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” email address.

Email all questions to: PoleBarnGuru@HansenPoleBuildings.com

 DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Can you sell in Custer county Oklahoma?

OKAY IN OKLAHOMA

DEAR OKAY: Yes. Also in every other county, parish, city, town, state and any other designation within the United States.

Mike the Pole Barn Guru

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I am interested in building a pole building home and started to look at a floor layout.  Where can I find information for the most economical length and width dimension for a home of 1600 to 2000 square feet?  This information would be helpful to help me request a quote for a build. ORIGINAL IN OREGON

DEAR ORIGINAL: You will find a pole building price is very reasonable, as pole barns are the most economical form of permanent construction for any type of building. When it comes to your new home, post frame construction (pole buildings) provide some other benefits – ease and speed of construction, ultimate flexibility of design due to virtually unlimited clearspans, plus energy efficiency from the deep wall cavities created with minimal thermal transmissions from framing members which are attached to both exterior and interior wall surfaces.

Dimensionally, you are best to work from combining room locations to best fit with your ease of use – then surround those spaces with exterior walls. Width and length dimensions which are in multiples of three feet and evenly divided by either 10 or 12 will give the most bang for your buck in a pole building price.  However the savings results in differences of a few pennies per square foot, not dollars.

Mike the Pole Barn Guru

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hello, Regarding a 62 x 40 building, similar to your project #04-0509. Have you ever sold any similar buildings in the Los Angeles area? Will the building meet residential building codes? This would be for a RV/Garage/Apartment replacing an existing Barn/Garage on my property.

Thanks, LARGE IN LOS ANGELES

DEAR LARGE: Thank you very much for your interest in a new Hansen Pole Building. We’ve provided similar buildings in every state in the United States, although not necessarily directly in the Los Angeles area. We have never had any client be unable to obtain a structural permit in Los Angeles county (or any other jurisdiction in the United States). Any post frame (pole building) can be designed to be able to meet residential building codes – however the scope of our design will be limited to the actual structural components themselves. Any energy calculations required, would need to be provided by your HVAC provider. You will need to consider the fire separation aspects between the mixed uses (garage/living space) which would be applicable to any form of construction.

One nice thing about post frame construction – due to the light weight of the structure, it is highly resistant to the effects of seismic events – making them ideal for highly earthquake prone events.

Your first step should be to contact your Planning Department, to see if you have the ability to construct a building of these (or similar) dimensions, where you want to place it.

Mike the Pole Barn Guru