Pole barn question(s)

Started by sowbeautiful, May 16, 2016, 12:11:24 PM

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sowbeautiful

Hey ya'll, first time poster and longtime reader.

My DW and I have started our journey to begin a small farm on which we will raise and homeschool our children. 12 acres of fully wooded pine, a small creek, and more importantly, no neighbors to be seen aside from the large farm to our west.

We are building the Victoria's cottage with a few small changes, and home to get started by mid-summer.

Anyway - I will be building a barn/shop sooner rather than later, and I was hoping to get a bit of help.

I am wondering about poles and termites. We live in the piedmont area (read all sand), and termites are horrible. I had pt fence posts rot out in one season at our last house. I have seen other folks use post covers or full concrete wraps in barns - is this for moisture, stability or termites? Is there any solid way to prevent termites from eating the posts – or for that matter, the skirt along the bottom?

If we have to, putting the posts on piers is not out of question. I would love to use some of the timber off of the property and putting fresh cut pine in the ground is out of question. So, I am thinking this might be the better route – concrete piers where the posts will be and a block stem wall, maybe just two rows on top of a rubble trench foundation? Thoughts?

I would love to explore building the walls from cord wood if we go the above route – but again I would be worried about protecting the cord wood from termites. Anyone have ideas on creating a barrier between the block and the wood?

Last question for now – I need a good source for a simple barn plan. Can someone point me in the right direction? Free would be great. Looking for maybe 24x32 with carports on both sides?

Don_P

 w*
These are land grant university plans, oldies so pay attention but generally good.
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/extension-aben/buildingplans/construction
Hit the tabs on the left sidebar as well.

Foundation grade treated is the problem, you need it... or a run to the coast and get very heavily treated for marine use. You're probably getting .25 lbs per cubic foot stuff, foundation is .60 and no heart so it treats all the way through, coastal is 2.5.

A concrete collar or slab does help restrain the post... or constrain to use their engineering term... in the design the lateral stability of a post buried in the ground it is treated as either constrained or unconstrained, that changes burial depth and lateral design provisions. With a pier or stemwall the lateral is resisted by some other form of bracing.

Permacolumn makes some products you might want to check out.

Borate everything wood, it disrupts their gut and has very low mammalian toxicity, stops decay fungi as well.