Under Slab Plumbing In most pole buildings, any water and waste plumbing lines are placed beneath the poured concrete slab on grade. In some cases (especially post frame houses), elevated wood floors are used to create an under floor crawl space, making these lines accessible in the future, without the need for costly jackhammer or […]

I’ve been having back and forth discussions involving board and batten siding. The opposite side of my discussion (who has been considering using yellow poplar) writes: “I too was Worried about board and batten, however our barns are 60-100 years old and still are in good shape.  At least ones that still have a good […]

Hansen Pole Buildings Designer Rick recently asked me this question about overhangs and F Channel: “A question came up about soffit support.  The client is a builder trying to close a garage for his client.  He asked about soffit/enclosed overhangs.  He asked why we do not use an F channel trim to hold the soffit […]

Ceramic Insulation In the 1990’s I owned Momb Steel Buildings in Spokane. We provided pole building packages and also constructed post frame buildings from a bricks and mortar location. As the sales team grew in size, we would have weekly meetings for educational purposes. The resultant of these became known as “stump the expert” (aka […]

For those of you just joining Mike the Pole Barn Guru’s Blog – Mondays are now “Ask the Guru” where you can submit construction and building product questions for Mike to answer in upcoming Monday segments of this blog.  If it is a topic Mike is not well versed in, or a new product he […]

Building Designer Rick Carr and I were discussing a client’s proposed building in Idaho today. 80 feet wide by 204 feet long, the building would have a 16 foot high sidewall. The client really wanted to have scissor trusses (trusses with an interior roof slope, which has a peak in the center). Given the dimensions […]

Do a Google search for board and batten siding images, and what usually comes up are old leaning barns. Board and batten has often been associated with the term “rustic” as well. Typical “old tyme” board and batten was created by installing 1” (or even 5/4”) x12” planks vertically over horizontal wall framing (girts). The […]

QuietRock – Sound Dampening Sheetrock When my wife and I designed our pole building home in South Dakota, one of our considerations was to isolate (for sound) as much as possible the master suite from the living areas of the rest of the house.  We put a large pool table in the center of an […]

Roxul Insulation It isn’t often I go to visit a Home Depot® and am presented with a gift, but my visit to Pro Associate (aka as PASA) Diane at the Sparks, Nevada location was an exception. I’ve been negligent in having her gift to me sit on my desk for months, before really investigating it, […]

Hansen Buildings new feature for each Monday is “Ask the Guru” where you can submit questions for Mike the Pole Barn Guru to answer on future Monday blogs. Email the Guru at: PoleBarnGuru@HansenPoleBuildings.com DEAR POLE BARN GURU:  I purchased one of your pole building kit packages late last summer, and have just finished constructing it. […]

Save Me Jesus…. I’ve been reading (and commenting) in an online thread of a blog on another website, where someone is trying to decide how to construct a new pole barn. This morning, the following post was made: “What I had done was to dig the hole like you were going to set the post […]

Many people are not aware pole buildings can be roofed with any roofing material which can be used on any other structure. While through screwed steel roofing is going to be the most economical and durable solution, some circumstances dictate other choices from an aesthetic standpoint. DaVinci Roofscapes introduced polymer roofing tiles in June of […]

Preventing Horse Barn Fires- Part II If you missed my blog yesterday – it would behoove you to go back and pick up Part I on Horse Barn Fires.  As I mentioned –  I get Email alerts when new articles appear on line about pole barns. Sadly, far too many of them involve fires in […]

Thanks to Google, I get Email alerts when new articles appear on line about pole barns. Sadly, far too many of them are from online versions of newspapers and involve fires in horse barns. Usually, but not always, these fires were entirely preventable. My daughter Bailey (https://www.baileymombtraining.com/) is a professional horse trainer and she would […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU:  I have a full size tennis court, we want to put a pole barn on the tennis court (we don’t play tennis) The barn would be 30 x 60 obviously leaving an asphalt perimeter larger than the barn around the barn – how would you seal the edges where the barn […]

A prospective client recently posted this question about block foundations: “Our family farm was started around 1850. During this time there were 12-14 barns and 1 house. Most barns deteriorated due to bad roofing. But we’re talking about stuff that lasted 100 years and some longer. We still have 4 barns left and the house […]

A Hansen Pole Buildings client in California has just today approved the plans for his new post frame building and poses the question: “We are in a no frost area with no snow load, so why are the concrete piers so large and deep??” In response: “The column embedment (depth and diameter of the holes) […]

At Hansen Pole Buildings we get hundreds of inquiries daily for price quotes on pole buildings. Internally, we have a fairly automated system, which allows for our team of Building Designers to receive the input information from those who make inquiries. This morning, one of the Building Designers requested from me, more quote requests to […]

Manny recently contacted us for a quote on a new pole building kit package. His particular need is hay storage, which could be solved by the 24’x36’ two story pole building he requested a price on. Access would be via a split sliding door in each endwall, and the second floor is designed to support […]

Greetings…and WELCOME to my new blog Feature – Dear Pole Barn Guru! Starting today….each Monday I will post questions submitted to me about pole buildings and pole barn construction, products for use in pole buildings, along with my answers.  Scroll to the bottom if you have a burning question for the Pole Barn Guru, and […]

Thanks to Hansen Pole Buildings Designer Bob, for his inspiration on this post! Have you ever spent a couple of hours working on a craft project — or a presentation for work — and then fallen in love with the accomplishment? Do the colors picked for the PowerPoint background pop so beautifully you just have […]

The State of California has enacted legislation, which goes into effect January 1, 2014, in relation to window U-factors in new construction. Not in California? Beware, what starts in California, often migrates quickly to other locales. Please note: The term U-value is often incorrectly used ins tead of U-factor. Now what the hey is a […]

This article was a recent Internet rage: Subway customers are whipping out their measuring tapes after Internet postings that claim a short-shifting of the worldwide chain’s famous footlong sub, putting the Milford, Conn.-based company in the hot seat. The controversy began Tuesday in Australia, when a very precise customer, identified as Matt Corby of Perth, […]

In 2005, Hansen Pole Buildings supplied a new pole building kit to a client in Hernando, Mississippi. He opted not to construct his own building, instead hiring a builder who had constructed several of our buildings. Recently, the client called to ask some questions about his building – specifically who the manufacturer of the steel […]

True confession time….. (‘most everyone loves it when I fess up to something, don’t they?)…. I have never sold a double hung window to a client, installed one as a builder, or owned a building which had double hung windows. Whew – I feel so much better having gotten this off my chest. There are […]