NEW FEATURE: ADDED BLOG DAY!  Due to a large volume of questions to the Pole Barn Guru, we are adding another day for answering questions – so look for more Pole Barn wisdom from The guru on Saturdays – starting – this coming Saturday, March 29th! Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where […]

The phones ring at Hansen Pole Buildings every day from dawn-to-dusk, and sometimes both before and after. Some calls are a little more interesting than others. Bright and early, first thing this morning Eric (one of the owners of Hansen Pole Buildings) gets a phone call from Lowe’s®. It seems Lowe’s® has a pole building […]

I really, really enjoy interactive clients. The ones who pay attention to what is going on (chances are, if you are reading this, you are one too). They help keep me on my toes, as well. I’ve been enjoying interacting with John. Over the weekend he came up with this for me: “I looked at […]

When I was a freshman in Architecture school at the University of Idaho, we watched video footage of the November 7, 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (also known as “Gallopin Gertie”). If you have never seen this amazing footage before, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw Luckily, most of you will never watch […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

When Four Sides are Less Expensive than Three Imagine, if you will, a balloon. If the opening is shut, it is pretty hard to blow any more air into it. Open it up, blow into it and it expands as the air pressure on the inside is increased. Now picture a pole building with one […]

Whether a DIYer, or a building contractor, there are two primary methods for acquisition of materials for a pole building kit. There is the “old fashioned way”…. Someone roughs out a building plan, generally without the ability to do structural engineering calculations to determine if what is in “the plan” will actually carry the climactic […]

At Half the Price… Every once in a while there is an exchange with a potential client which I cannot resist sharing. This one is about pole barn prices…at half the price of! In this particular case, as the request came in at 7:39 a.m., I was afterwards wondering if the inquiry came after a […]

When I was first constructing pole buildings, I found out the hard way why it is essential to have a clause in my agreements which covered the unknown – also known as “what you can’t see below the surface”. In my case, we had contracted to build a 36 foot wide by 60 foot long […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

Guest Blog today by Eric Graff, owner of Hansen Buildings~ Every day Hansen Buildings is hard at work coordinating the deliveries of multiple pole buildings to different site locations across the US. With over 3,000 individual pieces involved in an average size pole barn, this is not an easy feat. Curious how this works? I […]

Client calls into my office at the end of the day Friday and says his Building Official will only accept his new pole building construction with holes 48 inches deep, with six inch thick concrete cookies in the bottom of the hole, and no concrete backfill around the columns. Here is some background…. The building […]

True confessions…..we love them, we watch reality TV, we read tabloids, and inquiring minds just want to know! Yeah silly as humans, aren’t we? Well…..I drink. A lot. Of water (LOL – expected something tawdry, right?)!! On a typical day I will guzzle down at least a gallon of it. Most nights I wake up […]

While this time tested adage was designed to make sure lumber, siding, etc., gets cut correctly the first time (which is often the only chance), it is even more applicable – BEFORE ANY MATERIAL GETS DELIVERED? OK…..you may be thinking time has finally caught up to the Pole Barn Guru….the marbles are rattling around a […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

The National Frame Building Association (NFBA) began 45 years ago when a group of Midwestern post-frame (pole) builders gathered in Chicago to mount a challenge to pending changes in the Indiana building code which would have threatened the post-frame industry. This group, along with interested engineers and architects, was able to prove the structural reliability […]

I’ve come to face a reality – the great majority of people are dimensionally challenged. And it is OK if you might be one of them. I’ve worked with dimensions and sizes of all sorts and shapes since I was a teenager swinging a hammer (and being go-fer) on the buildings my Father and Uncles […]

When I lived in “the Hood” in Salem, Oregon in the early 1980’s, my neighbors and I all had Yamaha street motorcycles. For some reason, we got into riding through the multiple story city parking structure, very fast. Part of the “rush” was the building was designed for vehicles no greater in height than 6’8” […]

Turn On the Water I was recently reading a news story online about a fire which destroyed a pole building located in a Midwest industrial park. The large building was owned by a semi-trailer delivery company, and was a total loss of all contents including their offices. What really caught my attention was a quote […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]

The Polebarn Hotel Looking for uniqueness in a pole building?  Located on Polebarn Road in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK, this one might be near the top of the list. Polebarn House was first occupied in 1789 by John Clark, a local mill owner, and his family. The house was designed to show off his wealth and […]

Ridge vent without soffit vent One of the most overlooked areas of pole building construction is proper ventilation. Lack of proper pole building ventilation becomes even a greater issue when an enclosed attic space is present. The International Building Codes require any dead attic space to be ventilated. Without adequate ventilation, moisture from condensation will […]

Great Ideas May Not Always Bring Great Results Much ado has been made about alternatives to CCA (Chromated Copper Arsenate) pressure preservative treated lumber. CCA has been used to pressure treat lumber since the 1940s. Since the 1970s, the majority of the wood used in outdoor residential settings (as well as pole buildings) has been […]

I enjoy Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designers who really like to sink their teeth into a subject. This morning Rick asks me, “Have you ever done a cost comparison on spray foam roof insulation vs the costs of condensation barrier, ceiling load trusses, joists, drywall ceiling and blown in insulation?” The entire question was brought about, […]

Welcome to Ask the Pole Barn Guru – where you can ask questions about building topics, with answers posted on Mondays.  With many questions to answer, please be patient to watch for yours to come up on a future Monday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” […]