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30 x 50 Pole Barn in Pennsylvania

spitfire557

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Feb 27, 2019
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Location
Harrisburg, PA
30 x 50 Pole Barn in Pennsylvania BUILD PICTURES

Hello all! Excited to share some photos of my new garage, which has been a long time coming.

We purchased our home about a year ago, and it came with a run down detached single car garage. Needless to say, I immediately began conjuring up some plans to have it torn down and replaced with a larger garage.

After lots of research (thanks GJ), I decided on a 30 x 50 x 12 standard pole barn. I started calling around and was disappointed in the extensive wait time most pole barn builders offered. So instead, I had a stick built garage priced out by a local builder. After seeing the quote, I quickly resorted back to the pole barn.:lol_hitti

In April of this year, I signed with a local Amish builder and was pretty content with their customer service. I immediately hired an excavation company to come in and demo the old garage, and prep a 40 x 60 pad.

Old garage:

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Come May, and the excavator went to work and in no time had the old garage gone and the new pad in place.

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I don't have any good photos of the pad, but he ended up bringing 7 truck loads of shale in to make it level. I was very pleased with his work.

This photo was taken before it was finished, but you get the point.

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And completely finished, ignore the temporary t-post fencing.

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Fast forward to last Monday, and the builder finally got started on the building. Day one and they had most of the posts in the ground.

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Day two, and the trusses were up. These guys work quick.

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Day three, and the roof and purlins are on.

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Day four, and metal siding is started. We ended up going with a clay colored siding, and bronze roof/trim/wainscoting. They also installed the windows and man door this day.

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Last Friday rained, so they took the day off. This gave me time to trench some 3" conduit under the building in anticipation of electric from the house. I also pounded in a grounding rod and ran some 4 AWG bare wire from it to the future sub panel's location.

On Monday (Day five of work) they wrapped up the siding and also spread some stone inside.

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First thing on the morning of day 6 and they poured concrete. This is my first moment of hesitation, as I did not see them lay out any wire mesh/re-bar reinforcements prior to pouring concrete. I wasn't home when they actually poured it, but the timing just doesn't seem possible for them to lay out wire mesh. I have very minimal knowledge of concrete and assumed wire mesh reinforcement was the 'norm,' hence why I never asked the builder about it. Either way, they did use a 3500 PSI concrete with fiber mixed in, so time will tell how it holds up. Too late to worry about it now.

This is how she sits now, they came back today (day 7) and cut control joints and sprayed a sealer on the concrete. They also wrapped up the fascia and miscellaneous trim work.

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Conduit/ground for future sub panel:

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All that is left to do is garage doors (we went with carriage style doors, 10x8 in size) and gutters/spouting. Both of those tasks are subbed out so I'm not sure when they'll get done.

OVERALL - so far so good, I'm quite pleased with their progress and quality of work. I have lots to learn with this barn. I plan on doing some minimal insulation (tips/tricks/recommendations?), and would like to sheet the interior walls and ceiling, most likely with metal as well.

Eventually electric will be ran, and I'll do surface mounted conduit to all of the outlets. I also plan on doing a small wood stove at the one end (near where the future work bench will be), so I'll have to figure out the best chimney setup for these types of buildings.

I'll take some better photos once it is completely finished and I get some things around the exterior cleaned up. I plan on renting a machine and doing some final grade work around the building.

Hope you enjoy, and bare with me as I'll have plenty of questions in these next few months!
 
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LXCam

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Sounds awesome bud and I’m stoked for ya. However, the pics aren’t showing and since several of us Neanderthals here can’t read, welllll.... ;)
 
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spitfire557

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Feb 27, 2019
Messages
74
Location
Harrisburg, PA
Sounds awesome bud and I’m stoked for ya. However, the pics aren’t showing and since several of us Neanderthals here can’t read, welllll.... ;)

Hmm, they're showing up for me. I wonder if something with Imgur is down or if I'm just posting them incorrectly.
 

LXCam

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No, those won’t show here. I think you need to remove the s from the http.
 

LXCam

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Heck ya that worked. Excellent job, she’s turning out very nice and I luv your property. Keep up the great work.
 
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spitfire557

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Harrisburg, PA
Heck ya that worked. Excellent job, she’s turning out very nice and I luv your property. Keep up the great work.

