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How Tall Are Barn Homes?

Reader CAROLYN in INDIANAPOLIS writes:

“How tall are barn homes? I didn’t know what height to put in…I like tall ceilings …also do u build the homes also?”

Fully engineered post frame homes and barndominiums (barn homes) are beautiful because they only limit your heights under Building Codes to three stories and a 40 foot wall height (add another story and 10 feet for having fire suppression sprinklers – a good idea anyhow). My lovely bride and I live in a post frame home with a 44 foot overall height (and a cupola on top of it). Although this article is written for two story homes it may prove helpful: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2020/05/how-tall-should-my-eave-height-be-for-two-stories/.

Ideally ceiling height measures when framed should be an extra 1-1/8″ taller than your actual finished ceiling (e.g. 10′ 1-1/8″ for 10′ finished). 10′ ceilings have become very popular as well – “my” Vikings bathroom (yes has Vikings’ colors and stuff all over it). 10′ is also cost effective if batt wall insulation is used and drywall can be often purchased in 4′ x 10′ sheets. Our living room ceiling is 16′ as my wife likes her tall Christmas tree, she leaves it up all year long!

This article may also prove helpful to you https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2021/02/a-shortlist-for-smooth-barndominium-sailing/.

www.HansenPoleBuildings.com provides fully engineered, custom designed post frame buildings, with multiple buildings in all 50 states. We ship from over 4000 locations – so chances are we are ‘close’ to you! Your new building will be designed for an average physically capable person who can and will read instructions to successfully construct your own beautiful building (and many of our clients do DIY).

Your building will come with full 24” x 36” structural blueprints detailing the location and attachment of every piece (suitable for obtaining Building Permits), a 500 page fully illustrated step-by-step installation manual, as well as unlimited technical support from people who have actually built buildings.

For those without the time or inclination, we have an extensive independent Builder Network covering the contiguous 48 states. We can assist you in getting erection labor pricing as well as introducing you to potential builders.

We would appreciate the opportunity to participate in your new home. Once you have them, please email your building plans, site address and best contact number to our Design Studio Manager caleb@hansenpolebuildings.com (866)200-9657 Thank you.

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Homes, Post Frame Home, Pole Barn Questions, Barndominium, About The Pole Barn Guru, Pole Barn Planning, Building Contractor and tagged , , , , , on by .

Hire a Local Engineer and Work With a Lumber Yard?

Should I Hire a Local Engineer and Work With a Lumber Yard?

Let’s hope not. Here is the email which triggered this article:

“Hello, 

I am building a 50×60 pole building with 22′ eaves. I’m shopping right now to either hire a local PE to design the structure and work with my local lumber yard to supply the package or maybe buy a kit like the ones you sell. Do you do custom sizes? Would you be interested in quoting my project?

I live in Lake Stevens, Washington.

Sincerely, 

Tim”

DEAR TIM ~

Thank you very much for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building.

About Hansen BuildingsThe heart of our business is providing totally custom designed post frame buildings of any size, as such your contact information has been forwarded to one of our senior Building Designers who can assist you with the process.

Some advice – hiring a local engineer to do the structural design will result in one thing for certain, and probably a second. The certainty is you will spend probably 8 to 12% of the value of your building on the engineer. In our case, the engineering is included with your investment in a new post frame building kit package. Our engineers do thousands of buildings for us, so your engineering costs are minimal.

The second is – most engineers are not specialists in post frame building design. You might get a great deal on the engineering itself, only to later find out your spent thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars more than was necessary due to your engineer not being familiar with the most current advances in post frame design, as well as the plethora of materials options which could be incorporated to make your building the most efficient structure it can possibly be.

Your local lumber yard is most probably like most – they are nice, friendly, hard working folks, who know a little bit about lots of things. However, they are not going to be post frame building experts. The outcome, again, is probably going to prove to be one of less than ideal results.

My encouragement, whether you eventually invest in one of our post frame buildings or not, is to deal with folks whom you know are truly experts. We’d like to believe somewhere approaching 20,000 successful buildings might be heading us in the right direction.

