My 42X48 Pole building

[crook038]

I will start by saying thank you to all who post on this great forum! I have been lurking on this forum for several years now gathering bits and pieces of great ideas for my pole building build. I live in somewhat rural area of South Eastern Massachusetts, the tri-town area. I will be building (myself with help from family and friends) a 42 wide by 48 deep and 13 foot eave height post and beam garage with metal siding and metal roof.
I just placed a down payment on a kit from Hansen Pole Buildings after doing a great deal of research. The building will have 3 10W X 11H overhead doors on the front gable end with 1 10W X 11H overhead door on the left eave end towards the rear of the building. The steel entry door will be on the other eave end near the front where the 3 overhead doors are. I will be fully insulating and finishing the interior with steel wall and ceiling liner. I plan on heating the garage with radiant in floor heat.
I hope to begin construction in January as long as I can place the poles without issue (frozen ground). I have never built a full building before, but I did build the farmers porch on my house as well as the 35X20 deck on my house. I am sure I will be asking for advice on lots of building questions. Stay tuned for pictures and plans as I get them. Here are a few of the porch and deck I built.

 

[jives]

Good luck on the build. Nice porch.

One word of advice as you prepare to dig holes in the winter. Rent out the job of hole digging unless you have a good skidsteer with an auger attachment.

 

[nadogail]

If your building turns out half as pretty as your porch, you will be fine.

Best of luck to you.

 

[crook038]

I plan on having the holes dug by a friend with a Posi-trac machine and large auger, I believe the machine is rated between 75-100 hp. I am hoping that we don't have an abnormally cold time which freezes the ground below 1 foot. Time will tell. Thanks nadogail, the best thing I ever did on my property was to build the farmers porch. We use it all year round and enjoy every minute of it.

 

[matt_i]

Depending on how you are going to ground prep, it might be a good idea to cut the sod now before that turns sketchy too. If you are going to bulldoze or box blade it up then probably not necessary.

 

[sberry]

42x48 is a decent size. It lets 2 cars fit in one end with room left over or it lets 2 go end to end if one has to and leaves a little elbow room for other stuff.

 

[crook038]

I have begun clearing the area for the new garage. I did make some changes to the plans once I realized that 13 ft eave height would not give me the correct height for a lift, so it has been changed to 14 ft eave height. Here are some shots of the plans.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Nice sized garage and if your porch is anything to go by I don't think you will have too much trouble. Looking forward to following your progress.

Regards

 

[crook038]

This is the future site for the garage.

 

[matt_i]

Nice plans, did you draw your own or did this come with the kit?

 

[woodzy]

Shouldn't the posts on the side of the man door go as deep as the other posts to get below the frost line??

 

[crook038]

I am purchasing a kit from Hansen Buildings with MA engineered and stamped plans. I thought the same thing about the posts for the entry door but I guess the engineer feels this will suffice. Once I have the plans in hand(tomorrow according to FedEx) I will be submitting them to the local building department for my permit. If there is a problem the building inspector will let me knw, I have a good working relationship with the building inspector and his department which helps when I have questions about grey areas. Thanks for all the input, exciting time and hoping that I have covered all bases.

 

[matt_i]

The 14 foot dimension is measured from the existing grade, not the top of the finished floor....is that an issue? In other words its not 14' of interior clearance.

 

[crook038]

Eave height is measured from the bottom of the skirt board to the height where the roof steel intersects with the side wall steel, that's why I wound up changing it to 14 feet so I will have the required 12'5" interior height for the lift.

 

[UpstateNY]

For aesthetics reasons I sided my pole barn to match my house, it ties is all together and makes for a nice look. My $.02.

 

[csp]

The problem with digging this time of year, if you can get it dug, is everything you pull out of the ground won't make good backfill if it's frozen. Compaction around the posts isn't the best and it will likely settle when the ground thaws.

 

[NUTTSGT]

It looks like a great build and hopefully it comes out looking half as nice as the porch on your beautiful home.

Take plenty of pics and don't be afraid to post them up. Once you get going on the project and if you use this thread for the build, I can move it to the Gallery section so it doesn't get buried.

 

[crook038]

Thanks for all the kind words, I will be using this thread for the build. The land clearing has begun, digging out quite of bit of loam. Once all the organic material is removed clean fill will be brought in and capped with good compactable material for under slab will be spread and compacted. The weather has been unseasonably warm in this area up until today (warmest December in MA on record, it was 65 degrees on Christmas Eave) I know the weather is going to take a turn for the worse (Winter is coming John Snow!) I am waiting on my building permit before I schedule material deliveries. Here are some pictures of the site work so far.

 

[crook038]

More Loam being dug out...... will it ever end?

 

[NUTTSGT]

More Loam being dug out...... will it ever end?

You can haul it down here, I'd like to replace part of my drive with yard.

 

[crook038]

A few more updates.... The site work is done and building permit is in hand. I have received all the lumber with the exception of the posts. The trusses arrived yesterday and the steel should arrive next Tuesday. If the weather continues to be somewhat mild I should be able to auger holes for the posts as soon as I get them. Here are a few pictures to go along with the progress.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Great stuff, looking forward to you build.

