We’ve seen prices of materials creeping up fairly steadily for the past year, and according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the era of cheap construction materials may be slipping away. The price index for construction costs input — a weighted average of all materials used in construction, plus items consumed by contractors, […]

By guest blogger J.A.Hansen, owner of Hansen Buildings Where I left you yesterday was watching an inferno blazing away at 1800 degrees, 3 feet from a wood framed firewall.  This carefully monitored firewall test was carried out in a UL testing facility under strict conditions to see if a structurally independent wall made of wood […]

Guest blog by J.A.Hansen, owner of Hansen Buildings… There were several concurrent conferences with great speakers at the NFBA expo Mike the Pole Barn Guru, Eric (my business partner and President of Hansen Buildings) and myself recently attended in St. Louis, MO. The National Frame Builders’ Association website: www.nfba.org gives this description:  “NFBA is the […]

Recently, while ‘net surfing, I stumbled across some interesting reading on a website for a hybrid steel frame (posts and roof framework) – but with wood girts and purlins building. I’ll present their information and then either agree or debunk it. This list was for the benefits and/or disadvantages of wood only pole buildings. My […]

Saturday night….nearly 9 p.m. I know what you are thinking, it is after beer:30 and if anything I should be out listening to my step-son Adam’s band Skyline from Fargo (yes….a blatant plug for his band) play. Nope – we’re working! And the office phone rings. Now I am not certain who is playing with […]

In construction of a typical standard stick frame (stud wall), masonry, all steel, or probably just about any other type of building, it is essential for the footings and foundation walls to be level. In layman’s terms – all at the same height. Pole buildings are much more forgiving than other types of construction, and […]

Pole Barn Post Spacing Revisited By far, my most read blog has been on, “Pole Barn Truss Spacing”. With nearly 50% more reads than any other blog I have written, it clearly is a fan favorite. I’ve had it referenced by clients, building contractors and code officials. So when one of our clients wrote: “After […]

Had you going with the title, didn’t I? Kutyaharapást szőrével is Hungarian for “The hair of the dog”. The English saying “the hair of the dog” dates back to the days of Shakespeare, and deals with curing a hangover with even more alcohol!  Similarly, I want to cure the lack of building overhangs, with information […]

Just my personal opinion, but I feel every building should have overhangs. How important are they in my book? I would rather do without doors, than without overhangs. Doors can be added in later on; with overhangs there is only one opportunity to do it right, or wrong. Here is a place where size matters. […]

Pole buildings afford one of the great luxuries of buildings, without a premium price – large, open clearspan spaces. Without the need for interior walls to support roof systems, walls, if needed, can be placed anywhere. In stick frame (stud wall) construction, interior walls often become load bearing points to carry roof loads to the […]

Stair design and location seems to be fairly baffling. There are some general rules which, if followed, make things much easier. These are based upon the International Building Codes and there do exist some localized code exceptions (always check with your Building Official prior to building stairs). In order to keep things simple, spiral stairs […]

I have a pole building in my backyard. Now I live on a lake, in the mountains. My lot is a parallelogram – 60’ x 225’ and 14 degrees out of square. From the lake, the back of my lot is probably 150 feet higher in elevation. Hmmmm….grade change? Yes indeed, there is grade change […]

For the most part, obtaining a building permit for a pole barn, or a waiver of the need to obtain one, is very easy. In my humble opinion, far too easy. The reality is… code enforcement agencies generally do NOT require engineering design documents for pole buildings. Pole buildings are highly stressed, structurally indeterminate structures […]

What’s the Stink? One popular, although expensive, method of insulating pole buildings is with spray foam insulation. Besides cost, spray foam can also bring with it problems in the form of lingering odors.  These odors are coming from a catalyst in the foam, or from foam which is off-ratio, not mixed well or sprayed too […]

And I Thought I Was Fast Sunday, October 27, 1996 was a special day for my pole building construction company. Bob Vila’s Home Again was airing at 10 a.m. Pacific. Beginning at 9:30, live on the same network, we set a world record for a “fastest building”,  the fastest site-constructed two car garage, completing the […]

Many people have literally built their own pole buildings – from digging the holes, until the last screw is driven. Some do portions of the work themselves and hire a builder to drive the nails, while others employ a general contractor to do everything for them. Most adore their new buildings. Some are deeply disillusioned. […]

When I opened my first business, back in 1981 (yes, I am dating myself), my first regular repeat client was a fireman from Woodburn, Oregon. He was a great person to deal with, always paid his bills on time, and never complained. I’d nearly forgotten about him, until I heard the following saga from a […]

It may not be possible to put a price on love, but the square footage and location of where the love story takes place is a different story. Many couples take their potential partner’s “digs” (which includes the garage/shop and any other pole building) into account before entering into a relationship, according to a new study, […]

Wood. It Doesn’t Melt The steel/wood steel/wood debate, as far as building structure, seems never ending. The “all steel” building manufacturers highly tout the resistance of their heavy steel frames against fire. But just maybe, the all steel buildings are not everything they are promoted to be. I’m a member of several discussion groups on […]

“Except where erected on solid rock or otherwise protected from frost, foundation walls, piers and other permanent supports of buildings and structures larger than 400 square feet in area or 10 feet in height shall extend below the frost line of the locality, and spread footings of adequate size shall be provided where necessary to […]

In a misguided effort to make things “easier” for potential building owners and builders, some Building Departments have prescriptive requirements for non-engineered pole buildings. This means if someone walks in the Building Department door and wants to construct a pole building, as long as the building owner (or builder) agrees to build to match the […]

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 […]

I live in a lake side home, in the mountains. Typically it snows here in the winter. We are not talking a few flakes or a few inches….we are talking about feet of snow. My garage is adjacent to the stairs leading down to the house, from our parking lot. The garage has a 7/12 […]

One of the joys of what I do is I get to learn new things every day. I’ve often thought to myself, the day I stop learning, is the day I am dead. In today’s lesson….one of our clients has taken his engineer sealed plans to his Building Department to obtain a building permit. The […]

One of our Building Designers asked me the other day if a 10% “shrink factor” should be used when advising how much concrete it takes to pour a concrete slab on grade. This particular Building Designer “in a previous life” had been a building contractor.  It had been his practice to always order 10% more […]