Top 5 pole barn mistakes. These are the top 5 mistakes I have made building our pole barn.

These are the top 5 mistakes I have made (So far) while building our pole barn. If you have built a pole barn or any kind of barn and made mistakes please leave a comment below and tell us about your mistakes so we can all learn from each other. DIY pole barn. Post frame barn.

[redgatefarms]

A 6x6 will take that weight just fine man.
I build these things for a living.

[TheOregonTale]

Most all of the pressure treated 6x6 poles in my pole barn twisted also. Trees grow radially (spin as they grow.) Poles are cut when it’s green, then as they dry, the pole twists back the other way radially. The longer the post, the more you will notice. That’s life, don’t beat yourself up. Barn is looking great! -Robert

[kennydavis]

During the 1990's I helped build 6 pole barns while working for a general contractor. We never had a pole twist on us. Poles used to be cut from straight-grained trees. I'm planning a log home currently and have spent three years reading everything I can find on the subject. Trees that have a left hand twist are useless for anything except maybe fence posts while right hand twist is only slightly better. The pole you showed on the back wall had a left hand twist and should have never been cut as a pole. Just bad lumber being sold nowadays and it's a crying shame. Great work so far. Good luck.

[matthewpoteet]

Im building my third one at my farm. I needed to save money so I purchased rough-cut treated posts from a local sawmill. They are bigger and sturdier but more likely to twist. After twisting was such a problem on the first barn. I hand-selected the posts of the second, culling about a third of the ones in the stack while looking for the grain and knot patterns that had been present in the ones that had previously twisted. We also sped up the truss mounting to get ahead of any twisting. This yielded great results with only 1 or 2 showing any twist. My last barn was 40x80. I didn't see anything about where you are located, but here in NC we had a monster snowstorm the next day after getting finished with the roof of the barn. The snow load was incredible and collapsed barns all over the area. Mine stood strong but the pile of snow that slid off was enormous. My point is your lean-to has to be able to handle that snow load because it's all coming straight off onto the lean-to. Most of the time a lean-to has less of a pitch and won't shed the snow as well as the barn roof did. Just something to consider if you are in an area that sees occasional heavy snows.

[kellyinfanger]

Professional crews are going to have the advantage of framing so fast the posts won't have time to warp. One time we had to set the posts a couple of months in advance, so I put a temporary girt near the top both inside and outside. That pretty well prevented the problem.

If you had to bring in fill, that is mostly a good thing. You can never be elevated too much to prevent runoff coming in.

I'm not an engineer, but the weight of the trusses are insignificant to a 6x6. We use a wooden bolted truss that weighs maybe three times that. The post size with our engineering is dependent upon the height of the building and the wind resistance needed. Even then the design would only change to 6x8 (or larger) with the relevant size in the direction of the truss (6x8, 6x10, 6x12). My non-engineer opinion in this case is that the lean-tos give you all the extra strength you need.

I don't get the guy saying to only roof one side at a time. Any section adequately screwed down is going to pretty well lock it down. Maybe he has a much lighter frame than I am used to. If the girts and purlins are widely spaced - there might still be some flex. In fact if you had two lean-tos already framed and metaled, you did really well to spread the one truss's posts. Good thing for you it was tight - not loose. Tight will stay forever. Loose - pulled in - might in some circumstances pull back out. Which reminds me, when I build (many post are already warped right out of the lumber yard); the general rule of thumb is to set them crowned out - meaning leaving the top of the post leaning in - then frame the top to exact measurements before framing walls - leaving the mid point where ever it happens to lie. If those posts happen to be the door post, you have one more chance. We trim the door jambs with a 2x8. If you can find a badly crowned 2x8; I have seen it used to completely straighten a 6x6 as you align each to the other and nail it.

