Pole Barn - A Little Different Concept

I've been storing hay and some equipment in a couple of dome shelters. These are military grade shelters I bought a few years ago. Typically they are used with a heavy vinyl covering from the OEM, but since only the frames were available to buy, I have successfully used billboard signs. Work great and cheap! They are 20 ft wide X 30/32 ft long and 10 ft high - the 10 ft being the radius of the dome.

These domes are strong enough that one can cover them with metal roofing - which I plan to do.

However, I'm toying with the idea of taking one of these shelters and making a pole barn - with a loft. The loft would be the original dome shelter setting on floor trusses. Off each side would be lean-to shelters. The pics show the shelter and barn sketch.

The question I have is what kind of pole support would you recommend, size, i.e. 4x4 or 6x6, etc down the middle section and then the sides? Spacing? Bracing? Floor truss recommendations? Lean-to width?

Hay in the loft - so,that loading would need to be accounted for too.

Not looking for a design that I'd tear off and start building, just some ideas.

Thanks,
Bill

Google Southern Yellow Pine Span Table. The span table will tell you what size joist at what spacing will support what amount of weight. 20 feet of clear span with a load seems like a lot though. I think it will also tell you how much weight a 4x4 or 6x6 will support. The taller your post, the less weight it will support. May need to find some old telephone poles and/or put post down the middle. Good Luck.

12-16 ft. min on the lean to's. You will want to be able to back a vehicle on up against the building wall and still be under cover. Deeper if you can.
Concrete floors everywhere. With tubing and insulation for floor heat, someday if not now. You will be glad you did.
If you can possibly afford it, build bigger. You will never say I wish it was smaller. No one ever has...

Nice to see others reuse things. My question is why would you want a hay loft 12 feet of the ground? Forget the loft. Build awnings on each side of the center hay storage. That way you back up hay wagon and unload.

What are those arches made of?? I use PVC and plastic to make a green house and a green bean hoop. So I do pretty much the same as those are but with lighter stuff and that is why I ask what those are made of

While the hayloft is a fine idea, I hate putting bales in the loft. Hot dirty dusty and you are handling the bales for the third time. Ofcourse you could build 4 foot by ?? foot pallets and lift into the open loft end and push in as you add more. If you have a high lift forklift (probably not). Small bale handling is what drove everyone to big bales in the first place. I like making hay with my "old" equipment but getting help to load unload stack restack is difficult, and I'm not getting any younger and that stuff does me in. gobble

You might want to estimate the weight of the hay plus weight of wood to make floor. Then ask how many posts you are going to use? I would be concerned that all that weigh would push deeper. You would need some kind of footer under each post.

Is that an Alaskan small shelter frame? Those are pretty strong but you would need some cross bracing. The sheet steel alone would probably be enough. It should make a good roof over some 6x6 or larger posts with 2x12s for the floor. Your planning on putting a good amount of weight on top your floor plus having to plan for future wind or snow load. A full 20 foot span will be expensive to support the load you have stacked under the shelter now.

You might want to look into those metal carports out of NC think the 18 X 20 ones start around $700,I had 3 put up 12 years ago for livestock shelters and they have withstood some very strong winds and over 30" of snow.Plus the exhaust pipe on the tractor won't melt the roof(LOL)

Aluminum.

If I get the dome off the ground, I can park 4 - 14ft lg hay wagons under the center part. 2 - 14ft wagons on each side. Nominally each wagon holds 100 bales, so without unloading, 800 bales under cover. The loft is overflow. Elevators would be used to move the hay up there - from each end. Easily can get 600 bales under the dome with an generous air gap.

Our biggest chore and time consumer in the while baling operation is unloading wagons. The goal is to have enough wagons and storage space such that we can quickly bale onto the wagons, park them out of the weather and unload another day if needed, else sell off the wagons.

12 years ago it might have been $700, not today. Most of the car ports are so short in height, you couldn't pull a hay wagon under them.

I price out the metal carports via Carolina Carports estimator. A 20 X 31 ft regular carport, no siding and 10 ft tall is around $1,850. 14ga certified, around $2,300.

I may go that route and leave these dome shelters on the ground. We'll see.

600 x 50lb bales = 30,000lbs, or 15 tons.

That, plus the weight of the roof is what you have to support in your proposed 20' open span hay loft.

You're going to have so much material in the base of the pole building that it will seem foolish to top it off with a cheap billboard tarp hoop shelter, and when that shelter eventually gives up the ghost, you will have a LOT of wood sitting exposed to the weather rotting away.

Consider a row of poles down the middle to cut the span to a more manageable 10'.

I'd rethink that metal roofing. Only way I can see it will go on is like the car ports with the ribs horizontally. Well the carports made this way will leak water in at the seams. That is why you are now seeing more and more carports with the roofs made to run the ribs vertically.

Not Alaskin. HDT/Berg. Friend of mine works for HDT and bought several of these shelters a few years ago when they auctioned off some discontinued/surplus shelters. He sold me two of them. I'd like to find a couple more. Though aluminum, they are very rugged/strong. I agree the metal roofing would suffice to further brace the dome.

I don't know if it's a concern, but snow load would be a major factor here.

This forum is the WRONG place to be asking those questions. You need to talk to a Certified STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. You are planning on putting a tremendous amount of weight over a 20 foot OPEN SPAN, not to mention any possible Snow or Wind loading. I would think that at the very least, you would need 8 inch or larger diameter Schedule 80 Pipe, or possibly even "H" Beams for your uprights set on heavy concrete footers, and Steel "I" Beams for your floor trusses.

I hope you've got "deep pockets" because this could get real expensive real quick.


:>)

(quoted from post at 00:25:37 08/18/16) This forum is the WRONG place to be asking those questions. You need to talk to a Certified STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. You are planning on putting a tremendous amount of weight over a 20 foot OPEN SPAN, not to mention any possible Snow or Wind loading. I would think that at the very least, you would need 8 inch or larger diameter Schedule 80 Pipe, or possibly even "H" Beams for your uprights set on heavy concrete footers, and Steel "I" Beams for your floor trusses.

I hope you've got "deep pockets" because this could get real expensive real quick.


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This is NOT the wrong forum to be asking these questions. There is good advice here. Would I print out the responses and go to the building inspector and say, "see - here's how I built it."

No.

But it is indisputable that a high percentage of members have barns, sheds and out buildings, many of which they have built - out of which are some good ideas and advice.

Got to start somewhere. I was going to originally post at the pinochle forum, but figured I'd start here.