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 just want to build a carport 25′ to 30′ away from my house on the north side. Do you sell “Shade Shelters” or anything along that line? FLYING IN FLORIDA

DEAR FLYING: Post frame (pole) buildings are probably the most affordable permanent carport structure. Unlike the “fly aways” which are seemingly sold on every street corner for $799, your pole building carport will last a lifetime, and longer. All we need to know is how much area you need to cover, and what the tallest thing is which you need to park under it, and we can design your solution. Shade shelters are quickly and easily constructed, most often by homeowners just like you.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Hello, I am contractor assembling one of your pole building kit packages.
Would you send me details for flashing the building please?
Need:
-Corner flashing.
-End capping the cut ends at top.
-Where do the corrugated foam strips reside?
-Roof panel overhang on the sides and ends.
-Door trim flashing

Thank you, WISHING IN WASHINGTON

DEAR WISHING: All of these are covered in depth in the Construction Manual which was provided to your client after purchase. If your client has not shared it with you, you should ask him for the big white binder which was sent to him. Every piece of trim has a diagram showing what it is along with the code used by the steel company. Detailed drawings show where each piece goes on the building.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU:Hi, What is the cost per square foot…please to construct a pole barn 30 x 80  please. I thank you so very much…. CONFUSED IN CONNECTICUT

DEAR CONFUSED: There is such a myriad of possibilities in any given foot print which could cause the price per square foot to be very low – if it was a low eave height, roof only building, with no roof insulation and a non-painted roof. Or it could be very high, if it was multiple stories with a plethora of doors, windows, framed ready to be insulated and drywalled.

I liken this question to, “How much will it cost to remodel a bathroom?” It all depends on what features you pick – and add to the calculation loadings such as wind load, snow load and you have a complex formula. The corners are what cost the most, so going up in size – up to a certain width, the cost per square foot goes DOWN. So getting a price on a 30x80x10’ and then getting a price on a 30x70x20’ and wondering why a smaller footprint is “higher” – you can see how complicated it gets by changing the height. Best advice is to pick up the phone – call one of our building designers and with a few keystrokes they can tell you what making your building taller, shorter, wider, longer – any usual feature will do to the price – all in a matter of seconds And they will help you to design what you actually need to solve your “problem”, using the best design to give you the most bang for your buck. Try it….it’s quick and painless – and best of all – FREE.