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Foundation Requirements, Matching Siding, and Building Stability

This week readers “ask the Guru” about the type of foundation the “Brantley” model requires, designing siding to match existing house, and whether or not the post frame buildings are “stable enough” to drywall, and add electrical, plumbing and finishes.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: What type of foundation and footings does the Brantley model barndominium 32’x30’x20″ with attached 16’x30’x20′ SKU: 2818123 require? JENI in BORING

DEAR JENI: Thank you for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Buildings’ barndominium/shouse.

As pictured, this model (as well as all models available) is designed for a foundation system consisting of our proprietary 3000f glulaminated columns, embedded in ground roughly 40 inches, with bottom 16 inches of this being encased in concrete. This is a highly affordable and DIY friendly method of installation. As an option, we can also provide this with columns above a concrete slab on grade, utilizing Code compliant, wet-set brackets attached to concrete piers or a thickened edge slab.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I live in a neighborhood where any exterior building erected has to match your house in like kind and quality. I live on 6.5 acres, my house is around 3400 SF 2 story with brick covering around 60% and 40% is vinyl and shake vinyl. I can have a metal roof because I have metal on covered porch and a pool house. So, my question is what are the sides of these buildings made of and would I be able to brick around the bottom and then use vinyl siding and shake siding to get it to match my house? I appreciate your time. Many thanks, CHRIS in GREENVILLE

DEAR CHRIS: Fully engineered post frame buildings can be designed to accept any type of siding materials. We would typically take materials we provide through walls being sheathed with Oriented Strand Board covered with an Omni-Directional Water Resistant Barrier. We can incorporate a brick ledge into your design, so no worries.

 

Untitled design – 1

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Once the building is put together, is it stable enough for a contractor to put sheetrock walls, electrical, plumbing, and also kitchen. Also, how big do the buildings come. I’m looking for a 900 to 1200 square foot. Thank you. NONINA in CLARKSVILLE

DEAR NONINA: Our post frame homes (aka barndominiums) are engineered to meet strict International Residential Code (IRC) specifications for deflection, making them “stiff” enough for finishes such as sheetrock. As all our buildings are 100% custom designed to best meet your wants and needs, any size is a possibility.

This entry was posted in floorplans, Footings, Vinyl Siding, Building Interior, Budget, Pole Barn Design, Columns, Building Styles and Designs, Pole Barn Homes, Pole Barn Planning, Pole Barn Structure, Barndominium, Pole Building Siding and tagged , , , , on by .

Pole Barn Home Price, A Residential Kit in MN, and a Basement Foundation

Today readers “Ask the Guru” about the “guestimation” of a price for a 500 sq ft pole barn home, if Hansen can provide design and kit for a residence in MN, and if a post frame building can be built upon a basement foundation.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I am interested in getting a simple 500 square foot pole barn residential home. In location of Lonedell, Missouri, Any guestimation on price? LORI in SAINT JAMES

DEAR LORI: Thank you for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building. Fully engineered post frame homes and barndominiums, modest tastes, DIY, budget roughly $75-85 per sft for conditioned spaces, $35 for all others. Does not include land, site prep, utilities, permits.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can your company engineer and supply materials for a residential building 36′ long by 42′ wide (trusses with 15″ rise and up to 6:12 pitch) plus a right angle extension for a garage. Objective is a building to fit onto a narrow lot with the main gable parallel with the street. Does that fit your 6′ and 12′ optimal cost effective building dimensions OK? Can that be delivered without excessive delivery cost in MN. I can create and snail mail a pencil drawing of the concept if needed. Feasibility of such a building will influence potential lot acquisition. I would just like a general observation about that type of structure before proceeding on a lot purchase. BRIAN in LE ROY

DEAR BRIAN: Hansen Pole Buildings has provided hundreds of fully engineered, custom designed post frame buildings and barndominiums to our clients in Minnesota. Your multiples of 6 and 12 for width and length should be optimal for being cost effective. Our wholesale distribution center is right along Minnesota’s West central border, making deliveries very convenient and affordable.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can Post and Beam homes be built on a basement foundation? DEBORAH in TROY

DEAR DEBORAH: Our fully engineered post frame homes can be built on full, partial or walk out basements of poured concrete, CMU (concrete block), ICFs (insulating concrete forms) and even Permanent Wood Foundations.

