My Facebook friend RICK in MALDEN messaged me:
“I have never built a building like this. I have seen many bad experiences with concrete, poor quality metal work and many more issues. I would just like to know if there is a list of things to make sure I get a quality home. I saw the other day you said osb under the roof metal could help with condensation issues. I’m also worried about gaps where the metal meets together. I don’t want to just shoot spray insulation and call it good. You have said that is not the way to do it. I guess I’m looking for something to tell me the quality method for the most common mistakes people or contractors make. I am using a contractor because I don’t have the skill or experience to DIY. I also don’t want to rely on the contractor to tell me the right way. If I had it my way I’d have you do it. You are the most knowledgeable and in-depth person I have found on the internet about the Barndo building subject.”
Thank you for all of your kind words.
There are days when I think what a joy it would be to be out building. I do truly love to build, smells of earth from freshly dug holes, lumber being taken out of a wrapped unit, sawdust – all of these give me warm, fuzzy nostalgic feelings.
I have kept myself in great physical condition and at 63 years-old I could certainly be out building. And I do know there are folks who would gladly pay my rate to have me do their construction. However this would allow me to properly assist only one client at a time. What I do now allows me to help thousands of people every year to get better buildings.
Enough of me waxing poetic – let’s get down to business!
(Side note – much of this advice is expounded upon in detail in previously written articles. Please visit www.HansenPoleBuildings.com, navigate to SEARCH at upper right corner, click on it, type in a word or phrase and ENTER)
Plan tips – consider these factors:
Direction of access (you don’t want to have to drive around your house to get to garage doors).
‘Curb appeal’ – what will people see as they drive up?
Any views? If so, take advantage of them.
North-south alignment – place no or few windows on north wall, lots on south wall.
Overhang on south wall to shade windows from mid-day summer sun If your AC bill is far greater than your heating bill, reverse this and omit or minimize north overhangs.
Slope of site.
Work from inside out – do not try to fit what you need within a pre-ordained box just because someone said using a “standard” size might be cheaper. Differences in dimensions from “standard” are pennies per square foot, not dollars.
Put up the largest building you can economically justify and fit on your property.
Plan for accessibility – 4′ or wider hallways and stairs, an ADA bathroom with a roll in shower. 3′ wide interior doors.
Walk-in (roll-in) closets for bedrooms, even secondary ones.
Consider if you truly want to live on a concrete floor. Crawl spaces are roughly the same investment.
Kitchen – two dishwashers, two microwaves, two ovens, trash compactor. Separate side-by-side refrigerator and freezer units. A good sized pantry.
9′ or 10′ finished ceilings in living areas.
Onto building construction itself….
Probably most important (and most often neglected) is proper site prep.
Make sure there is a vapor barrier under any slab-on-grade (and use 10-15 mil).
For slab-on-grade at least have pex-al-pex tubes run.
Personally I like flash & batt for walls – two inches of closed cell spray foam ideally with BIBs insulation to fill balance of insulation cavity. In this circumstance, you do not want a WRB, however you do want to order inside closures for top and bottom of every wall panel.
Order raised heel trusses so you can blow in fiberglass insulation to full depth from wall-to-wall.
For condensation control – use steel panels with Integral Condensation Control.
Vent sidewall overhangs and ridge.
Use all 5/8″ Type X sheetrock.
Make sure you and your contractor have a written agreement covering everything – it keeps feelings from being hurt and clearly outlines expectations. I will have a series of articles soon outlining some important inclusions for agreements, please watch for them.
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I need a 3 1/4″ x 7 1/4″ x 12′ beam. Is this something you can help me with? JAMES in TUCSON
DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hello Mike, our building lot is pretty much flat. I’m using the elevation of our street at the curb as a zero reference point for our build. We are in a coastal area with occasional very minor flooding, so I would like to have the finished floor level of our radiant slab at sixteen inches above that elevation. The frost depth at this site is twenty four inches as per our building department. I’m wondering if a monolithic frost protected slab would be practical for our 56 x 48 monitor style house? I’m open to any suggestions that will allow me to use the radiant in floor heat. We’ll be requesting a design and quote soon as we still have a few more details to figure out on our floor plan. Thanks RUSS in TILGHMAN 
Growing up, I witnessed my Father forming and pouring four foot squares of concrete for our backyard patio. He would alternate them between smooth finish and exposed aggregate to create a variation in appearance. Oh how he made it look all so easy.
