Adding onto a Pole Building

Tim Hancock · 08-04-2005, 10:13 AM

Any carpenters out there with pole building experience? I am thinking of adding onto my existing 50' x 80' x 14' eaves airplane hangar/workshop. I would like to add a 16' x 48' addition to one side for mower/dirt bike/ snowmobile/tractor etc etc storage. I do not intend on heating it and will most likely just put in a stone floor.

I think I could just cut the metal siding under the existing eaves, install rafter hanger brackets every 8' and install 2 x 12 rafters going out 16' to new additional 4 x 6 poles. I would then install 2x4 purlins every 2' on the rafters to provide something to screw the metal roofing on.

Does my plan sound like a workable one? I need to do this as cheaply as possible, yet I want it to last.

Tim Hancock · 10:28 AM

Here is a rough layout.

Dantilla · 08-04-2005, 03:59 PM

Sounds okay to me, but I'm sure any engineers around here will want to see your snow load calculations.

Tim Hancock · 08-04-2005, 04:39 PM

When I thought about doing this a couple of years ago, I had a local chain lumber store quote me the framing materials and they had 2 x12
rafters on 24" centers (might have been 2 x 10's, I do not remember. I was going to do both sides of the building and the cost was just too much to seriously consider.

Last week I noticed a local building being built and it only had the 2 x 12's spaced at 8' with purlins on top on 24" centers. I did not speak to the owner but it "looked OK". While we do get snow, I do not remember a time when it has accumulated more then an inch or two on the metal roof of my building which is in an open wind prone setting.

Grezdlitn · Grezdlitn's Garage

Tim,

I think your plan is workable. I would be concerned that 8' is a long way between spans and might be prone to sagging and snow loads might become a problem. 2x12x16 rafters will eventually sag under there own weight but not enough to be a real issue.

Having said all that. Consider a product that I use all the time here in the Dallas area and available through Leows, Home Depot or your local lumber yard. Rafters that are engineered from plywoods. They are basically I beams consisting of a 7/16 web and 2x2 caps. Significantly stronger than 2x12's and much lighter.
As big trees are getting harder to come by they are sometimes less expensive as well. Might be a cost effective alternative.

By the way, did you make it to Oshkosh. I didn't fly Grezdlitn up this year but did drive up to appease the wife and look at some things in between hear and there. I was most impressed by Glacier Girl. I'd been waiting to take a look at her.

Mark

Tim Hancock · 08-05-2005, 03:46 AM

Yeah, I was there from Sunday thru Thursday. Luckily I stayed relatively dry while camped under the wing of my Pacer Monday night. Tuesday morning many campers around me had their sleeping bags and clothes hanging all over their planes attempting to dry out! I looked at the RV section a couple of times scanning the sea of RV's for a 3 bladed polished prop on a red RV-8...No luck. I was very impressed by the paint job on the black RV with the unbelievably realistic flames on it.

I liked the F4, F16, P51, P38 (Glacier Girl) formation low passes. I could not resist buying a book on Glacier Girl from the period outfitted sales girls in the Glacier Girl tent.