Mike the Pole Barn Guru

This entry was posted in Professional Engineer, Pole Barn Questions, Pole Barn Design, Pole Building Comparisons, Pole Barn Planning and tagged , , , on by .

Open Beam Ceiling

Can We Make This Happen?

Hansen Pole Buildings’ Designer Rick has been working with a builder who sent this photo and asked, “Can you make this happen?”

The answer is ….. Yes!

My pole building mantra has always been:

The only limitations are imagination, budget and available space.

Once we get past these – everything is good!

Now the photo is not the typical post frame building, where squeezing every bit out of each dollar invested is high on the list. A project such as this with an open beam ceiling could easily result in a budget many times per square foot more than a typical pole building.

Open Beam CeilingLet’s start with the columns. My preference would (and always) is to use pressure preservative treated columns embedded in the ground. This could still be done, however the columns would probably need to be wrapped with something like 1x STK (Select Tight Know) S1S2E (Surface one side, two edges) Cedar to give the ‘bright wood’ look.

Another alternative would be to use untreated timber columns and mount them onto brackets wet-set into concrete piers (https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2012/01/concrete-brackets/).

Glu-laminated columns could also be used.

Besides glu-laminated post frame building columns, our good friends at Timber Technologies, LLC also fabricate some really awesome looking (and performing) trusses out of glu-laminated timers and heavy black steel plates (https://www.timber-technologies.com/titan_trusses.phtml).

Rather than traditional 2×6 (or larger depending upon spans and loads) roof purlins, glu-lams could be used and again attached to the trusses with steel brackets, painted black.

Across the purlins, 2×6 Select Decking for the awesome open beam ceiling:

(https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2015/02/tongue-and-groove-lumber/) would give the look desired as well as meeting the strength requirements.

Thirty pound asphalt impregnated paper (aka building felt) would be placed over the decking and the roof steel could then be installed.

Makes it all sound far simpler than maybe imagined. This open beam ceiling…could be yours!

This entry was posted in Pole Barn Design, Building Styles and Designs and tagged , , on by .

Metal Arts Buildings

A couple of years ago Hansen Pole Buildings Designer Rick and I had a discussion about interesting people I had done pole building projects for. (Read more about them at: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/blog/2013/03/pole-building-11/).

One person I had left off my previous list was famous Pacific Northwest sculptor and artist Harold Balazs. While most folks outside of the Northeast Washington area may not be familiar with Mr. Balazs, his iconic works can be found throughout the downtown landscape of Spokane, WA. They are featured prominently in Spokane’s downtown Riverfront Park, as well as several metal sculptures which are installed at various area colleges including North Idaho College and my alma mater, the University of Idaho.

More specifics of Harold’s work can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Balazs as well as at https://www.visitspokane.com/art/public-art/biography-of-harold-balazs/

Harold BalazsWhen Harold needed a lake mountain retreat in the 1990’s he commissioned my then business, Momb Steel Buildings, to construct it for him.

The original structure was a tri-level building with features which would allow for him to continue with his metal sculpting work. We later added onto the building.

My own interest in metal arts sculpture has been further piqued by the works of my former college roommate and talented artist Everett Grondin, Sr. Everett is a third generation Arizonian, who, with his son Everett, Jr., has taken creative metal fabrication and construction to a new level (https://www.doglix.com/aboutus.html).

Post frame (pole) building construction makes for ideal homes for those in the metal arts industry. Pole buildings are true to the basic roots of architectural structures – where every component is serving a structural function. A truly customized post frame building which is one which would probably make Howard Roark (the hero in Ayn Rand’s iconic 1943 novel The Fountainhead) proud!

The ease of lining welding and high heat areas of metal arts pole buildings with steel panels, lends itself well to the work of these artists!

Looking for an original and amazing metal art piece? Contact Harold or either of the Grondin’s. Need an original and amazing pole building?

If you don’t already know who to come to for your pole building – you don’t have to look any further than the website you are on!

This entry was posted in About The Pole Barn Guru, Building Styles and Designs and tagged , , , on by .
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