Pole Building Framing Question

[db4570]

I am thinking about building a small house in the future, and am starting to like the idea of a pole building. I got the old book "Practical Pole Building Construction" which is very helpful.

One thing I couldn't find is how the floor girts are connected to form long beams. Do they just butt end-to-end at a pole and are both bolted to the pole?

Maybe a picture will help (not from the book):



The book shows methods for bolting the beams to the poles, but not where they connect lengthwise. In other words, how do I get the floor beam/ girts to 40 feet?

Thanks!

David

[Don_P]

Bolting a beam to a post is no longer considered kosher, the bolts tend to split the beam under load. Also they suggest not spacing bolts wider than 5" apart across the grain to avoid splitting when the wood shrinks.

There are several ways you can do it.
One is to use heavy hangers with inturned ears that are connected to the post with eaither many nails or alot of structural screws, then the girder is dropped into the hangers. Simpson HUC series is one type of hanger. It wouldn't hurt a thing to run some strapping from beam to beam across the posts to help tie it all together.

You can notch one ply into the outside face of the post and use a concealed hanger for any inside plies.

You can place the first ply on the outside face of the post and either hanger or notch in the inner ply. Then nail a treated 2x6 from footing to girder to support that outer ply. This works better if you are wrapping the entire building in rows of horizontal girts rather than stud framing the walls.

This is the post frame industry website;
http://www.nfba.org/index.html

[db4570]

Thanks, Don P.

If I understand correctly, the floor beams would just butt against the inside edges of the poles, attached with hangers? So the longest beam would only be the distance between any two poles? That simplifies things; I was afraid I was going to have to use very long beams that would span several posts.

When you say "plys", you mean the actual beam board, like 2x12s or whatever? I may have gotten a bit lost by the end of your reply.

David

[Don_P]

Yes the girders run from post to post. They will more than likely be built up of several layers, plies, of 2x lumber nailed together.

For a little jargon;
Members that react to load in bending are beams... floor and ceiling joists, rafters, headers and girders are all types of beams. A girder is a beam that supports other beams. So a floor girder is a beam that supports floor joists (and possibly more).

The girder and header tables in chapter 5 of the codebook give sizes, loads and spans for various built up girders.