FSC® Lumber When my youngest son Brent and I were helping Eric construct his self-storage pole building (you can read about it here: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2014/06/builder/ we noticed some of the lumber had FSC stamps on it. I had heard of lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) but had never seen any of it in […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Do your pole barn garage kits come with assembly instructions? CORY IN NORTH LAS VEGAS DEAR CORY: Thank you for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building. Besides full sized 24″ x 36″ blueprints (usually seven pages or more worth) which are totally specific to exactly your building and show […]

Hi! This is one of the founding owners of Hansen Pole Buildings, and for whom the company is named, J.A.Hansen. I thought we’d take a break from the usual Friday “rerun” blogs, for me to tell you a story. Bear with me here… It was September 26th of last year, 2015. I was on my […]

Sometime in the not too distant past, residential home builders figured out a way to reduce the price point of their new homes, by shrinking the width of the “two car garages” and using 14 foot wide overhead doors. However, “Houston, we have a problem”, as most of us drive vehicles down the road which […]

I will begin to extend my condolences to those who lost loved ones in the recent earthquake in Ecuador. As my long time readers may recall, our youngest daughter Allison spent her sophomore year of high school as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Portoviejo, Manabi, Ecuador. She knew some of those who tragically perished. […]

How appropriate to have the following question asked after having just written recently about screeding concrete! DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Why does the concrete pad get poured at a level below the top of the bottom skirt board? If I bring the concrete level with the top, it is easier for to skreet level, plus […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: After you dig your holes for the treated posts, do you put the post in the hole, then pour in concrete around the post or do you pour about 8” of concrete in first then let that set up and put the post on the concrete what is the best way. […]

The word “lean” explains a great deal about the goals of Lean Construction. It implies something has been trimmed of excess fat, or, in the case of construction, of waste and inefficiency. Lean takes the “different moving parts” of a project — including concept, design, construction and occupancy — and works to coordinate all those processes together at the beginning of the project […]

There are sometimes when the “Ask the Pole Barn Guru™” questions are so good as to let their answers stand for themselves as an article. Here is a question put forth by Patrick from Nine Mile Falls: DEAR POLE BARN GURU: We are interested in have a pole building home. What is the best way […]

My long time readers will recall concrete flatwork is not my friend and I will avoid it whenever necessary. In the event one is forced into doing flatwork (apparently some folks actually enjoy it), concrete screeding is something to know about. Screeding is the process where a concrete finisher (a real live person, not a […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Was wondering about the foundation? We are wanting and looking for a plan on a pole barn for our home and he wants to know how or if you can or need to do a foundation but yet provide a crawl space? He wanted to know how you would keep the […]

How Many Licks Does It Take to Get to the Tootsie Roll Center of a Tootsie Pop? Well, according to Mr. Owl, the answer is three. At an office meeting of the Sweets Company of America in 1931, employees were asked to share any ideas for new candies. Employee Luke Weisgram had been thinking about […]

Proper Post Frame Entry Door Installation Check screws holding jambs to header and threshold for tightness. Place door assembly into rough opening with door jamb outside edge flush with girt outside edges (outside edge of door jamb 1-1/2” past outside of columns). Square up door assembly so clearance gaps between panel and jambs are uniform. […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Do you sell in Louisiana? Considering building a hanger on my small farm in Louisiana. Needed to house a Bi wing Stearman. Thanks, JOE IN LOUISIANA DEAR JOE: We provide post frame building kit packages in every state, even Louisiana.  Having grown up flying (see https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/tag/hangar-barns/) I always get excited when we […]

Entry doors are just not thought of very often – we walk in and out of them every day, yet don’t often consider what goes into seeing they work properly and are maintenance free. Below is a how to guide on proper entry door framing. Here are some common entry door mistakes: Not inspecting for damage at […]

When you look at a barn, what do you see? A space for hay or machinery storage? Living quarters for livestock? If you’re like the increasing number of people in the market for a barndominium, you may see it as something completely different: a home. So what is a barndominium? It’s any barn or pole […]

I’ve written previously about the barn renovation or “barndominium” craze: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2014/02/barndominium/ As well as my own personal bit of post frame building heaven: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2014/07/pole-barn-house-2/ Chip and Joanna Gaines, hosts of HGTV’s Fixer Upper, have been flipping, remodeling and fixing up homes together for the past 12 years as owners of Magnolia Homes in Waco, Texas. They […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU:  Can you tell me if the base trim that I am installing for the ends of the eave soffit is to extend across the endwall corner trim top so as to prevent anything from going in the top of the building corner trim and finishing off the top of the corner […]

For TBF (throw back Friday) we are reposting an old post back from 2011 that has been a very popular read. What Is the Profit Margin at a Lumber Yard and how does affect their pole building prices? What in the heck does the gross profit margin of the average retail lumber yard have to […]

Goliath, a Philistine, challenges the Israelite’s to “single combat”, a stylized way of engaging with the enemy which avoids the heavy bloodshed which comes from open battle: “Choose you a man and let him come down to me! If he prevail in battle against me and strike me down, we shall be slaves to you. […]

When I was in grade school, I had a history book which featured drawings of World War I airplanes. My friends and I grew up in relatively modest neighborhoods and could not afford fancy treats such as model airplanes, however we did have the resources of toothpicks, typewriter paper and Elmer’s ® Glue. We combined […]

If you’re like most folks, the idea of having a custom designed pole building strikes you as some hoity-toity fantasy where you’re a movie star or a high-priced lawyer. After all, why do you need a custom-designed building if you’re just a regular guy or gal? And how can you possibly hope to afford it? […]

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: How is electricity provided to a pole building? Do I need to look for an electrician before hand or after the structure is completed? DENNIS IN EVERETT DEAR DENNIS: For my own building, it was a tossup between plugging into a currant bush, or doing it the Ben Franklin way with […]

This article’s content was published by the following source: Retrofit Magazine – March 17, 2016 Unless otherwise noted, the content below has not been altered by Hansen Pole Buildings We’ve come a long way since the first recorded building code was passed in 1772 B.C. Things were a lot simpler then and the penalties were very straightforward: “If a […]

The Hansen Pole Buildings warehouse is an older pole building, which did not have closures under the ridge cap. To compound the problem – the ridge cap was nailed on! Luckily, one of the products we sell is an Emseal ® AST expanding foam closure strip which comes in a very thin roll, but expands […]