Thank you sir! We are very fortunate and have 17 acres of beautiful ground.

No update on the barn today, other than them spraying a second coat of the concrete sealer.

Hoping garage doors go in tomorrow. I already have a bird trying to make a home in there.:mad:

Next will be trying to make sense of the insulation job. I'm a bit confused about whether a vapor barrier will be needed, and whether it's worth sealing up every inch of seam before insulating. I'll most likely stud it out to make it flush with the posts and then do batts of insulation, with metal panel to finish it off. Just not sure if I should do a vapor barrier before the stud wall goes up.
 

PSDEng

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Bellefonte, PA
Stud it out, install insulation, install vapor barrier over the insulation, then install your inside liner panel or drywall etc.
 

EvilEye

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Dec 12, 2005
Messages
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Piketown,PA
I think I might be your neighbor, if 5 or 6 miles count. I am just below Piketown. I had a 24 x 36 Pole building put up in 2002. Shelled up like yours. I did put pex tubing in the floor for heat before they did the concrete.
I put 1.5in solid foam board right against all the outside walls. the put up studs and hung fiberglass batts. the trusses are on 24in center do I put the highest r factor rolled bats up there. then finished it with used steel panels I had collected. painted the inside white.

with a small window type Ac ubit 11000 BTU, It can be 99 out side and 72 inside. winter I keep the thermostat at 45. If I know I am going to work in the garage I boost the them up to 55 the night before. It works great. I am glad I put the foam on the walls. and the thickest I could between the trusses.

Good luck with your finish out.
Pm me if you have any questions
 
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spitfire557

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Harrisburg, PA
I think I might be your neighbor, if 5 or 6 miles count. I am just below Piketown. I had a 24 x 36 Pole building put up in 2002. Shelled up like yours. I did put pex tubing in the floor for heat before they did the concrete.
I put 1.5in solid foam board right against all the outside walls. the put up studs and hung fiberglass batts. the trusses are on 24in center do I put the highest r factor rolled bats up there. then finished it with used steel panels I had collected. painted the inside white.

with a small window type Ac ubit 11000 BTU, It can be 99 out side and 72 inside. winter I keep the thermostat at 45. If I know I am going to work in the garage I boost the them up to 55 the night before. It works great. I am glad I put the foam on the walls. and the thickest I could between the trusses.

Good luck with your finish out.
Pm me if you have any questions


Thank you for the advice! Did you do any sort of vapor barrier? If it makes a difference, my barn has ridge vent and vented soffit.

And Piketown is a bit away from me. I'm actually closed to Carlisle than Harrisburg.
 

bullnerd

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Congrats dude! Looks great and in beautiful country!

I used blanket insulation in my pole building, just like Morton does. Take a look at my build in my sig before you waste money on more framing.
 

EvilEye

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Piketown,PA
The fiberglass had a vapor barrier. But I bought a roll or 2 of plastic and stapled plastic on the ceiling and walls and taped all the joints before I put up the steel liner. I also have perf soffett and ridge vent. Your pictures with mountain to the north look just like my area over here between Piketown and FIG.
 
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spitfire557

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The fiberglass had a vapor barrier. But I bought a roll or 2 of plastic and stapled plastic on the ceiling and walls and taped all the joints before I put up the steel liner. I also have perf soffett and ridge vent. Your pictures with mountain to the north look just like my area over here between Piketown and FIG.

That is the mountain that separates Cumberland and Perry County.

Installed some exterior lighting today, will post some pictures shortly. Looking good so far though!!!:thumbup:
 

EvilEye

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what is the black firebird in the picture before you graded??? I have a 66 Pontiac GTO in my garage. My nephew lives over the mountain in Shermansdale, and my brother just below New Bloomfield.
 
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spitfire557

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Looking good! I would have tried to move the old one for a shed to keep that nonsense out of your new shop.

We have another outbuilding that can store a fair amount as well.

Some pictures of the exterior lighting. I used the existing purlins to mount junction boxes to and mounted the lights to it. I did have to extra cutting on the one light, so that it could be mounted on one of the 'high peaks' of the metal siding.

Some careful caulking and all should be well though.

I also went around and started doing spray foam on the cavities where the metal sits in the J channel.

