DEAR POLE BARN GURU: How long will a pole barn house last? Should I pour concrete in with the poles? Should I put sleeves on the bottoms of the poles? Question from Karen Sasakwa, OK DEAR KAREN: A properly treated pressure treated timber should outlast the lifetime of any of us here on the planet today. https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2012/10/pressure-treated-posts-2/ This means plan on a properly designed pole barn house being around for generations. For the sake of preventing settling, uplift and overturning concrete should be poured around and below the base of the treated columns. https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2013/02/concrete-pier/ We can provide plastic sleeves, however the huge majority of new building owners do not use them. https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2012/04/plasti-sleeves/

Mike the Pole Barn Guru

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I have built a 30x40x18. Installed a 6mil vapor barrier on bottom of trusses and a steel ceiling. I blew loose fill r48 in an attic with 2×3 gable vents, ventilated ridge cap “flexovent” and vented soffit.

Now for the walls Tyvec on all exterior walls between girts and exterior panels. I want to wainscot the interior walls to 8′ and finish above w/white poly laminated fiberglass custom manufactured to fill pole voids starting at a nailer girt at the top of the liner wainscot. The grade board is insulated w/2″ pink foam and the same is custom cut and placed on the slab to finish flush with the interior nailer girt to isolate the slab from whatever I insulated the wainscot wall with.

Now my question? I was thinking about filling the cavities in the walls w/cellulose loose fill and possibly tamping it or vibrating it to maybe to achieve some compaction? To slow settling and per industry standards install it correctly. I would use filler strips at top and bottom of all panels to eliminate loss. The fiberglass could always be unattached from the nailer at a later date and more added if settling creates an open space between the glass and the cellulose? My question should I place a vapor barrier between the steel liner panels and keep it continuous with the poly vapor barrier on the glass above it? And will this work? Don’t be afraid of new ideas and just recommend glass behind the wall panels. I don’t like the voids glass always creates in profiled panels with diagonal girts.

Thanks Mark, Ohio City, OH

DEAR MARK: There might very well be an easier way to get maximum R value and fill all of the voids using fiberglass insulation – BIBs. You can read all about it right here: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2011/11/bibs/

My wife and I used it in for our pole barn house and it has performed better than we anticipated for heat/cooling loss.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I have an older home with a huge attached garage. I am looking to add a laundry room/bathroom to the garage however wanting it to look original. My home is on a crawl space as well. Could I do a pole barn structure inside the garage? Positive and negatives would be great as well. Cameron in Lima, OH

DEAR CAMERON: Could you? Certainly, however as much as I love pole barn (post frame) construction, building a pole barn structure inside your huge attached garage is probably an overkill. As these interior walls will be non-structural (not load bearing) it would be the most economical to frame 2×4 stud walls with a pressure preservative treated bottom plate.

Mike the Pole Barn Guru