Gordon Miller photo
Pole Barn Ignorance- Unfortunately this is still worth repeating
After spending pretty well my entire adult life in some facet of my industry, it becomes amazing to me to find pole barn ignorance. Other than recent immigrants to our country, and maybe those who have never traveled outside of urban areas most everyone should have some inkling as to what a pole barn or post frame building can be.
Even more astounding to me – when a contractor and designer appear to have very little grasp of “pole barn” construction.
Here’s an excerpt from an Oct. 18, 2018 Waterbury Record article by Caleigh Cross:
“Phil Sweet, a contractor and designer in Waitsfield, planned the barn raising, and designed a barn based off the design of a pole barn.
“Technically, a pole barn would probably be put onto bare land,” and they’re built by using salvage lumber such as old telephone poles, Sweet said.
Instead, Rosina’s new barn has both a literal and metaphorical foundation — it’s built atop the concrete foundation her grandfather had put in two generations ago, Sweet said.
“She wanted to incorporate those historic elements that were still there, and that’s what we did,” he said.
Sweet and the nine other contractors used conventional lumber, instead of salvage, and since the new barn incorporates a foundation, he’s reluctant to call it a pole barn.”
Mike the Pole Barn Guru writes:
By definition (ANSI/ASABE S618 DEC 2010 Post Frame Building System Nomenclature):
“3.1 Post-frame building system: A building characterized by primary structural frames of wood posts as columns and trusses or rafters as roof framing. Roof framing is attached to the posts, either directly or indirectly through girders. Posts are embedded in the soil and supported on isolated footings, or are attached to the top of piers, concrete or masonry walls, or slabs-on-grade.”
Our modern pole building industry wouldn’t consider using of salvage lumber or old telephone poles unless they were being used to satisfy some aesthetic needs of a client.
“The Town of xxxx stopped plan review on your project because pole buildings with the type of foundation that was called out on your plans have a 
While an embedded column pier design on a gravel base sounds wonderful, Code does require a concrete or otherwise approved footing below isolated columns in order to properly distribute weight of building and applied loads. Actual testing of pressure preservative treated columns for over 60 years has proven there to be no decay of properly waterborne pressure preservative treated wood even in the most severe climates (this testing is ongoing in Mississippi). UC-4B rated pressure preservative treated wood is rated for structural use in fresh water, so a column being wet would not increase its chances of decay. In order for decay to occur there must also be oxygen, which is only present in the upper few inches of soils.
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I remember you had a checklist to follow when building a barndominium or pole barn but I’m not sure where I saw it. Can you email where I can find it again? Thank you! Appreciate your time. MONICA in COLOMA 
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: The area where I plan to build a pole barn required fill to bring the grade up to the driveway level. My plan is to install concrete piers with the column brackets installed on top of the pier. My question is do I need to have the concrete pier depth into the virgin ground? The fill was not compacted but has been setting for one year. Also, if the pier does need to engage with virgin ground, how deep into the virgin ground does the pier need to be? CRAIG in EAST WATERBORO 
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: My contractor failed to plumb, level and square up the wall of my 40×40 pole barn before he installed the trusses and purlins. Can this be fixed before he installs the sheathing for the standing seam metal roof? Thanks in advance, PAUL in SMITHFIELD 
DEAR BOB: Weirdly enough I have installed probably tens of thousands of joist hangers and had seriously never given a thought to this (or experienced a challenge). Obviously the engineers at Simpson Strong-tie have thought this all through in designing these parts. I would think even if you were able to drive nails in from opposite sides perfectly so as they would hit each other, the point of the nail from one side would tend to deflect the nail from the opposite side. In all reality, because the holes are so close to the truss, the nails are going to be driven in at a slight angle (whether driving by hand, palm nailer or a gun). Installing all of the nails should not compromise the wood.