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spitfire557

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what is the black firebird in the picture before you graded??? I have a 66 Pontiac GTO in my garage. My nephew lives over the mountain in Shermansdale, and my brother just below New Bloomfield.

That is my 2000 Trans Am WS6. Poor thing has been neglected for the last year, I'm excited to get it in the garage and start giving it some attention again.
 
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bullnerd

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"I also went around and started doing spray foam on the cavities where the metal sits in the J channel"

Do you have pics of this? I'm just curious.
 
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spitfire557

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"I also went around and started doing spray foam on the cavities where the metal sits in the J channel"

Do you have pics of this? I'm just curious.

I do not, but I will take some later this afternoon.

I'm not sure effective it'll be, but I figured it's a significant area for heat loss and more importantly insect control.
 

Wardmoto

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Carlisle PA
Small world...I saw Flat Rock on North Mountain in your first picture. I bet I am 10 minutes from you if that. I have a 30x60 awaiting concrete, I haven't shopped locally for quotes yet, who did your concrete?
 
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spitfire557

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Small world...I saw Flat Rock on North Mountain in your first picture. I bet I am 10 minutes from you if that. I have a 30x60 awaiting concrete, I haven't shopped locally for quotes yet, who did your concrete?

Small world indeed. It seems like there's a lot of PA people on this site.

The builder did the concrete themselves (Triple B Construction in Newburg).

Here's a picture of the filled areas. The foam expanded a bit more than I expected, so if I end up doing insulation board again the metal I'll have to go around and trim the excess foam. I'll most likely just do batts of insulation though, so the excess foam won't be an issue.

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Styx

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Great looking place. I looked into pole barn building when I built mine but it's not as popular up here and finding someone was impossible.
they sure do go up fast...
Ya watch that high expansion foam it can cause the outer wall to balloon out...
keep the pictures coming.


Cheers Randy
 
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spitfire557

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Great looking place. I looked into pole barn building when I built mine but it's not as popular up here and finding someone was impossible.
they sure do go up fast...
Ya watch that high expansion foam it can cause the outer wall to balloon out...
keep the pictures coming.


Cheers Randy

Fortunately it chose to expand up and out, rather than pushing the metal skin. I was sure to check that after I saw how much it expanded.:lol_hitti
 

msgross

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Nice build, i'm on the other side of Hershey. I had Fisher Brothers from Mifflin put mine in. I'm just getting to my ceiling this weekend but used rigid foam insulation in my walls and ceilings from an old roofing job. You'll often find them on Craigslist for $10 a sheet... I installed a 75,000 BTU furnace and it will run you out if not careful.
 
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spitfire557

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Nice build, i'm on the other side of Hershey. I had Fisher Brothers from Mifflin put mine in. I'm just getting to my ceiling this weekend but used rigid foam insulation in my walls and ceilings from an old roofing job. You'll often find them on Craigslist for $10 a sheet... I installed a 75,000 BTU furnace and it will run you out if not careful.

Good to know, that certainly sounds easier than hanging batts. Lots of pros/cons to each it seems.

Still waiting on garage doors for my building. Hoping they install them this week, this weekend the concrete will be at "full cure" and I plan on moving the cars inside.
 
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spitfire557

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Garage doors were finally installed yesterday. We ordered the carriage door "hardware kit," but the installer said that because of clearance issues the handles wouldn't be able to be put on. I'm going to research some other handle options and hopefully get that squared away.

I'm very happy with them overall though. Lots of work to be done still though! Final grading, insulating, electrical, etc. I should have paid someone to do all of that too!

Only one photo, I'll try to get more this weekend.

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rixtrix1

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Taped plastic vapor barrier for sure between the insulation and whatever sheeting material you decide on. Make sure you don't block the perforated soffit to ceiling space when you insulate the ceiling. Property and garage look great!
 

Superseado

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I put up a 24 x 30 last October. Finally getting around to insulation. My original plan was to just frame in between posts and use R19 but i am getting such conflicting information about the insulation touching the metal. I am now leaning towards putting a foam board with radiant barrier on the girts and then R13 bat with sheet rock. I am hearing not to use a vapor barrier because it can actually cause more moisture.
 
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spitfire557

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Harrisburg, PA
Finally got electric hook up and lighting done. Also ran some outlets. Next up is insulation, wall sheeting, and ceiling. Also plan on doing a work bench in the near future and putting shelving up.

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