Regards

 

[TEXAG]

Been checking your thread for a while since I'm 99% sure I'll go with a Hansen Pole barn. Looking forward to your build and good luck.

 

[crook038]

All the steel was delivered today. It doesn't look like much but it's enough to build a 2016 sqft garage! Things are starting to move more quickly now...

 

[amalik]

I always giggle a little when I see these garage builds a with a little less sq ft than my house. Lol.

Your garage will be huge.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

[Stevie-Ray]

Seems garages can never be huge enough. Mine is nowhere near the size of my house, (2000sf) yet is virtually the same size as the house I lived in for over 30 years. (1152sf) Naturally, it's not big enough, but what was what I could afford monetarily and what would fit in the space provided. Garages are like gun safes-always go bigger if possible.

 

[crook038]

Update- We dug the holes for the poles this past weekend. We were using a posi-trac machine with a 24" auger, for a while. The soil on my property is mostly gravel ranging in size from golf ball size to as large as 100 lb rocks. Unfortunately the auger separated from the transmission in spectacular fashion. We then moved on using a backhoe. All holes were dug on Saturday and I spent Sunday cleaning 1/2 of the holes and set up the first post as a good benchmark. I guess my sense of scale is way off, with the first pole up I have a new sense of how big this building will be.....BIG!!!

 

[TEXAG]

Great aerial picture of the layout and rocks can sure make life interesting!

 

[crook038]

A little more progress over the week. I passed inspection for the footing holes I was also able to set the two rear corner posts in concrete. I think this is a good start so far......if the weather continues to be mild I hope to keep plugging along.

 

[sberry]

It seems big now,

 

[crook038]

I was able to get several more posts up over the last few days. Moving forward slowly but surely. Its funny, every single person that has stopped by to check on my progress first says, "wow that's big." Then I usually get, "oh your building it yourself? Do you think you will be able to do it?" My answer is usually Yes, and Yes! 6 posts up and only 14 to go

 

[crook038]

Just another update. I have planted 17 of the 20 posts! Yesterday alone I mixed up 35 bags of 80# sakrete, wish I was younger. Here are a few updated pictures, my wife was nice enough to test park her Jeep for the photo

 

[crook038]

Another update, its been a while. I ran into several issues while putting up the trusses, specifically weather delays. In the end I purchased the scissor lift you see in the picture due to rental costs and time constraints. The lift really is the correct tool for this job. Things are starting to progress nicely once again. I will post some more pictures soon, this is the current state of the build.

 

[MagKarl]

Looking good. The post notches, heavy doubled trusses, and hanging purlins take a long time, quite a bit more labor than the typical pole barn framing with headers and standard trusses.

If anyone gives you a hard time, you can say "This is nothing, there's a guy out in WA still working on his Hansen building and he's almost 2 years into it".

 

[crook038]

All the purlins are up and varge rafters are in place along with fascia boards. Now I have to square up the building prior to blocking and bracing everything. The building peak needs to move about 6 inches to the front of the building to become plumb, I thought I was pretty careful when I placed the trusses. I also need to brace the bottom chords which are bowing to the rear of the building. More pictures to come.
Sean

 

[billgreenwood]

Looking good. I got my building kit and did all the framing with help from buddies. My shop has 16ft. side walls and that turned out to be much taller than I had anticipated. I wish I could afford to buy a lift but I had to just rent a boom lift to do the trusses and roof purlins.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[larry_g]

Your looking good there. I know when I bought my building I had the option of $5-6 thousand to have them assemble the building. We did it ourselves. Looking back I should have had them do it. I would have been in it sooner and after renting tools, and hiring some help I would have only really spent a couple thou more.

LG
no neat sig line

 

[crook038]

Its been a while, so far I have finished the roof steel on the south side of the garage. Of course I wait until the hottest days of August to start putting it up! I am happy so far with the outcome, I do have to say it has been very labor intensive( I am doing this installation with only myself and 71 year old father........he is keeping up with me so no complaints there)! The worst part is the A1V bubble insulation, I think it would perform better as a sail for a sailboat! As soon as any wind gets under it, it becomes a race to get some steel on it prior to it ripping thru the staples holding it down. Also, since it is reflective, I feel like I am in a convection oven when I am screwing down the metal roof panels.

 

[crook038]

It has been a while so here are some more pictures. I am done with the roof!!! The roof was a big accomplishment for me due to my aversion to heights. I am happy with the finished roof along with the soffits and eaves. The wainscot is going well so far, hopefully I will get some wall steel up today.

 

[zigzagfrog]

What a beautiful building!! I love the roof color, pitch and the awesome cupola! Please be proud of commitment and accomplishments so far. I am guessing you occasionally sit quietly inside, watch the sun go down and smile. Or maybe listen to the rain and wind and be mindful of the comfort your labors have given you. I see you are beginning to store things inside already. You may discover, as I did, that when it came time to pour the slab, another spot was needed for all the stuff I put under my new roof 'just for now.'. Thanks for the inspirational story!!