Tag Archives: storage space

Storage Space Strength, Spray Foam on Steel, and Endwall Glulams

This Wednesday the Pole Barn Guru answers reader questions about the chance shelves in a storage space could hurt the integrity of the building, his opinion on the effects of spray foam on steel panels, and placement of glulams on endwalls for load transfer.

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: I’m creating storage space in post framed shop. I used 3 – 4″ torx lags and 2 – 4″ torx screws to attach 2×6 to the post. The shelf is 2′ deep and 9.5′ long. Joists are at 24″ and used 3″ and 4″ torx at the rim, hangers on the girt side. The lumber is Doug fir. I feel like these are quite stout and won’t hurt the integrity of the building. Am I right to feel that way? Would diagonal braces at the ends to the posts be necessary? About how much would be too much weight for them? Whatever info you got would be appreciated.

Thanks. MATT in RIDDLE

DEAR MATT: You are asking me to practice structural engineering here without a license. While you are unlikely to negatively affect your building’s structure (other than probably overloading wall girts), only the engineer who originally sealed your building plans could adequately provide an analysis. I would be skeptical in regards to the ends of your system being adequate, without either vertical support or some sort of diagonal back to the columns. There is a system already developed for exactly your application: https://thepostrack.com/

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Came across your articles on spray foam. I’ve also found a couple things saying chemicals in it can cause the metal to rust prematurely. Have you found that correct or no? RON in HARTVILLE

DEAR RON: Only articles I have read in regards to possible premature steel degradation have been on websites selling other types of insulation, so I take them with a block of salt. I have closed cell spray foam in my own post frame barndominium and we used it when we added onto our warehouse, can’t say we have experienced any negative challenges. We have also had hundreds of clients successfully use closed cell spray foam applied directly to steel roofing and siding.

 

DEAR POLE BARN GURU: Mike, on the gable ends of a building how do the poles (glulams) compare to the sidewall poles? When I am sketching a building layout I just put a dot every 12′ along the perimeter. It seems gable end walls don’t have to support any of the roof’s weight because their tops end along the bottom chord of the end trusses. Or is the design of the end truss different so that roof weight is transferred onto the lower chord all along its length? If so, are there key measurements where to place the supporting pole down to frost line must be placed, e.g. every 12 feet’? BRIAN in LEROY

DEAR BRIAN: Endwall trusses are typically designed so roof loads are transferred via internal web members to column locations. For practical purposes, place columns on endwalls anywhere working with your door and/or window openings, up to 16′ on center. Try to keep them on multiples of two feet for best use of materials.

Storage Wars

We don’t have network television access out here in the sticks where I live, so we see little TV except for Netflix.

Our 19 year-old son Brent was out to visit one afternoon and started watch a program originally aired as a reality TV series in 2010 on the A&E Network. I suppose I always knew Americans were hoarders, but Storage Wars gave it an entirely new spin for me.

The premise of Storage Wars is, the contents of storage units with unpaid rent have their contents sold by an auctioneer as a single lot of items in a cash-only auction. Storage Wars follows professional buyers who purchase the contents based only upon a five-minute inspection of what can be seen from the unit door when it is open. The goal of the potential buyers – turn a profit!

storage-units55 years ago there were no self-storage facilities at all in the United States, today there are now 2.3 BILLION square feet of self-storage space in the United States. This equates to over seven square feet of storage for every single person alive in the U.S. today!!

Before 1996 only 6% of the population used storage services, in contrast to 65% of today’s population. Over the past four decades, self-storage has been one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S.

In the 1980’s my Dad had done a fair amount of research into the post frame industry and felt he had a pretty good grasp as to what it takes to be profitable.

#1 Dirt – the land needs to be affordable, located conveniently and not have overly onerous Planning Department requirements.

#2 Unit mix – having a broad variety of sizes allows customers to move up in size when their belongings expand.

In 1991 I built a self-storage project with three buildings – totaling 20,400 square feet. I couldn’t convince the owner to go with anything other than 10’x20’ units. When he couldn’t pay me, I foreclosed and became an, “I really don’t want to own this, owner”. It was a true challenge only having a single size to offer.

My frequent readers are familiar with the adventures working on Eric’s new storage facility. With a unit mix of three 5’x10’, two 10’x10’, five 10’x15’, five 10’x20’, five 12’x22’ and five 12’x27’ – he has covered all of the most popular size bases.

#3 Don’t overpay for the building, or scrimp trying to cheap out. Here is where pole buildings shine – great value for the investment and for the DIYer, it offers a tremendous money savings. Make your storage building look attractive. Eric’s building has “warm” inviting colors as stone for siding with contrasting dark gray for wainscot, roof and trim. The impression you want to have shine is your storage building is a clean place to store valuable “stuff” where folks are willing to pay for the space.

My bride and I recently took a motorcycle trip to Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada. Although it was no surprise there were storage buildings for boats, even we were amazed at row after row of storage buildings for miles on end – both on the U.S. and Canada side of the border.

Next break from watching Storage Wars, get out the pencil and paper and see if the numbers could work for you. Most self-storage properties are free and clear within five to seven years!