When I hear commentors extolling their skill at picking lumber that remains straight, or see someone culling boards until he gets the perfect ones; I am laughing, ridiculing them in my mind. The mark of a skilled, master, carpenter is how straight and true he can build with the bent and crooked stuff. They are broadcasting their lack of skill and don't know it. I remember as a boy helping my dad build a house, we started framing and he taught me to set aside and save all the badly crowned 20'- 2x4s. He taught me to use them as the double top plate (a critical spot to get and keep straight). We would match (I probably mean mismatch) opposing crowns to end up with walls that were straight, and they remained straight. Whereas two straight boards (not yet warped) may very well warp out in the same direction. Years later as I got into the post frame business, a master carpenter taught me the 2x8 door jamb trick, and he would select bowed girts and install them on the walls adjacent to each other (one above - one below - with opposite bows); then when the metal was attached they straightened each other. One job, the customer (an engineer naturally) would come out at night and remove the two bent boards. We could never convince him that the bent boards would remain straight, where as two straight ones might result in a bowed wall section.

[IncendiaDivinus]

Morals are subjective and fluid .. What it is okay today may not be so tomorrow ! The unexamined life is not worth living ! (Socrates ). Just wanted to say that A man who admits his mistakes is a real man indeed !! Pole barn looks great !! Stay safe !!

[ambntman]

If you put another coat of sealer over the top of the first coat it should fix the unevenness of the finish. The reason you see the stripes is due to the overlapping edge has more build up. I would not waste time stripping the first coat, it should even out. Another option would be to use a satin or matte finish sealer not high gloss.

[sz]

Floor looks fine for a barn! Its a beautiful structure, thank you for sharing especially any details.

[danchester]

Twisting/bowing/cracking is the main reasons in Southern and Indiana that we use 2x6 laminated/screwed poles instead of solid 6x6s.

[ericbestonline]

Very useful to learn about those mistakes. Particularly the need to level beyond the dimensions of the barn itself. I am about to build a 20' x 30'. But if I had the sealer problem, I would paint the floor over the sealer, maybe a light grey. Thanks for your video!

[jimw]

frequently now you see the posts being made out of 3 2x6s put together. This helps keep them from twisting and staying true.

[fricknjeep]

hi there i think it looks great . it is only a mistake if you can't fix it . its a lesson . in the long run they won't realy matter . biggest mistake is worrying about them . good luck be careful and safe john.

[alibertylover]

Always use laminated 6×6 poles. Before placing them into the ground, I coat 4' with fiberglass cloth & resin to prevent rot forever

[thetruth]

At lest you know your mistakes, a lot of people still doing mistakes after mistakes and they can't acknowledge they did mistakes . the best thing you said "so we can all learn from each other mistakes"

[MrMEmEmEmEMEMEeeeeee]

Something I just learned from "The Polebarn Guru" is to only put the metal on 1/2 of the roof at a time-makes it easier to pull it back into square as you go along if that is needed. By starting at one end and doing both sides of the pitch as you go, you stiffen the entire structure and make squaring it up much more difficult...

[gregsandifer]

I build these every day . An inch is nothing . we just push it out and connect..you did good, all this material warps

[justkeepingitreal]

I feel better about my pole shed now. I made every mistake you did. I put up my posts and then it was too wet to do anything for about three months. The posts twisted pretty good but I managed. Luckily mine is just an open equipment shed. I would hate to know I had to try and enclose mine with all that twisting and warping those 6x6 posts did. It was my first one and its just for trucks an tractors so it was a great one to learn on. I have since built a couple more and when I applied what I learned from my first one, the others turned out perfect.

[Flat_Earth_]

My neighbor lost his 40'x60'x14' pole barn during hurricane Sally. His mistake:
1) using a nail gun with what appeared to be 12D nails for the purlings, even 5 per side didn't hold.
2) didn't use washers on the nut side of the steel truss. The nuts pulled thru the truss end plate.
3) used an in the center screw pattern on the metal siding instead of placing the screws closer to the rib.
4) didn't use the correct post hole size. The hole appeared to be 12" instead of 16" which looked like it allowed the poles to lean after the ground was soaked.
5) I didn't see any cabling or cross bracing on the back side of the purlings.

[danielbuckner]

If you buy laminated poles the twist doesnt happen.
Do not put on girts before trusses.
Dont use dirt for base under lean to, use crushed concrete or gravel.
You might try and etch that sealer and add a second coat with a sprayer. If you can have somebody spray and somebody backroll which allows a faster job and a better wet edge.
👍

[benphartine]

I have used treated laminated posts, made for post frame barn, and never had a problem. They are well worth the extra money. You can order them from a good lumber yard not a big box store.