 

 

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Questions, Pole Barn Design, Barndominium, Concrete, floorplans, Footings, Budget, Professional Engineer, Columns, Pole Barn Homes and tagged , , , , , , on by .

Will ICC Adopt a Pole-frame Appendix?

Will ICC Adopt a Pole-frame Appendix?

Reader MATT in PIERRE writes: “Is there any possibility that the ICC will adopt an appendix related to pole-frame buildings. We require engineering in our local jurisdiction at this time and it would be much simpler for customers who want to build a pole-barn if there was a way to construct these buildings without engineering. They do have an appendix for straw bale houses, of which I have seen exactly 0. Thank you!”

 

Kudos to your jurisdiction to require site specific, engineer sealed plans for pole (post) frame buildings. In my humble opinion, all post frame buildings should be engineered. This protects current and future building owners, building occupants and relieves building departments from potential liability issues. Engineering is actually an affordable investment, not an expense, and a good engineer will save their clients more from efficient use of materials, than what they were paid.

In a direct answer to your question – it would be highly unlikely, as our industry (unlike stick frame) is highly non-standardized and how buildings are built is as different as are those who construct them. There are also huge regional differences in construction techniques.

Columns can be embedded or mounted using ICC-ESR approved brackets to foundation walls, thickened edge slabs or piers. Common spacing of columns can range from every four feet to as great as 16 foot centers. Columns themselves can be round, solid sawn timbers, laminated (either by nails or actual glulams). Trusses can be built on site or prefabricated, attached to headers between columns (truss carriers) or aligned directly with columns and spaced from two to 16 feet or more on center.

Besides lack of standardization, post frame construction far exceeds building dimensional limitations as outlined in current model building codes (especially International Residential Code).

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Structure, Footings, Budget, Professional Engineer, Columns, Pole Barn Questions, Pole Barn Design, Building Department, Barndominium, Pole Barn Planning and tagged , , , , on by .

Shopping for Pole Barn Engineering

Shopping for Pole Barn Engineering
When most of us shop for a new computer or a new car, we don’t go shopping for the best deal on the design so we can go buy the pieces on our own – we shop for the finished product which best meets with our needs.
Getting a “great deal” on engineered plans only, doesn’t do the end user one iota of good, if the materials specified are not necessarily the best design solution from a cost or practicality standpoint. As a design professional – if you came to me looking for just plans, I am probably going to overkill your building, as my advance vision of you is of someone who is trying to cut corners and get by on the cheap. Chances are you will buy inferior, undersized or inadequate products and when your building doesn’t pass inspections, or fails, you will come blaming me for poor design!
Here is a recent inquiry which has triggered this article:
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Do you offer pole building engineering as a stand alone service without a kit? Can you give me an estimate on this project?
I have an attached picture of the building I am wanting to build.
All the dimensions are to fit specific needs, irrespective of available building material dimensions. If material dimensions and costs dictate different dimensions I am open to hearing suggestions.
Likewise, I like the appearance of the Monitor style building for our property and neighborhood. But if there is another layout that is much less costly to build, I am open to suggestions.
I have a meeting with the city, hopefully next week, where I can learn more about the wind and snow loads. So I am not certain of those.
Hopefully you know what is called for, because I would prefer not to wait for the city meeting to move forward.
If possible, I would like to use beam construction on the roofs, instead of trusses to gain usable height inside the main bay in particular. But if this is a problem, or it adds a great amount to the construction costs, I would be open to suggestions about trusses.
The center and left bays will have a dirt/packed earth floor. The right bay will have a wood floor for a boat shop. There is a utility sink and toilet room in the right bay.
I am hoping the engineering plan you provide has dimensions of materials, and specify correct attachment techniques or hardware requirements.
So, can you let me know a cost to provide stamped engineered plans for this building that will pass code in Port Townsend? And what would be the timeline in which you could provide those?
Thanks for your time. GALEN in PORT TOWNSEND
DEAR GALEN: Thank you very much for your inquiry. No, we are not a plan’s service. We take great pride in providing the most economical and practical engineered custom post frame building designs, along with all of the materials which meet or exceed those structural requirements delivered to your jobsite.

This is the insurance all of the components meet with the specifications called out for by our engineers, who have experience in thousands of post frame building designs. You are going to make a serious investment in your new building, we only want you to have to make it one time.
Mike the Pole Barn Guru

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Planning, Professional Engineer, Pole Barn Questions and tagged , , , on by .

