Tag Archives: monitor buildings

Edge Dimples, Metal Truss Spacing, and Monitor Buildings

This Wednesday the Pole Barn Guru discusses reader questions regarding panels with “edge wave/dimples,” metal truss spacing for an ag building, and monitor building widths.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Good afternoon, on a few jobs we’ve had installed the lap leg on it has had edge wave/dimples along the panel, with no rhyme or reason as to where the dimples are. This is causing the panel to not lay 100% perfect and have small gaps along it as well if you look from the side. When looking at the panel on the ground it appears you do not see the wave/dimples. It is 29ga az50 galvalume painted, 3/4″ high rib exposed fastener ag panel. Do you know what could possibly be causing this? I attached a picture as well. Thank you! Tyler

DEAR TYLER: Most often this is caused by handling issues before steel is on ground at your jobsite – after first time I had to deal with it I made it a point to double check overlapping edges of all skids for damage before driver sped away to his or her next delivery. Any appearance of a wave on this edge and back on truck it went.

Your randomness issues appear to be from jobsite handling however they oftentimes can be bent back carefully by covering wave with a soft cloth and using a pair of pliers. Even if slightly over bent back, it will lay flat once screws are installed on side away from overlap.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Putting up a metal truss pole barn that calls for 12′ post centers and want to use 16′ centers for the truss using 16′ 2×6 for the purlins 30 cups per bay. Looking to get more length to barn this way. Minimum wind and snow load central Mississippi agriculture barn building housing mostly hay. Will this work or is 12′ max on metal truss bay width? 3 bays 16′ would garner me 50′ length with overhang or two 12′ bays on the end and 16 bay in middle would get me 42′ of length with foot overhang. Would either be sturdy enough for this application. TOMMY in ACKERMAN

DEAR TOMMY: Those welded up steel trusses are designed to support bare minimal loads at 12 foot on center. Spacing them any farther apart is nothing short of a recipe for failure. Also, unless you have access to some very high strength 2×6 for purlins, they would be over stressed in bending and deflect noticeably. If you want or need a longer building, invest in more trusses.

 

second floorDEAR POLE BARN GURU: Monitor barns -is it crazy to think/have 14 foot “wings” and 24 wide center? Thinking 52 wide with 14-24-14 sizing. Seems most have narrower center. Is there a reason? STEVE in WEISER

 

DEAR STEVE: Not crazy at all, we have had clients with raised center of monitor as wide as 80′. Ultimately it comes down to what dimensions work best for your wants and needs.

Often monitor buildings are used for horse stall barns, where raised center is an aisleway. In this scenario 12-16′ center widths work very well for aisles.

Roof Sheeting, Blueprints, and Condensation Control

Today the Pole Barn Guru answers reader questions about adding sheeting and tar paper to a metal roof, if we could supply blueprints for project 08-0602, and condensation control for a tight structure.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can most pole building metal roofs support the extra weight of sheeting and tar paper (underlayment)? TAMI in SCOTTSDALE

DEAR TAMI: Most pole building roof systems are designed to support a bare minimum roof dead load – usually 2.5 to 3.3 psf (pounds per square foot). If this is your case, then your structure would not be able to support this added weight. We made a decision a year ago to use a minimum top chord (roof) dead load on all our roof trusses spanning 40 feet or less of five psf – just in case our clients decided to sheet their roofs with OSB or plywood with an underlayment and didn’t tell us about it in advance.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: We want to build a pole barn 48×60 feet, like the Hansen building: Project# 08-0602 in Decatur, AL. Is there an existing blueprint we could use to built the structure and see all the bearing poles with all the dimension? We will have a designer to create the inside of the building. Are there some existing construction plans with detailed planning?
Nive Regards, PETRA in GREENBRIER

DEAR PETRA: Thank you for your interest in a new custom designed, fully engineered Hansen Pole Building. While we, of course, have in our records engineered plans for this structure. Due to differences in Building Code versions (referenced building was under 2006 Codes), and variations in design snow and wind loads, we would furnish an updated structural set of blueprints with your investment in your new building. These plans detail out locations and connections for every structural component of your building.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I have a 24×40 barn (steel sides, shingled/sheathed roof, concrete floor) that I’ll be heating. Walls and ceiling will have fiberglass batts insulation along with a vapor barrier on walls under OSB sheathing. OSB on ceiling as well. A buddy of mine caulked all his OSB joints then painted (latex) walls and ceiling in an attempt to further improve heating situation. In other blogs/questions you’ve answered with similar setups you talk about the importance of vapor and/or heated air needing to escape through ceiling into attic to help get rid of moisture. Will caulking and painting walls and ceiling limit the proper venting of moisture vapor from escaping my heated barn? JOHN in RICHLAND

DEAR JOHN: When buildings get so tight, it becomes necessary to use mechanical dehumidifying in order to prevent condensation challenges. For a barn, this might prove to be a greater investment than you wish to undertake.

