pole barns

I plan on building a pole barn with the poles i got today and the wood i have cut with my sawmill.I would like to see some of our members pole barns to get some ideas.Thanks for pics.also,i noticed little metal tags on bottom of telephone poles.would this tell me what they were treated with.have not had a chance to read one of them yet.

Most of the time the tags tell the height of the pole, and the date they were made. I assume the ones you have we're recently taken out of service. If so, they're probably 30-40 years old.

i used tele-phone ele, pole for my building a few years ago but i tool them to a guy who squired them up to 6x6 lot easier to work with though i did spend time pulling all the nails

Cleary's are supposed to start putting up a pole type building for me tomorrow.

I'll try to take some photos and post some progress reports. Only my poles will be laminated 2x6's.

The tags should tell who owns them. I have some from Detoit Edison around here somewhere. If I can lay my hands on them I'll post a pic. On a side note, if you were to saw them poles up they make real nice siding.

heres some pics of my barn

60x80 16ft eves.

a little education here:
the tag on the bottom gives the length of pole and class size; length of pole is easy as 35, 40, 45 and up. 30-65 is typical with up to 100 ft which is rare for wood, especially now of days.
the single number 2,3 or 4 refers to class size with the smaller the number the bigger round the pole. 30 to 40 lengths are usually class 4. 45's and up can vary from class 2-4 depending on use.
birth date of pole is normally burnt into the side of pole at about 12 to 18 feet from the bottom. method of treatment is different from manufacturer to manufactures and region of country.
now as for used poles, when a pole is placed in the hole or "set" gravity will pull treatment out of the pole and into the surrounding ground. this plus the absence of oxygen at the depths of the pole insures the longevity of the pole. poles are removed from service after a number of years due to "butt rot" or that area of the pole at ground level. butt rot greatly reduces the strength of the pole and i emphasize "greatly". resetting a pole is somewhat risky for pole building as some unknown portion of the treatment has leched out of the pole and additionally when set in a new hole there is little treatment left to help sterilize the new hole. now all this said, there are many pole barns built with used poles that have seen a long life and will continue for a long number of years. i might add that poles of today do not seem to last as long as poles from 30+ years ago.
poles due to their taper are more difficult to set plumb and their shape may have changed over the years therefore they my be difficult to square also. personally, i would use 4x6 treated posts.

More on the tags.....
I was working on a farm house a 2 or 3 years ago and saw a couple guys from the power company inspecting the poles on the property. When they were done they attached another tag with the inspection date. They actually added three tags. I don't recall what info the others had. They said the poles leading to the farm house were some of the oldest they've ever seen. They were dated 1946.

fordfarming,
Very nice!!!!!

Pics of my pole barns. Tornado got the old ones.

... poles are removed from service after a number of years due to "butt rot" or that area of the pole at ground level. butt rot greatly reduces the strength of the pole and i emphasize "greatly".

Click to expand...

I can vouch for "butt rot". Had an old private utility pole crack vertically about ground level and a heavy wind blew it over, snapped right at ground level. After I cut it up I noticed a lot of the center was either hollowed out or "punky" soft several feet up. I would prefer to use new, straight wood for a pole building.

thank you