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 or Saturday segment.  If you want a quick answer, please be sure to answer with a “reply-able” email address.

Email all questions to: PoleBarnGuru@HansenPoleBuildings.com

DEAR POLE BARN GURU:I am interested in just the doors. Do you offer a barn door kit? I have a detached garage that I would like to replace the overhead door with sliding barn doors. Thanks for your response. FLAILING IN FALLS CHURCH

 DEAR FLAILING: Yes, we offer just the sliding doors. You may purchase just the hardware, or we can also provide steel siding for them, in a myriad of colors. Call our number on the top part of our website: www.HansenBuildings.com

DEAR POLE BARN GURU:where can i get the expanding foam closures to seal my ridge cap i have looked at lowes and home depo thank you. IRRITATED IN IOWA

DEAR IRRITATED: Your question is one frequently posed by owners of steel roofed buildings where either the seller cut corners and pocketed a few extra dollars by leaving them out, or the erection crew got lazy and wanted to save a few minutes of time. I’ve actually had owners of new pole buildings report their construction crew told them by leaving out the closures, they could have a vented ridge cap, for free!

Yes, without the closures, it will be vented alright…as well as providing easy access for flying critters of all shapes and sizes, not to mention rain and snow!

When I was building, and running as many as 35 pole building crews, we had three quality control persons on staff, who visited every building we constructed to make sure the finished products met with our standards. One of the tools carried by each QC person – field glasses, so they could tell from a distance if the closure strips had been installed under the ridge cap.

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 expanding foam closure strip which comes in a very thin roll, but expands to an inch square once installed. These expandable closures will stick to nearly anything, and can be a gooey mess to work with, but they did the trick in our case. They really do stick and seal!

If your building has a screwed on ridge cap, we’d recommend using form fitted closure strips which come with an adhesive pull strip on one side. They are available from Hansen Pole Buildings either as solid, or vented (with integral screening to prevent the “bad stuff” from coming through into your building. And yes, we sell the expanding foam closures  too. Check it out on our website.