concrete pilings vs buried poles for barns

Would seem logical not to have wood rotting or leaching chemicals into the gound

Opinions please

Many designs are based on the poles being set in the ground and providing resistance to vertical sway. But many times those designs are not changed when the vertical members are instead simply set on a base plate. All sway resistance is removed, and the structure can now sway and wiggle madly, and quickly fall to the ground. Decks seem like the #1 place this mistake is made. Long vertical poles sitting on a base plate with no diagnal bracing.

Another frequent failing I see with them is that they do not slow down rot. In fact, a number of the designs promote rot. Lots of these base plates create a bucket of water under the wood. Rain runs down the wood and gets collected in the base plate bucket. It then wicks up the wood and rots it. I've seen a number of decks and arbors and such that were badly rotted in just a few years from the use of poor base plates.

We do have some other polebarns built with old telephone poles. The telephone company was taking all the old poles out when they decided to bury all the lines. Dad bought 3 miles worth of poles for $5 dollars a pole and we had to take them out (after they took the lines off). We just backed the IH 1066 up to the pole and threw a chain around the poles and lifted with the hitch arm. Pulled the pole right up out of the ground. Those poles will last for a very long time.... wish we had bought about 20 miles of those poles!

Won't be much longer until they will have outlasted the metal roof. I'll bet they're good for another 50 years!

Use a 4 ft by 12 inch concrete tube, fill with concete and put a j bolt on the top. Attach 6x6 to j bolt using the metal holders they make for that purpose.

Anybody ever done that?

When we did it over again 5 years later, we used the cardboard Sonotubes along the lines you propose. This worked really well, because the heaving of the ground could not get a purchase on the cylindrical footings.

Your proposed application will work fine for gravity loads, but obviates one of the main benefits of pole construction. Namely, an embedded pole resists lateral forces pressing sideways as well as gravity loads pressing down.

By bolting the post to the concrete footing, you create a hinge joint that is unable to provide moment transfer to the concrete post sunk in the ground. You will have to provide some alternative lateral bracing system, such as diagonal bracing or plywood sheathed walls, or your barn will fold up like a house of cards in the first strong wind.