Tag Archives: house plans

Pole Building House Plans

It seems more and more people are looking towards pole buildings for their new homes. We have clients asking us nearly every day, if they can “see” the available floor plans we have for pole building houses.

Post Frame HomeUnlike typical residential “plan mills” or most ‘modern’ builders, we do not have a set list of house plans at our fingertips. We much rather prefer each of our clients develop their own floor plan, based upon what fits best with their particular needs – then “wrap” the pole building shell around where the future rooms will be.

If this task sounds daunting, don’t let it be – all it takes is a little thought on your part. Your pole building home is going to be where you live for many years, possibly the balance of your lifetime. Give thought to what your needs are today, as well as into the future, and you can have a design which will keep you satisfied for years to come.

Things to consider include room orientation. If the site has a view, face the most “lived in” spaces towards the view. For most families this would include the master bedroom, kitchen and family rooms.

Think about the future, while most of us are fairly spry when our children are young, do we really want to be making repeated trips up and down stairs to a second floor or basement at retirement age?

Minimization of steps is huge, so give thought as to how to reduce them and keep things convenient. Try to avoid having to walk through one room to reach another, and keep any hallways short. With an attached garage, keep the distance from it to the kitchen as short as possible, and on a direct route. Detached or no garage? Have an entry way nearby between parking areas and kitchen. Carrying groceries long distances becomes tedious quickly.

Eating areas should be incorporated into the kitchen. Large well planned kitchens are a plus, and islands are quite popular. Draw a triangle between sink, range and refrigerator. The three legs of the triangle should be no greater than 22 feet and the dishwasher should be along one of the legs (and next to the sink). Two dishwashers and two microwaves are very handy – seriously, once you have experienced it, there is no going back, you will be hooked. Islands should be 42 to 48 inches from any counter, and there should be at least three feet of counter between a refrigerator and the sink. If at all possible, incorporate a pantry into your plans.

Formal dining rooms are pretty much a thing of the past (along with living rooms and foyers), but if there is to be one, it should be adjacent to the kitchen as well.

Family rooms are exactly what they sound like – where the family gathers. Allocate 200 or more square feet here. Being adjacent or open to the kitchen is becoming increasingly popular.

Laundry rooms should be planned to be convenient to either the bedrooms, or the kitchen. Locating them in an attached garage, or on a different floor makes the task of doing the wash not nearly as enjoyable or practical. Consider if you want the laundry room to double as a mud room as well.

There should be a coat, boot, glove, umbrella, etc., closet located nearby any door to the outside world.

All bedrooms should be either close to, or have a bathroom attached.

Large master bedrooms are wonderful and chances are good most couples will spend a fair amount of time in them (easily over 1/3rd of your life). Consider room for a couch or love seat, to watch TV or read. Space for a desk or your favorite exercise equipment? Walk in closets and spacious bathrooms make for an inviting master suite.

With secondary bedrooms, I usually recommend keeping them as small as possible, if you have children, they grow up quickly and face it – they never want to hang out in their rooms anyhow. Plan on about 100 square feet, plus a good sized closet (should be at least two feet deep by six to eight feet long). Well planned closets also make for good sound barriers to adjacent rooms (think the master bedroom). Secondary/guest bathrooms can be about five by seven feet.

Plumbing costs are reduced by having bathrooms and laundry rooms close or adjacent to each other, or if on multiple levels, stacking them.

From this outline, consider how much space is ideally needed for each room. Which rooms need to be located next to which and draw a box around the rooms. Use grid paper and make cut-outs of every room – move them around on a table until it you feel the flow of the rooms and consider all options. Voila! You now have “YOUR” house plans! The nice thing about a pole building framework – none of the interior walls are “structural”. As kids grow up and leave home, you can move interior walls and combine kids’ rooms into a den or larger family room. You have the greatest potential to get your dream home…with a pole building!

Dear Pole Barn Guru: Do You Have House Floor Plans?

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” email address.

Email all questions to: PoleBarnGuru@HansenPoleBuildings.com

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Could you send me some house floor plans that you have made or that you have? We just are not very good at coming up with the sizes. We have looked at a double wide house that we really like but we are not sure if thats something we could find and some how send to you. BAFFLED

DEAR BAFFLED: As we provide the structural building shells, and not any non-structural interior walls, we have no “house floor plans”. A good way to come up with sizes is to take a tape measure to the rooms in the house or apartment you live in now. Same with the double wide you liked – go measure the rooms. Do paper cutouts of different pieces of furniture (to scale) and place them on rooms drawn to scale. There are also numerous FREE room planning tools on the net. One source is: https://freshome.com/2010/08/18/10-best-free-online-virtual-room-programs-and-tools/

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Where do I place screws for exposed fastener applications? SCREWED IN SCHENECTADY.

DEAR SCREWED: A properly installed screw will be down in the flat of the panel. (Some companies errantly install them on the high part of the ribs).  At this location the steel panel has solid wood right below and good compression on the washer can be obtained. With thermal movement in the panel, the screw will be put into shear, not bending, and the hole thru the steel panel will slightly elongate.

When we tested full sized roofs, under controlled laboratory situations, we found repeatedly cycling horizontal loads (which simulated wind) into the roof system, also caused the holes in the steel panels to elongate, when using the industry standard #9 or #10 diameter screws. The mechanical engineer, Merle Townsend, who did our testing, designed the “Diaphragm screw” as a result of this actual testing.

As long as this slot does not exceed the diameter of the washer, the hole will remain sealed. In order to prevent undue slotting, only “Diaphragm screws” should be used to attach through screwed steel roofs.

Additionally, the diaphragm shear capacity and shear stiffness is based on the screws being installed in the flat of the panel. If screws are installed in the top of the rib, the diaphragm would be much more flexible and would not be as strong.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Do you sell metal trusses?  If not, can you recommend someone?  We live in Hastings MN. HARRIED IN HASTINGS

DEAR HARRIED: We do not. We’d need to know more about how you anticipate using them, to be able to give you a better idea. Unless you are looking at a tremendously huge span (over 100′) steel trusses are generally not cost effective.

For relatively small span residential and commercial applications, where trusses will be placed every two feet, some metal connector plated wood truss fabricators are also offering light gauge steel trusses.

In some parts of the country (especially Arkansas and Alabama) there are a plethora of folks who manufacture welded up steel trusses made from angle iron and rebar. There may be some questions as to the engineering and integrity of these products, as most of them are utilized in buildings which do not require building permits.