Further Down the Highway
Author’s Note: This is part 4 of a series of blogs written from a 6500+ motorcycle trip from WA to Ohio and back. See Blog from Oct. 15th for the beginning…and hang on for the ride!
I am the curious sort. I enjoy finding out how other people do things, as well as why. Along my ride, I stopped in to visit with some of the lumber yards, to pick their brains on pole buildings.
At one I stopped at, the pole barn “expert” told me they have sold eight buildings so far in 2013… – sounds like a slow week to me, but I digress.
When talking further with the expert, I’m told they can figure, by hand, the materials for any pole building in 20 minutes or less. Pretty nice, unless one gets interrupted while doing the list and has to refigure. Of course it is not like a program which is 100% accurate every time, and does all of the work as fast as the dimensions and features of the building can be keyed in.
I wanted to know what kind of plans get furnished when someone orders a pole building kit package from them. The answer actually was shocking, “None”. Zero, zilch, nada….I felt like I was watching an old Capital One credit card commercial.
So…..how about instruction on how things go together? Even for a builder, instructions can come in handy. Same answer, “None”.
The expert tells me almost all of the pole building kit packages they sell, are purchased by builders, and, “They know how to build them”!
Marvelous, simply marvelous.
Expert sits down with each purchaser, explains how things go together, and hopes things actually get assembled correctly – or at least the way Expert had in mind!
Now I have been accused of being somewhat on the anal side. I don’t watch much television, but when I do, it is shows like “Engineering Disasters”.
When failures occur in structures, they are most often due to insufficient or inadequate connections. In the case of post frame buildings, it would be how many of the right size nails, screws or bolts to use.
Using no plan sounds like a recipe for failures of epic proportions in the connection department. Apparently Expert is relying upon the judicious experience of Contractor to hook everything together.
I thought I “did good”. I just bit my tongue and imagined how the owners of this lumber dealer will handle pole building kit sales, after their client’s new building falls down, and they lose a multi-million dollar judgment against them. Allowing seat-of-the-pants design work and lack of a professionally drafted plans or “how it all goes together” instructions to occur under their watch is at the very least, negligent.
See you next Tuesday as I continue my series about pole building “finds” as I cycled across the United States, and don’t forget to check out the “Ask the Guru” on Monday. Have a great weekend!