Engineered Pole Barn

This is Why Pole Barns Should be Engineered

A line of strong thunderstorms moved through North Central Florida Saturday March 23, prompting severe thunderstorm warnings and a tornado warning.

The photograph is of the remains of a pole barn, which is suspected to have been hit by a tornado. No other structures in the area were destroyed, however there were reports of severe hail damage to the siding and windows of one manufactured home.

Luckily the eight horses who were housed in this barn survived.

fallen pole barnOf course I am not able to personally visit the site to examine the damage forensically, however I can make some observations, which leads me to suspect this particular destruction was as much due to poor design, as it was to having been hit by high winds. If it had been an engineered pole barn, my educated guess is the damage might have been been minimal, if not “fixable”.

Look first at the building columns – leaning every which way. They did not break off from the wind, but are in pretty much every direction other than being plumb. This tells me they did not have any concrete around the bases of the columns, which would have kept them upright.

The columns are notched on the outside – which is a sign there was once a truss carrier (a beam from column to column to support the trusses) in the notch. As no truss carriers are yet in place, the connection between the columns and the truss carriers was obviously inadequate to withstand the uplift forces.

Connections are always the weak link in any structure. Every once in a while, the History channel will show a segment on building failures – and it is nearly always the fault of under designed, or under sized connections.

While a properly engineered pole barn may not have survived the full onslaught of a direct hit from a tornado, the chances of damage being minimal would have been far greater had a registered design professional been involved, and his or her plans followed.

Don’t take unnecessary risks with valuable property and animals.  Seat-of-the-pants design is rarely adequate.

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Structure, Building Department and tagged , , on by .

Should You Invest in Pole Building Engineering…or Not?

Clients ask me, “What is the difference between your engineered and non-engineered buildings”? In the case of Hansen Buildings, the only difference is the engineered buildings have been reviewed by a professional engineer, who is registered in the state where the building is to be constructed. This review is for structural adequacy.  And, following the review, plans and calculations are printed originally wet sealed by the engineer.

From a practicality standpoint, what pole building engineering is… is insurance. Insurance? Yes, it means a registered design professional verifies the building design will work and withstand the forces of nature up to the levels specified on the building plans.

There are some pole barn providers who do make structural changes to their buildings depending upon whether the buildings are engineered or not engineered. Morally and ethically, it is this author’s opinion there should be no changes in material design whether an engineer seals the plans or not. If changes ARE needing to be made, it could lead one to believe the non-engineered buildings are under designed and could fail within the load parameters the buildings should have withstood!!

While I do not agree with this practice, many Building Departments will issue pole building permits without engineered plans. In some cases, permits are issued with no plans being submitted at all!

Regardless of Building Department policy, any building used for commercial purposes should include “sealed” plans with pole building engineering.

Many Building Departments have “prescriptive requirements” for non-engineered post frame (pole) buildings. What are “prescriptive requirements”?  If you construct your building to match what their specifications are, they will issue you a building permit. Rarely are these requirements economically practical from either a materials or labor standpoint. Almost universally, it will prove less expensive to invest in a fully engineered building kit, rather than following the prescriptive requirements. Colorado and Washington are two states in which Building Departments often hand out these requirements.

Any building in Arizona, California, Florida, Oregon, Nevada, Utah or Washington which requires a Building Permit which includes a structural plan review (pretty much a guarantee), should have engineered plans.

If prefabricated trusses are used, the company manufacturing the trusses will provide engineer sealed truss drawings. The truss engineer is NOT the Engineer of Record for the building, nor does this make the building itself engineered.

The International Building Codes, on their own, do not have specific prescriptive tables for post frame building components – unlike “stick built” buildings. Even stud wall framed buildings are required to be engineered when the walls are over 10’ in height.

In the 2009 version of the Codes, is a new twist. Any buildings of 60′ or greater clearspan REQUIRE the end user to hire a Registered Design Professional (engineer or architect) to provide special inspections to assure truss bracing is properly installed.

Don’t underestimate the value of pole building engineering. The engineer provides for you the peace of mind, in design reliability, and helps to ease your permit application through the structural review process.

This entry was posted in Building Department, Pole Barn Planning, Pole Barn Structure and tagged , , on by .
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