DEAR ELLIOT: Most post frame buildings are rectangular, with peaks (a point or gable) on opposite ends. Building codes require a minimum footing thickness of six inches, or an ICC-ESR approved alternative (like these 
DEAR NEIL: A far greater issue than weight of your building package (roughly 20,000 pounds total depending upon features) will be weight of trucks making deliveries (many weigh 32-40,000 pounds when empty). We have had many clients in a similar situation to yours and materials can often be offloaded onto a flat trailer you can pull behind a pickup, or similar, in order to get into challenging jobsites. Biggest concern will be 50 foot long roof trusses, as truss truck is going to be a semi pulling usually a 48 foot long trailer. You might want to consider making a donation to your local high school’s football team in order to have them physically pick up and carry individual trusses across bridge and to your site.
DEAR BRENT: We have provided roughly 300 fully engineered post frame buildings to our clients in Colorado (many of these in Weld County). Types of foundations for post frame homes are nearly as varied as are our clients. We’ve done full or partial basements (including walkout or daylight) in block, poured concrete or ICF; crawl spaces (both conditioned and non-conditioned) as well as slabs on grade (both with heated slabs and under floor insulation or unheated slabs with perimeter insulation). Embedded columns are going to be least expensive and strongest, however we can also design and provide for cases with ICC-ESR approved wet set brackets. With most sites in Colorado, it is beneficial to involve a Geotechnical engineer to do a proper assessment of your site’s soil conditions and bearing capacity in order to assure best outcome. Often jurisdictions will make this a requirement. Here is some extended reading on slabs vs. crawl spaces: 
DEAR ASHLEY: A post frame home is certainly an excellent design solution for a slope building site. You do have some options (both of these I used on a personal building site of my own) – you can cut to create a ‘daylight’ or ‘walk-out’, or build on stilts.
DEAR DAVID: Even building with a slab on grade is going to require excavation, as you need to have footings either extending below frost line, or thermally isolated to prevent frost heaving. Horizontal girts, by themself, provide little or no resistance to racking. Properly engineered, your steel roofing and board and batten siding can provide adequate shear resistance.
DEAR ALAN: There are plenty of folks out there who would gladly be willing to use dry set brackets to mount pole barn columns to your slab. In most instances, this is a less than adequate design solution as these brackets are not designed to withstand moment (bending) loads. (For extended reading, please visit 
“When a building of otherwise conventional construction contains structural elements exceeding the limits of Section R301 or otherwise not conforming to this code, these elements shall be designed in accordance with accepted engineering practice. The extent of such design need only demonstrate compliance of nonconventional elements with other applicable provisions and shall be compatible with the performance of the conventional framed system. Engineered design in accordance with the International Building Code is permitted for all buildings and structures, and parts thereof, included in the scope of this code.”
With this said, Jefferson County is in Climate Zone 6A. As such I personally would follow International Energy Code Table R402.1.2 and place R-10 rigid insulation inside of my splash plank from top of slab (3-1/2″ up from bottom of splash plank) extending downward 48 inches. This can easily be done by trenching at time of construction and would be of benefit should building ever be heated (as most strictly non-agricultural buildings usually are at some point) and be a point in eventual resale.
Thank you for your kind words. Certainly any building could be designed for door openings, ceiling heights, etc., to be adjusted for top of slab on grade to be at any point. This would entail leaving greater amounts of splash plank exposed on exterior beneath siding in order to prevent concrete aprons, sidewalks, driveways, etc., from being poured up against wall steel. Some people find great amounts of splash plank being exposed to be aesthetically unpleasant however. By being consistent in design, it also allows for one set of assembly instructions to be used – rather than having to rely upon making adjustments for whatever custom situation individuals (or their builders) deemed their particular case.
If I went to slab on grade, I would recommend a minimum R-60 for ceiling, taking a 22 inch deep raised heel truss to allow for adequate depths of blown in insulation. (Read more about raised heel trusses here: 
Yet three feet is nowhere near standard. The City of Houston requires one foot of elevation above the 100-year floodplain. Many jurisdictions in Texas and other states require none. What seems like a simple, obvious safeguard raises tricky questions: How high is high enough? Who has to pay for it? And at what point does it no longer make sense to build in a place at all?
