided they are vented cupolas, I am finding nothing in Building Codes prohibiting this. You will want to confirm this with your local Building Inspector.

A caution, however, you may experience undue condensation caused by warm moist air escaping your vent and contacting cooler metal surfaces of your cupolas. It may be beneficial to have closed cell foam insulation sprayed on interior of any metal surfaces of vents of your cupolas to create a thermal break.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Is the Monitor style bad for heating/cooling costs? Also, what style is best for energy costs in a metal home? If we want a loft area do you need to have a vent up top to aid in the summer heat in such cases? HEATH in LEIGHTON

Hansen Pole Buildings GuesthouseDEAR HEATH: The most economical for heating and cooling will be a square building on a single level. Your challenge with any two-story or lofted building is heat rises – so to cool to a comfortable level upstairs, it is frigid downstairs. I had this problem with our two story home in Washington, so when we built our multi-level shouse, we had individual heat pumps, heating and A/C units for each floor. Your need for venting will depend upon how you are insulating. If you are doing a finished ceiling across bottom of trusses, with blown insulation directly above, then your dead attic space being created will need to be vented (ideally with eave and ridge vents).

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can you design a cabin pole building to set on a lot with about a 30% slope? Thanks. STEVE in ANDREWS

DEAR STEVE: When our mountainside home near Spokane, Washington needed a new garage with 14 feet of grade change in 24 feet, we went with post frame – doing a ‘stilt’ house. Unless you are in a flood zone, this is normally far less expensive than excavating your bank to do a footing and foundation, or bringing in a plethora of truckloads of fill in order to get to a level building site. This should work well with your new cabin.

Solving a Massive Pole Building Grade Change

Solving Massive Post Frame Building Grade Change

Most everything about post frame building construction is predicated upon “your clear, level site”. But, what happens when (like most of our planet) there is not a flat level place to start with – instead there exists massive amounts of grade change?

Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designer Doug ran into one of these situations recently and shot up a distress flare looking for some advice:

“Anybody have an opinion on what be the most cost effective or least painful
course of action for this soon to be-I hope-client?”

Here is information from Doug’s client:

“Attached are pictures of the dig to the right of my driveway cutting into
the hillside. On the left side in front of the Bobcat appears to be close to
finished grade. The cut at that point is nearly 7 feet tall. The soil type
is decomposed granite. With a few spots of stubborn rock.

My options at this point are to build a engineered retaining wall to hold
back the soil before building a pole barn on the flat spot, with drainage
coming from around the back to the front. The other option is to just do a
spread footing with a foundation wall. and then a curb wall of a 2 x 6 on
top of that.

The most creative thought would be to do both in the same wall. The wall
would be supported in and by itself, and the building would stand next to the
wall, supported on posts with loads at the post, and not on top of the wall.
Is that even possible?
Thanks
Bobby”

Mike the Pole Barn Guru writes:

Well, luckily or unluckily, I have a similar situation on one of my own personal post frame buildings at Newman Lake, Washington. Here was what we came up with as a best solution: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2012/02/grade-change/. In this scenario, our post frame wall columns are mounted to ICFs on “cut” sides and traditionally embedded on flat or low sides.

Post frame construction is moving pedal to floor into residential markets where these types of scenarios are going to appear more and more.

I can see these types of scenarios being eventually added as options to Hansen Pole Buildings’ “Instant Pricing™” system where we could not only design and price but also provide blocks, connectors and needed rebar.

Just more moves in providing “The Ultimate Post-Frame Building Experience™”

Considering constructing on a less than ideal site? Call 1(866)200-9657 and discuss your situation with a Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designer today.

Post Protector Surprise

Post Protector Surprise

Reader CONNOR from INDIANAPOLIS and I recently had an exchange in regards to the holes of his new post frame building. Connor is proposing to use Post Protectors on the columns of his building. What he has yet to realize is there is going to be a hidden surprise with the use of Post Protectors, given the grade change at his site.
Here is what Connor wrote in response to me:

“Thanks for your quick response Mike!
I grant you that I am picky… I am using post-protectors and I wanted to have them uniform in length across the top without trimming (hence the question on leveling out hole bottoms).
The holes are 58″ in depth for 48″ embedment plus 10″ footers. I am using 16′ posts, so no worries there. Your answer on not being able to adequately compact the gravel was what I was after… I’ll just suck it up and trim the tops of the post protectors level once the posts are set.

14 ft wide doorI considered floating the posts, but my site is not level (about 18″ drop from eave to eave) and I decided it would be easier to shoot the laser level, vary hole depth as needed while augering, and haul in my gravel and crusher base later on to bring the site level. I believe I read another post on your site of someone who tried to float on a non-level site and ran into issues.

I have 16 footers at 10″ deep, which comes out to ~1.5 yards. I am using a local small-truck ready mix company (1-4 yards w/o short load fee) for the footer pour, and will have them back out early next week to pour 12″ concrete collars. I actually spoke with the post-protector guys, and they took no issue with me placing two #5 9″ rebar sticks crosswise through the post protector walls, post, and into the concrete collar. They did advise to drill one weep-hole at the base of the protector (for water to drain until collars are poured) and to wrap the tops with shrink wrap until the walls are up.
That said… 12″ collars are as required by local code… does that sound sufficient to you?

Thanks!”

Mike the Pole Barn Guru Responds:
I do certainly like areas of the country where premix concrete can be purchased without a huge premium for needing small quantities.
With the sticks of rebar to hold the 24″ diameter by 12″ thick bottom collar of concrete to the column, your building engineer will probably agree you are okay to prevent uplift issues – provided the earth above the collar is properly compacted, usually no more than every six inches.

Now for the surprise I promised….

Post protectors come in one size 60″. If your intent is to bury columns 48 inches deep and you have 18 inches of grade change, there comes a point at which the top of the post protector will be below grade.

 

Condensation Control, Home Plans, and Grade Changes!

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: If I put double bubble under metal on roof for condensation control, then insulate bottom chord of trusses with white vinyl faced insulation , will this create a problem if I ventilate attic space ? Thanks. SCOTT in DUNLAP

DEAR SCOTT: You actually have several things going on here. First, single bubble reflective radiant barrier will do everything double bubble will, at a far lesser investment. The difference in the minimal R value is a fraction of one! Your building ceiling should not have an additional vapor barrier, you want the moisture from inside the building to be able to migrate through into the ventilated attic space. Blowing in an appropriate thickness of fiberglass or cellulose insulation will be far more effective, probably less expensive and will allow the moisture through. Make sure to have adequate intake at the eaves and exhaust at the ridge to be able to properly vent the dead attic space.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hello!

Do you all also finish the interior of pole barns if we want it to be a home or would I contract that separately?

Thanks! TIFFANY

DEAR TIFFANY: Thank you for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building. We provide the custom designed plans, materials delivered to your site and assembly instructions for the shell and load supporting portions of your new building only. Any interior walls and/or interior wall finishes would be up to you to contract for.

 

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can I build a pole building home in the side of a hill, where the back will be below grade and the front above. RICK in CLEAR LAKE

Post Frame HomeDEAR RICK: Most certainly you can. I have a post frame building on the back of our property outside of Spokane, Washington. The site has 12 feet of grade change across the 40 foot width. After excavating the area where the building would be placed to level, ICF blocks were placed 12 feet high along the southern wall, stepping down with the slope on the east wall, with the other two walls being “daylight” and utilizing traditional columns embedded in the ground. You can read more about my building here: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2013/06/garage/