Provided you have either no vapor barrier, or a Weather Resistant Barrier directly beneath your steel siding, if you caulk and paint interior walls, no vapor barrier and unfaced insulation will probably be more than an adequate design solution. You may want to consider rock wool batts as you are likely to have some condensation on inside of wall steel and fiberglass loses performance and can be prone to mold once it has gotten wet.

 

 

Monitor Style, Cost to Build a Floor Plan, and Adding OHD Openers

This Monday the Pole Barn Guru answers questions about the possibility of an open floor plan Monitor style building, what the costs of building s specific floor plan might be, as well advice on adding overhead door operators to a building.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can you design a truss system for a monitor style building that has a complete open floor plan. 50 Ft front x 40 Ft depth. RON in SANGER

Monitor Barn Interior

DEAR RON: Absolutely. My first one was about 25 years ago, when I was a post frame builder. It was not near this wide, but I have since been involved in many others, both lesser and greater in width.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: How much would it cost to build this? I do not two RV doors. Can go with a smaller or shorter door on one side only. We would like it plumbed for sinks and showers ect but do not need to include the sinks, shower, toilet, cabinets ect. Just the walls. REBECCA in OLYMPIA

 

DEAR REBECCA: To some extent it will depend upon how you run rooflines. I would be inclined to recommend your garage area be 20’ x 42’ with a ridge line running front to back (peak gable end above where you show an RV door) with a 15’ eave height. For your living area, I would put a gable on your far right with ridgeline running towards garage area.

Other than rough-in for plumbing, you can probably safely budget $25-30 per square foot erected including a slab on grade. To get exact pricing of your building shell and discuss options, please reach out to a Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designer at 1(866)200-9657.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I’m considering purchasing a home that has a pole building with two overhead garage doors that never had openers installed. One of the doors is very high- for RV clearance. There doesn’t look like much structure above to hang them from. What would be the best way to do that or is there other opener alternatives? DAVID in WESTMINSTER

DEAR DAVID: You have stumbled upon one of my pet peeves – when sectional overhead garage doors are sold without openers. Let’s face it, almost every garage door truly should have one. It does not take much to hang an opener, should you purchase I would recommend you contact two or three of your local garage door installation companies to take a look at your building and provide a quote for openers and installation.

 

Hansen Buildings Instant Pricing

Hansen Pole Buildings’ Instant Pricing Program™

Back in 1980, when I was first exposed to pole barns, in order to give a potential client a price quote, I had to do a manual breakdown of all of the components necessary to assemble their building. Luckily, most buildings were fairly simple rectangular boxes, but it was still very time consuming.

This graduated to a price grid – where I broke down common sizes of buildings so at least there was a starting point. Of course any changes in material prices resulted in having to recreate it (again manually).

Then along came my then trusty Kaypro computer – those floppy disks allowed for me to build pricing spreadsheets. If prices changed, all I had to do was make needed corrections, hit recalculate and then return the next morning and they would usually be done! Ah, the wonders of technology!

Luckily, things have changed dramatically when it comes to computers.

Reader BLAINE in RED OAK writes:

“Do you sell the software needed to design pole barns and garages or just design buildings for people?”

Thank you very much for your interest. We spent years looking for software to accurately correctly structurally design, price and do takeoffs for post frame buildings. We even went as far as investing in a few of them. Regardless of how well hyped up any of them were or are – not a one of them began to come close to meeting even a single one of these requirements. Even if we were to severely limit what we and our clients wanted to do with buildings to only a single wind and snow load and very few features, there wasn’t anything. With one we purchased, it was supposedly going to be customer tailored to fit our needs. It was so simplistic we were appalled – when we asked about buildings with or without overhangs we were told most people just throw them in for free!! This program wouldn’t include them.

As a result of this we assembled for ourselves an IT staff second-to-none and along with our third-party independent engineer we built what we consider to be by far our industry’s best possible design software – Instant Pricing™. We continue to expand upon it and add new features daily, it is frankly astounding as it will make changes as fast as I can hunt-and-peck.

But what exactly will it do?

Included in our system is Building Code and climactic (snow, wind, earthquake) data for nearly every jurisdiction in America. It can accurately structurally design any width, length or height rectangular building to a fraction of an inch. Odd roof slopes, no problem. Steps in rooflines, various building profiles – not just gabled roofs but also hips, gambrels, monitors, single and dual slopes, roofline extensions, attached sheds and porches.
Those “throw in for free” overhangs can now be open or enclosed, on one or multiple walls, with varying lengths. End overhangs can be flying gables (gradually tapered), widow’s peaks or turkey tails.

Choices are available for a myriad of roofing and siding combinations. Multiple floors, lofts or mezzanines can be included. This list goes on-and-on!

But it is far more than just an amazing pricing tool. It also generates quotes and invoices and is integrated with our client database. Material takeoffs are generated as well as purchase orders for materials!

Because it is so sophisticated and we make constant upgrades we feel it is not practical to release for public consumption at this time.

For those clients who are searching for an exactly right post frame building, we’d like to believe Hansen Pole Buildings is a right fit. Please give us a call today 1 (866) 200-9657, you will be pleased you did!