Pole barn repair

So my neighbor has a pole-barn he asked me to help him fix. He put gypsum ("super lime" or "gyp" he calls it) in it on the floor. It got wet in the winter, expanded and broke several of the poles. 2 poles are not really holding any weight but one of the poles is still supporting the roof (these are on a load-bearing wall.) The existing posts were treated wood, buried almost 5 feet deep but not surrounded by poured concrete.

This is a building about 40x80 with one open side and a cement floor and sheet-steel or tin on the outside.

He wants to straighten the walls back up and get the weight back on those poles like it should be. His dad built that shed by hand probably 60-70 years ago so it"s pretty important to him to fix it.

I squared up a little 8x12 shed a few years back but this is a much bigger project and I"m not too sure how to begin on this one. Any advice would be appreciated!

I've done it with high capacity bottle jacks and a com-along. You could also reshore with temp posts and add or move posts.

Fortunately I have not had to repair my shed BUT I have thought about it as it just a question of time.
Here's how I would start to tckle the job.
Using tempory posts (6X6; 4X4, etc) and bottle jacks get the roof line straight and supoport with tempory posts on each side of the too-be-replaced post. The roof line could be slightly high.
Get the too-be-replaced post out of there and redrill the hole.
Tamp the bottom and measure the new pole required length. Cut a touch long and set it. Line it up, cut to exact length, lower the roof and refill the hole.

Somewhere in all this something will go wrong or won't work and you'll adjust the approach.
I think the risk is in getting the pole the right final length.

There are now concrete anchors that are approved for pole barns, at least around here. Big suckers, go deeply enough into the concrete and far enough up the pole to duplicate the lateral strength of the original buried pole. Might be worth checking into. (I don't have any brand names to google).

Dan,

You need to make good temporary supports while you work on the broken pole(s). Temp supports are often set at a bit of an angle, and that can spell disaster. Any angle loading of a hyd jack can cause it to spit out faster than you can get away from it. It is best to design the temp supports so they are truely vertical, and after having jacked them to the correct hieght, set some hard support because most hyd jacks will or can leak down. They are good for lifting, but are high risk for holding.

Have a substancial steel plate that the top of the jack pushes on. If the ram of the jack pushes against wood, it can crush or cause the wood beam to split. So spread out the lift forces with a steel pad plate. Use chains, cables, come alongs to stabilize the vertical supports. Safety is worth a few extra hours of bracing and chaining.

The specific design of what you need to do can not be explained here, there are just too many variables.

As to the safety stuff, I speak from experience. If the beam or post can bow, it will. If the jack can roll and fly out, it will. If bracing is insufficient, it will break. Be sure that everything is 2 to 3 times as strong as you guess it needs to be.

Even though a building looks to be very stationary, barns and especially pole barns are dynamic....they are in motion, usually slow motion. But the shifting winds and breezes are putting a lot of force on one side of the roof, while suction is created on the other side. This is putting sideways bending forces on the poles. Thus there is a lot more need for strong temp bracing.

Think FORCES as you do this work, and you can probably anticipate the bracing you will need.

A guy who repairs barns told me to never jack or pull too much at once, he figured about 1/2" of pull or push per day. Use a taut string line to determine "straight". The eye is not good enough, you will see mistakes later.

Best of Luck, and I hope to hear about your success on this forum.

Paul in MN